Steve Carell Biography

Steven John "Steve" Carell (born August 16, 1962) is an American actor, comedian, director, producer, writer, and voice artist. After a five-year stint on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Carell found greater fame in the late 2000s for playing Michael Scott on the American version of The Office. Carell has also starred in lead roles in the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine, Evan Almighty, Dan in Real Life, Get Smart, Date Night, Dinner for Schmucks, Crazy, Stupid, Love., Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, and The Way, Way Back, and voiced characters in the animated films Over the Hedge, Horton Hears a Who!, and Despicable Me. Carell was nominated as "America's funniest man" in Life magazine, and received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Comedy Series for playing the lead role of Michael Scott for The Office in 2006.

Early life

The youngest of four brothers, Carell was born at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts, and raised in nearby Acton, Massachusetts. His father, Edwin A. Carell, was an electrical engineer, and his mother, Harriet T. (née Koch), was a psychiatric nurse. His maternal uncle, Stanley Koch, worked with scientist Allen B. DuMont to create cathode ray tubes. Carell is of Italian, German, and Polish descent. His father was born under the surname "Caroselli", and later shortened it to "Carell". Carell was raised Roman Catholic, and was educated at Nashoba Brooks School, The Fenn School, and Middlesex School. Carell also played ice hockey while in high school. Carell played the fife, performing with other members of his family, and later joined a reenacting group portraying the 10th (North Lincoln) Regiment of Foot. Carell attributed his interest in history to this, in which he earned his degree from Denison University in Granville, Ohio in 1984. While at Denison, Carell was a member of Burpee's Seedy Theatrical Company, a student-run improvisational comedy troupe.

Career

Early work

Carell states that he worked as a mail carrier in Littleton, Massachusetts. He later recounted that he quit after 6 months because his boss told him he was not very good as a mail carrier and needed to be faster. Early in his performing career, Carell acted on the stage in a touring children's theater company, later in the comedy musical, Knat Scatt Private Eye and in a television commercial for Brown's Chicken in 1989. After that, Carell performed with Chicago troupe The Second City where Stephen Colbert was his understudy for a time in 1991, the same year he made his film debut in a minor role as Tesio in Curly Sue. In 1995, he auditioned for a role in Saturday Night Live, but lost his job to Will Ferrell. In spring 1996, he was a cast member of The Dana Carvey Show, a small, short-lived sketch comedy program on ABC. Along with fellow cast member Stephen Colbert, Carell provided the voice of Gary, half of The Ambiguously Gay Duo, the Robert Smigel-produced animated short which continued on Saturday Night Live later that year. While the program lasted only seven episodes, The Dana Carvey Show has since been credited with forging Carell's career. During that time, he also played a supporting character for several series including Come to Papa and the short-lived 1997 Tim Curry situation comedy Over the Top. He has made numerous guest appearances, including on an episode of Just Shoot Me! titled "Funny Girl." Carell's other early screen credits includes Julia Louis-Dreyfus's short-lived situation comedy Watching Ellie (2002"2003) and Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda. Carell was a correspondent for The Daily Show from 1999 until 2005, with a number of regular segments including "Even Stevphen" with Stephen Colbert and "Produce Pete" on the Daily Show.

The Office

During 2005, Carell signed a deal with NBC to star in The Office, a mockumentary about life at a mid-sized paper supply company, which was a remake of a successful British TV series. He played the role of Michael Scott, the idiosyncratic regional manager of Dunder Mifflin Inc, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Although the first season of the adaptation suffered mediocre ratings, NBC renewed it for another season due to the anticipated success of Carell's movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and the series subsequently became a ratings success. Carell won a Golden Globe and Television Critics Association award during 2006 for his Office role. He also received six Emmy Award nominations for his work in the series (2006"2011). Carell earned approximately US$175,000 per episode of the third season of The Office, twice his salary for the previous two seasons. In an Entertainment Weekly interview, he commented on his salary, saying, "You don't want people to think you're a pampered jerk. Salaries can be ridiculous. On the other hand, a lot of people are making a lot of money off of these shows." Carell was allowed "flex time" during filming to work on theatrical films. Carell worked on Evan Almighty during a production hiatus during the second season of The Office. Production ended during the middle of the fourth season of The Office because of Carell's and others' refusal to cross the picket line of the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike. Carell, a WGA member, has written two episodes of The Office: "Casino Night" and "Survivor Man". Both episodes were praised, and Carell won a Writers Guild of America Award for "Casino Night". On April 29, 2010, Carell stated he would be leaving the show when his contract expired at the conclusion of the 2010"2011 season. His last episode as a main character, "Goodbye, Michael", aired April 28, 2011 with his final shot showing Carell walking to a Colorado-bound plane to join his fiancée, Holly Flax. Although he was invited back for the series finale in 2013, Carell originally declined believing that it would go against his character's arc. Ultimately in the final version of the finale Carell reprised the role.

Film career

Carell's first starring role was in the 2005 film The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which he developed and co-wrote. The film made $109 million in domestic box office sales and established Carell as a leading man. It also earned Carell an MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance and a WGA Award nomination, along with co-writer Judd Apatow, for Best Original Screenplay. