Jason Sudeikis Biography

Jason Sudeikis ( ; born September 18, 1975) is an American actor, voice actor, writer and comedian. He began his career in improv comedy. In 2003, he was hired as a sketch writer for Saturday Night Live and became a cast member from 2005 to 2013. He has appeared on television in 30 Rock, The Cleveland Show, Eastbound & Down, and other shows. He is also known for his roles in the films Hall Pass, Horrible Bosses, Epic and We're the Millers.

Early life

Sudeikis was born Daniel Jason Sudeikis in Fairfax, Virginia. His mother, Kathryn (née Wendt), was formerly a travel agent at Brennco and was president of the American Society of Travel Agents. His father, Daniel Joseph Sudeikis, is a vice president of business development. His uncle (mother's brother) is actor George Wendt, who is best known for his role as Norm Peterson on Cheers. His maternal grandmother's father was photographer Tom Howard. Sudeikis is of Lithuanian and Irish descent on his father's side, and German and Irish ancestry on his mother's.

As a child, Sudeikis moved with his family to Overland Park, Kansas, which he has described as his hometown. He attended Brookridge Elementary School before transferring to Holy Cross Catholic School; both are located in Overland Park. He began high school at the Jesuit Rockhurst High School in 1990, later transferring due to academic reasons to Shawnee Mission West High School.

Sudeikis occasionally referenced Kansas in Saturday Night Live sketches. He is also a longtime Kansas Jayhawks fan and has worked University of Kansas themes and well-known Lawrence, Kansas, locations into several sketches on SNL.

Career

Early career

Sudeikis began performing at ComedySportz (now Comedy City) in Kansas City. After moving to Chicago, Sudeikis studied at the Annoyance Theatre and ImprovOlympic, where he was one of the founding members of the long-form team J.T.S. Brown.

He was later cast in The Second City's National Touring Company, and also performed with Boom Chicago in Amsterdam. In the early 2000s, he became a founding member of Second City Las Vegas. He continues to frequently perform at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre's weekly improv show ASSSCAT 3000 in New York City.

Saturday Night Live

In 2003, while a regular performer at Second City Las Vegas, Sudeikis was hired as a sketch writer for Saturday Night Live, and would occasionally make bit appearances as audience members or extras. In May 2005, he became a featured player on the show, and was upgraded to repertory status at the beginning of the show's 32nd season on September 30, 2006. In July 2013, Sudeikis announced that he is leaving Saturday Night Live.

Other work

Sudeikis had a recurring role on the NBC series 30 Rock with friend Tina Fey in early 2007, appearing in a total of seven episodes. He played Floyd DeBarber, a love interest of Tina Fey's character Liz Lemon. He made another appearance as Floyd in a 2008 episode, and appeared again in the Valentine's Day episode airing February 11, 2010, along with Jon Hamm and Dean Winters. Sudeikis last appeared in three episodes towards the end of the show's 4th season in 2010.

Sudeikis did voice work for the videogame Grand Theft Auto IV, playing the role of right-wing radio host Richard Bastion. He also appeared in the 2008 comedy What Happens in Vegas, playing the role of Cameron Diaz's ex-fiancé. In July 2008, Sudeikis co-starred with Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio in the Lorne Michaels-produced web-series The Line on Crackle.

Sudeikis appeared in the film The Bounty Hunter, released in March 2010. He co-starred alongside Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler, playing a colleague of Aniston's character, who falls in love with her.

Sudeikis was a voice actor on the FOX animated comedy series The Cleveland Show. Sudeikis provided the voice for Holt Richter, Cleveland's wannabe hipster neighbor, as well as the voice of Terry Kimple, Cleveland's hard-partying high school buddy, who now works with Cleveland at the cable company. After previously being credited as a recurring guest in season one, Sudeikis was bumped up to a series regular beginning in season two.

In May 2010, Sudeikis joined the cast of the 2011 Seth Gordon comedy Horrible Bosses, which also starred Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, Charlie Day, and Jason Bateman. Sudeikis co-hosted WWE Raw with Going the Distance co-stars Charlie Day and Justin Long on August 16, 2010, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Sudeikis also played his first lead film role, alongside Owen Wilson, in the 2011 Farrelly brothers comedy Hall Pass. He had worked with Day when he played the role of Schmitty on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and reprised the role on that show's 7th season finale.

He hosted the 2011 MTV Movie Awards on June 5, 2011, at the Gibson Amphitheatre.

In 2012, Sudeikis had a recurring role on the third season of the HBO series Eastbound & Down playing both Shane, Kenny Powers battery mate on the Myrtle Beach Mermen, and Shane's twin brother Cole.

Sudeikis became the voice for a line of advertisements of the Applebee's casual dining chain that began running in 2012.

Sudeikis features in the video for Mumford and Sons song "Hopeless Wanderer".

