Seth Rogen Biography

Seth Rogen (born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, director, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career performing stand-up comedy during his teenage years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and Geeks. Shortly after Rogen moved to Los Angeles for his role, Freaks and Geeks was officially canceled after one season due to low viewership. Rogen later got a part on the equally short-lived Undeclared, which also hired him as a staff writer.

After landing his job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show, for which Rogen and the other writers received their Emmy Award nomination, Rogen was guided by Judd Apatow toward a film career. Rogen was cast in a major supporting role and credited as a co-producer in Apatow's directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin. After Rogen received critical praise for his performance, Universal Pictures agreed to cast him as the lead in Apatow's directorial feature films Knocked Up and Funny People. Rogen and his comedy partner Evan Goldberg co-wrote the films Superbad, Pineapple Express, and This Is the End. Rogen has also done voice work for the films Horton Hears a Who!, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Paul. Rogen married fellow screenwriter Lauren Miller in October 2011.

Life and career

Early life

Rogen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, on April 15, 1982. His mother, Sandy (née Belogus), is a social worker, and his father, Mark Rogen, worked for non-profit organizations and as an assistant director of a Workmen's Circle. He has described his parents, who met at an Israeli kibbutz, as "radical Jewish socialists." He has one older sister, Danya. Rogen attended Vancouver Talmud Torah Elementary School and Point Grey Secondary School (although he never graduated), incorporating many of his classmates into his writing. He was also known for the stand-up comedy he performed at Camp Miriam, a Habonim Dror camp.

As a child, Rogen did not want to pursue any career other than comedy: "As soon as I realized you could be funny as a job, that was the job I wanted". He got his start in show business at age 12 after enrolling in a comedy workshop taught by Mark Pooley. His early comedy routines involved jokes about his bar mitzvah, his grandparents, and his camp counselors. During his teenage years he would perform stand-up comedy routines at places like bar mitzvahs and small parties, later shifting to bars. He was paid to write jokes by a mohel. At the age of 13, he co-wrote a rough draft of Superbad with childhood friend Evan Goldberg, who he had met at bar mitzvah classes. Based on their teenage experiences, Rogen and Goldberg spent the rest of their time in high school polishing the script. They initially worried that the 1999 film American Pie had beaten them to the idea for the movie, but felt that it lacked "all honest interaction between characters, which is what [they]'re going for."

His mother was supportive of his comic endeavors and would often drive him to stand-up gigs at the comedy club Yuk Yuks. With his deadpan humor, he won the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest at 16 years old. Also at age 16, Rogen's father lost his job and his mother quit hers, forcing them to put their house up for sale and relocate to a significantly smaller apartment. Around this time, he landed a role on Judd Apatow's television show Freaks and Geeks after attending a local casting call. After dropping out of high school, he began working for Apatow and relocated with his family to Los Angeles. Rogen paid the bills and had become the main wage earner at just 16.

Early work and friendship with Judd Apatow

Rogen's acting debut was in Apatow's 1980s-set cult hit series Freaks and Geeks as Ken Miller, a cynical, acerbic "freak". Revolving around a group of teenagers' lives, Freaks and Geeks first aired in 1999. Although well-reviewed, the show was NBC's lowest-viewed program and was canceled after one season due to poor ratings. Impressed with Rogen's improvisational skills, Apatow then chose him as the lead in another of his shows, Undeclared. Rogen was originally set to play a fairly popular but nerdy college freshman, but the network did not think he was leading male material. Apatow opted not to go along with the show, but after facing the risk of getting sued, he hired him for a small role. Rogen also served as a staff writer to the short-lived production. Following the show's 2002 cancellation, Rogen did not get many auditions, which was not upsetting to him as he always thought he would achieve better success as a writer. He would soon be a part of Apatow's "frat pack", a close knit group that includes Steve Carell and Paul Rudd. Of the awkwardness of a grown man spending so much time with a teenaged Rogen, Apatow said: "I'm such a comedy fan that even though he's 16, I know I'm hanging out with one of the guys who's going to be one of the great comics." Around this time Apatow would come up with odd requests for Rogen and Goldberg to pass, such as: turn an idea of his into a movie in 10 days and come up with 100 one-page-long ideas for films. Regarding Apatow's professional effect on Rogen, the actor said in 2009, "Obviously, I can't stress how important Judd's been to my career".

