Simon Helberg Biography

Simon Maxwell Helberg (born December 9, 1980) is an American actor, voice actor and comedian best known for his role as Howard Wolowitz in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, currently in its seventh season, for which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He has appeared on the sketch comedy series MADtv and is also known for his role as Moist in the Joss Whedon-led web miniseries Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Personal life

Simon Helberg was born on December 9, 1980 in Los Angeles, California to Jewish parents. He is the son of actor Sandy Helberg and casting director Harriet Helberg (née Birnbaum).

Inspired by the film The Karate Kid, Helberg trained extensively in karate during his childhood and earned a black belt at the age of 10. He was raised in Judaism, "Conservative to Reform but more Reform as time went on." He is tall.

Helberg attended middle and high school at the Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California, with Jason Ritter, who later became his roommate at NYU. He attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he trained at the Atlantic Theater Company.

Helberg is married to actress Jocelyn Towne; they dated for several years, before marrying in 2007. Jocelyn's uncle is screenwriter Robert Towne. Helberg and Towne purchased a US$3 million 4,179 square foot Hollywood estate from Brooke Mueller, Charlie Sheen's ex-wife. Helberg and Towne had their first child, a daughter Adeline, on May 8, 2012.

Career

For many years, Helberg performed with comedian Derek Waters as the sketch comedy duo Derek & Simon. In 2007, the two starred together in Derek & Simon: The Show, a web series they created with comedian Bob Odenkirk for the comedy web site Super Deluxe. They also made two short films "Derek & Simon: The Pity Card" (co-starring Zach Galifianakis and Bill Hader) and "Derek & Simon: A Bee and a Cigarette" (co-starring Casey Wilson and Emily Rutherfurd) and had a pilot deal with HBO in 2005. One of Helberg's earliest jobs in television was briefly joining the cast of MADtv for one season in 2002.

Helberg appeared in the 2002 feature film National Lampoon's Van Wilder as one of the geeky students for whom Van Wilder was throwing a party. He had a minor role in the 2003 movie Old School. In 2004, he was in two episodes of Reno 911!: Student Driver in Raineesha X and Hooker Buying Son in Not Without My Mustache. He had a small role in the sixth episode of Quintuplets, Get a Job, as a man called Neil working behind the counter at a shoe shop where Paige and Patton were working.

He also played a small role in the film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story as a Jewish record producer. In 2004 he appeared in the film A Cinderella Story starring Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray. Helberg played the minor role of Terry in George Clooney's 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck, where he had one line. In 2005 he had a bit part on Arrested Development as Jeff, an employee of the film studio where Maeby worked. From 2006 to 2007, he had a minor supporting role as Alex Dwyer in the drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. In 2006, he appeared in a series of comical TV commercials for Richard Branson's UK financial services company Virgin Money. He made a short appearance on The Soup on 2011.

He also appeared as the character Moist in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and had a small role in the pilot of the Judd Apatow-produced sitcom Undeclared. In the 2009 Coen brothers film A Serious Man he played junior Rabbi Scott Ginsler. He had a minor role in the Season 4 finale of The Guild as one of the Game Masters ("GM").

Beginning in 2007, Helberg has been playing Howard Wolowitz, a geeky, wannabe "Casanova" with an eccentric fashion sense, in the CBS comedy series The Big Bang Theory.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1999	Mumford	College Roommate
2001	Ruling Class	Fred Foster	TV movie
2002	The Funkhousers	Donnie Funkhouser	TV movie
	Van Wilder	Vernon
	Sabrina the Teenage Witch	Computer Wizard
2003	Old School	Jerry
	Tracey Ullman in the Trailer Tales	Adam(DGA Trainee)	TV Special
2004	A Cinderella Story	Terry Andersons
2005	Good Night, and Good Luck.	CBS page
2006	Derek & Simon: A Bee and a Cigarette	Simon
	The Pity Card	Simon
	Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas	Al
	The TV Set	TJ Goldman
	For Your Consideration	Junior Agent
2008	Careless	Stewart
	Evan Almighty	Staffer
	Mama's Boy	Rathkon
	Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story	Dreidel L'Chaim
2009	A Serious Man	Rabbi Scott
2011	The Selling	Young Husband
	Let Go	Frank
2012	I am I	tbc

Television

Year	Show	Role	Notes
2001	Popular	Gus Latrine	Episode: "Coup"
	Cursed	Andy Tinker	Episode: "And then Jack Became the Voice of Cougars"
	Son of the Beach	Billy	Episode: "It's Showtime at the Apollo 13!"
	Undeclared	Jack	Episode: "Prototype"
2002	Sabrina, the Teenage Witch	The Spokesman	Episode: "Time After Time"
2002"2003	MADtv	Various	Episode: "Episode #8.6" Episode: "Episode #8.7" Episode: "Episode #8.9" Episode: "Episode #8.10" Episode: "Episode #8.16"
2003	Less than Perfect	Arthur	Episode: "It Takes a Pillage"
2004	Quintuplets	Neil	Episode: "Get a Job"
	Reno 911!	Various	Episode: "Not Without My Mustache" Episode: "Raineesha X"
2005	Unscripted	Various	Episode: "Episode #1.5" Episode: "Episode #1.6"
	Life on a Stick	Stan/Vinnie	Episode: "Pilot" Episode: "Liking Things the Way They Aren't"
	Arrested Development	Jeff	Episode: "Meat the Veals"
2004"2006	Joey	Seth	Episode: "Joey and the Party" Episode: "Joey and the Assistant " Episode: "Joey and the Big Move" Episode: "Joey and the Wedding"
2006	The Jake Effect	Bill Skidelsky	Episode: "Flight School"
2006"2007	Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip	Alex Dwyer	14 episodes
2007	Derek and Simon: The Show	Simon	13 Episodes
	The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman	Matt Menard	Episode: "Bad Luck Brad"
2007"present	The Big Bang Theory	Howard Wolowitz	Main Character; Critics Choice Awards: Best Supporting Actor Award (2013) Nominated - Screen Actors Guild Award Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2012) Nominated - Teen Choice Award Choice TV: Male Scene Stealer (2010)
2008	Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog	Moist	Episode: "Act I" Episode: "Act II" Episode: "Act III"
2009	61st Primetime Emmy Awards	Moist	TV Special
2010	The Guild	Kevinator- Official Game Master	Episode: "Guild Hall"
2010"2012	Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil	Ronaldo	Recurring Character
2011"present	Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness	Bian Zao	Voice Recurring Character
2012	Weasel Town	Kenny Rogers, Hotel Clerk, Burt Reynolds, Jerry, Dr. Baxter, Sean's Mom and Dad	Web series
2013	Drunk History	Frank M. Robinson	Episode: Atlanta