Saturday Night Live

Recurring characters

See Recurring Saturday Night Live characters and sketches (listed by cast member) for more information

• Male A-hole of the Two A-Holes with Kristen Wiig
• Gil, a news anchor who treats his field correspondent Michelle Dison's (Kristen Wiig) misfortunes as amusement
• One of the guys from the "Song Memories" sketches who is the first to tell strange stories about where he was when he first heard a song
• Ed Mahoney, a brash man who often makes a fool of himself in public
• Officer Sikorsky, a police officer who brings in convict Lorenzo McIntosh (Kenan Thompson) in an attempt to "scare straight" the three delinquent teens (Bill Hader, Bobby Moynihan, Andy Samberg, and occasionally the week's guest host) that he often arrests. In the earlier sketches, Officer Sikorsky's last name was Matthews.
• Dancer on What Up with That, an overzealous background dancer often dressed in a red and white Adidas tracksuit with a 1980s man perm. The Ed Helms/Paul Simon episode reveals that his real name is Vance.
• One half of Bon Jovi opposite band 'Jon Bovi' appearing on weekend update with Will Forte
• DJ Supersoak. Spoof on Psychopathic Records recording artist DJ Clay. Emcee for Kickspit Underground Music with Lil' Blaster (Nasim Pedrad) and MC George Costanza (Jay Pharoah). He has appeared in the "Underground Rock Minute", the "Crunkmas Karnival", the "Kickspit Underground Easter Festival", the "Columbus Day Assblast" and the "Donkey Punch the Ballot" sketches.
• Pete Twinkle, ESPN Classic host of obscure women's sports with dim-witted Greg Stink (Will Forte) as his co-host
• Jeff, a disgruntled film and theatre technician who starts unprovoked arguments with the star of the piece.
• The Devil, who often comes on Weekend Update to point out religious and moral hypocrisy on Earth. On the Emma Stone/Coldplay episode, the Devil gets so upset over the Penn State University sex scandal that he quits his job as The Prince of Darkness and returns to his old job as a customer service representative for Time Warner Cable.
• Jack Rizzoli, an anchor at WXPD News who always tells veteran reporter Herb Welch (Bill Hader) to do his job.
• Tommy, a strip club M.C. for Bongo's Clown Room
• Sensei Mark Hoffman, the faculty adviser and Japanese Studies teacher to Jonathan Cavanaugh-san and Rebecca Stern-Markowitz-san (Taran Killam and Vanessa Bayer, respectively), hosts of "J-Pop America Fun Time Now". Considers Jonathan and Rebecca to be the worst students in his Japanese studies class due to their stereotypical perceptions of Japanese culture and is only on the show because university policy states that one of the teachers have to be present if students are using the campus studio.
• Marshall T. Boudreaux: The host of the courtroom reality show, Maine Justice. Originally, the character was an archetypical Southern gentleman known as Mr. Aymong who appeared on a one-shot sketch on the season 35 episode hosted by Blake Lively where a Southern man ruins his chances of being hired to NASA by eating his interviewer's potato chip.

Personal life

Sudeikis married actress and 30 Rock writer Kay Cannon on June 26, 2004, after having dated five years prior to that. They separated in 2008 and their divorce was finalized in 2010. He dated actress January Jones, who hosted Saturday Night Live in November 2009, from July 2010 to January 2011. Sudeikis started dating actress Olivia Wilde in November 2011. On January 12, 2013, Sudeikis and Wilde announced their engagement.

Sudeikis has two sisters, Lindsay and Kristin. Lindsay is a teacher at Dominican Academy, an all-girls high school in New York. Kristin is an established choreographer and dancer in New York and has appeared on 30 Rock.

On May 11, 2012, his father's family history was traced on the NBC program Who Do You Think You Are?, on the third season of the NBC series.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Alien Avengers II	Chester
2007	The Ten	Tony Contiella
2007	Watching the Detectives	Jonathan
2007	Meet Bill	Jim Whittman
2008	The Rocker	David Marshall
2008	Semi-Pro	Danny
2008	What Happens in Vegas	Mason
2010	The Bounty Hunter	Stewart
2010	Going the Distance	Box
2011	Hall Pass	Fred
2011	Horrible Bosses	Kurt Buckman
2011	A Good Old Fashioned Orgy	Eric Keppler
2012	The Campaign	Mitch
2013	Movie 43	Batman
2013	Epic	Bomba
2013	Drinking Buddies	Gene Dentler
2013	We're the Millers	David Clark
2013	Tumbledown	Andrew McDonnell	Pre-production
2013	Relanxious	George	Pre-production
2014	Horrible Bosses 2	Kurt Buckman	Pre-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005–2013	Saturday Night Live	Various	Series regular
2007	Wainy Days	Handsome David	1 episode
2007"2010	30 Rock	Floyd	12 episodes
2008	Childrens Hospital	Dr. Robert "Bobby" Fiscus	2 episodes
2008	Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday	Various	Series regular
2009"2013	The Cleveland Show	Holt Richter / Terry Kimple (voice)	Series regular
2010"2011	It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia	Schmitty	2 episodes
2011	Portlandia	Aliki	1 episode
2011	2011 MTV Movie Awards	Himself (host)	TV Special
2012	Eastbound & Down	Shane Gerald/Cole Gerald	5 episodes
2012	Who Do You Think You Are?	Himself
2013	Robot Chicken	Badtz-Maru, Farmer Smurf (voice)	1 episode

Video Games

Year	Title	Voice
2008	Grand Theft Auto IV	Richard Bastion