Next, he had brief parts in the Drew Barrymore-produced Donnie Darko (2001) and Apatow's Will Ferrell-starring 2004 film Anchorman. A big career point for him was becoming a staff writer for Sacha Baron Cohen's last season of Da Ali G Show in 2004. Along with the show's other writers, Rogen received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He became familiar to audiences as one of the main character's witty co-workers in Apatow's well-reviewed buddy comedy directorial debut feature The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005). Rogen also co-produced it and improvised all his dialogue. "[Rogen] hadn't done any screen work that indicated he could carry as memorable and convincing a performance as he does with the character Cal," MTV's John Constantine wrote. Boston Globe reviewer Wesley Morris wrote that Rogen, along with co-stars Rudd and Romany Malco, were each hilarious in their own right and Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore believed that Rogen had his moments in the film whereas Moira Macdonald of the Seattle Times said the actor was "droopily deadpan." He followed this with a small role in You, Me and Dupree, a critically panned 2006 comedy featuring Michael Douglas.

Breakthrough

His breakthrough came when Universal Studios greenlit him for the lead in yet another Apatow production: Knocked Up (2007), a dramedy that follows the repercussions of a drunken one-night stand between his slacker character and Katherine Heigl's just-promoted media personality that results in an unintended pregnancy. Upon completing The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Apatow had approached Rogen about potential starring roles, but the actor suggested many high-concept science fiction ideas. After Apatow insisted that he would work better in real life situations, the two agreed on the accidental pregnancy concept of this production. Rogen called shooting sex scenes with Heigl "nerve-racking" and found comfort with the supporting cast since, even though he played the lead, the focus was not all on him. Made on a $30 million budget and released on June 1, Knocked Up was a critical and commercial box office hit, garnering an approval rating of 90 percent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and grossing $219 million. Rogen also received favorable reviews. Later that year he played a supporting part as an irresponsible police officer in Superbad, which he had written with his writing partner and was co-produced by Apatow. Michael Cera and Jonah Hill originate the main roles, two teenage best friends whose party plans go wrong, based on them. The film and their writing was praised, with critics finding it to be very authentic. It topped the US box office for two weeks in a row. Rogen hosted Saturday Night Live on October 6, 2007 and again on April 4, 2009.

2008 was a busy year for the actor. Among his projects were Jimmy Hayward's Horton Hears a Who!, an animated film based on the Dr. Seuss book, that Rogen voiced a character in. Rogen additionally co-wrote Drillbit Taylor, also produced by Apatow and starring Owen Wilson as the homeless titular character. He based the screenplay on a 70-page scriptment done by John Hughes. The movie was panned by critics who thought its plot " a grown man becoming three kids' bodyguard and beating up their bullies " had no focus and was drawn out. "If Superbad were remade as a gimmicky Nickelodeon movie, it would probably look something like Drillbit Taylor" Josh Bell wrote in the Las Vegas Weekly. He again lent his voice to another animated movie, this time Kung Fu Panda, with Jack Black and Angelina Jolie. It did exceptionally well in theaters, making more than $630 million. Rogen, Goldberg and Apatow were behind the stoner action comedy Pineapple Express directed by David Gordon Green at Columbia Pictures. Apatow produced it while Rogen and Goldberg wrote the script. Rogen was chosen to play the film's protagonist, a 25-year-old who accidentally witnesses a murder while delivering a subpoena. James Franco was cast as his hippie pot dealer that he goes on the run with. When asked about its inspiration, Rogen said he wrote what he knew. Pineapple Express was released to theaters on August 6 and made $101 million in ticket sales against its $27 million production budget. Movie critics lauded it, appreciating their performances and its humor.

In April 2008, Empire reported that the actor and Goldberg would write an episode for the animated television series The Simpsons. He also voiced a character in the episode, entitled "Homer the Whopper", which opened the twenty-first season. Kevin Smith's romantic comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno rounded out 2008 for the actor. He and Elizabeth Banks portrayed the title roles: Pennsylvania roommates who try to make some extra cash by making an adult film together. After having difficulty trying to secure an R rating, Rogen commented to MTV, "It's a really filthy movie" but complained "It's really crazy to me that Hostel is fine, with people gouging their eyes out and shit like that... But you can't show two people having sex " that's too much". The picture was distributed on Halloween by The Weinstein Company and disappointed at the box office. Along with Reese Witherspoon, he voiced a character in the animated science fiction Monsters vs Aliens (2009), did well commercially, with a total of $381.5 million. He then starred in the Jody Hill-directed mall cop comedy Observe and Report, in which he portrayed bipolar mall security guard Ronnie Barnhart. The film opened in theaters on April 10. Critics noted a departure in Rogen's acting style from playing laid-back roles to playing a more sadistic character; Wesley Morris from The Boston Globe opined that "Often with Rogen, his vulnerability makes his coarseness safe...Ronnie is something altogether new for Rogen. Vulnerability never arrives. He's shameless." Later in 2009, Rogen starred in Apatow's third directorial feature, Funny People, with Adam Sandler. Rogen played a young, inexperienced comic while Sandler played a mentor of sorts to his character; the film had more dramatic elements in it than Apatow's previous efforts. Funny People was a commercial failure, coming short of its $75 million budget, but has a "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Recent work

After years of development, a feature film adaptation of The Green Hornet was handled by Rogen and Goldberg, with a theatrical release in January 2011. Rogen chose to do a re-imagining of the titular character. He was executive producer of the movie and also cast himself as the main character. Rogen later admitted to having been overwhelmed by handling its $120 million budget. "It's insane. But it's not so much the specific amount of money that's stressful, it's all the things that go along with making a movie of that size." The actor also went on a strict weight-loss diet to play the slim crime fighter. The Green Hornet was a critical disappointment; Adam Graham of the Detroit News called it "a big, sloppy, loud, grating mess of a movie" and the Arizona Republics Bill Goodykoontz found its story to have fallen apart. Nonetheless it still opened at number one at the box office, making $33 million in its opening weekend before going on to gross more than $225 million.

He reprised his voice role in Kung Fu Panda 2, as well as produced and took a supporting role in 50/50, from Mandate Pictures. The dramedy about cancer was based on an autobiographical script by screenwriter Will Reiser, and was released in September 2011. In mid-2010, Rogen shot scenes for another upcoming film, Take This Waltz, with Michelle Williams. Another of his movies, Paramount Pictures's road movie The Guilt Trip, also starring Barbra Streisand, was released in cinemas in 2012. The film was about an inventor (Rogen) who invites his mother (Streisand) on a road trip, as he attempts to sell his new product while also reuniting her with a lost love.

Personal life

Rogen began dating writer/actress Lauren Miller in 2004. The two met while he was working on Da Ali G Show. The couple became engaged in September 2010, and married on October 2, 2011 in Sonoma, California. Miller has had minor on-screen roles in a few of Rogen's films.

Rogen has spoken out about awareness of Alzheimer's disease. No one in his biological family has it but it runs in his wife's side, and has affected her mother for several years. "I think until you see it firsthand, it's kind of hard to conceive of how brutal it is," Rogen said to CNN. "Until I saw it, you just don't get kind of how heartbreaking it can be." During the interview, he talked about how he tries to be emotionally supportive and around as much as he can for Miller's mother. Both he and Miller spoke to Larry King for A Larry King Special, Unthinkable: The Alzheimer's Epidemic, which aired in April 2011.

Rogen is also a member of NORML and an open marijuana user.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Donnie Darko	Ricky Danforth
2004	Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy	Scottie
2005	'	Cal	Co-producer
2006	You, Me and Dupree	Neil
2007	Knocked Up	Ben Stone	Executive producer
	Jay and Seth vs. The Apocalypse	Himself	Writer
	Superbad	Officer Michaels	Writer, executive producer
	Shrek the Third	Ship Captain	Voice
2008	'	Hogsqueal	Voice
	Horton Hears a Who!	Morton the Mouse	Voice
	Strange Wilderness	Ranger in the Helicopter	Voice
	Drillbit Taylor		Writer only
	Kung Fu Panda	Mantis	Voice
	Step Brothers	Sporting Goods Manager
	Pineapple Express	Dale Denton	Writer, executive producer
	Zack and Miri Make a Porno	Zack Brown
2009	Fanboys	Various
	Monsters vs. Aliens	B.O.B.	Voice
	Observe and Report	Ronnie Barnhardt
	Funny People	Ira Wright	Executive producer
	Paper Heart	Himself
	B.O.B.'s Big Break	B.O.B.	Voice Short
2011	'	Britt Reid/The Green Hornet	Writer, executive producer
	Paul	Paul	Voice
	Kung Fu Panda 2	Mantis	Voice
	50/50	Kyle Hirons	Producer
	Take This Waltz	Lou Rubin
	Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters	Mantis	Voice
2012	'		Writer
	For a Good Time, Call...	Jerry
	'	Andy Brewster	Executive producer
2013	This Is the End	Himself	Director, writer, producer
2014	Neighbors	Mac Radner	Also producer Post-proudction
2015	B.O.O.: Bureau of Otherworldly Operations	T.B.A	Voice Pre-production
	Kung Fu Panda 3	Mantis	Voice Pre-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999"2000	Freaks and Geeks	Ken Miller	Series regular
2001"2002	Undeclared	Ron Garner	Series regular Also writer
2003	Dawson's Creek	Bob	Episode: "Rock Bottom"
2004	Da Ali G Show		Writer only
2005	Early Bird	Bart	TV Movie
2006	American Dad!	Student	Voice Episode: "Camp Refoogee"
	Help Me Help You	Seth	Episode: "Working Women"
2009	Family Guy	Himself	Voice Episodes: "Family Gay" "FOX-y Lady"
	'	Lyle McCarthy	Voice, also writer Episode: "Homer the Whopper"
	Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space	B.O.B.	Voice TV Movie
2010	Kung Fu Panda Holiday	Mantis	Voice TV Movie
2011–2013	'	Dirty Randy	Episodes: "The Lockout" "12.12.12" "The Bachelor Draft "Rafi and the Dirty Randy" (Also Writer)
2011	Night of the Living Carrots	B.O.B.	Voice TV Movie
2012	Eastbound and Down	Texas Pitcher	Episode: "Chapter 21"
2012	Comedy Bang Bang	Himself	Episode: "Seth Rogen Wears a Plaid Shirt & Brown Pants"
2013	The Mindy Project	Sam	Episode: "The One That Got Away"
	Arrested Development	Young George Bluth Sr.	Episodes: "Flight of the Phoenix" "Borderline Personalities" "The B. Team" "It Gets Better"
	Comedy Central Roast of James Franco	Roastmaster	TV special
2014	Big Foot		Executive Producer Pilot

Music videos

Year	Song	Role	Artist	Notes
2009	"Like a Boss"	Interviewer in a performance review	The Lonely Island
2011	"Make Some Noise"	Mike D	Beastie Boys

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Title of work	Result	Notes
2000	Young Artist Award	Best Performance in a TV Series " Young Ensemble	Freaks and Geeks		Shared with cast
2005	Primetime Emmy Award	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program	Da Ali G Show		Shared with writing staff
2006	MTV Movie Award	Best On-Screen Team	'		Shared with Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and Romany Malco
2007	Satellite Award	Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture " Musical Or Comedy	Knocked Up
	High Times Stony Award	Stoner of the Year
2008	Canadian Comedy Award	Best Writing (Film)	Superbad
	Canadian Comedy Award	Canadian Comedy Person of the Year
	MTV Movie Award	Best Comedic Performance	Knocked Up
	MTV Movie Award	Breakthrough Performance	Knocked Up
	ShoWest	Comedy Star of the Year	Knocked Up and Superbad
2009	Canadian Comedy Award	Canadian Comedy Person of the Year
	MTV Movie Award	Best Fight	Pineapple Express		Shared with James Franco and Danny McBride
	Teen Choice Award	Choice Movie Actor: Comedy	Observe and Report and Pineapple Express
2010	Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie	Monsters vs. Aliens
2012	Golden Globes	Best Motion Picture " Comedy/Musical	50/50		Shared w/ Evan Goldberg & Ben Karlin
	Independent Spirit Awards	Best Feature Film	50/50		Shared w/ Evan Goldberg & Ben Karlin
	Vancouver Film Critics Circle Awards	Best Supporting Actor in a Canadian Film	Take This Waltz

See also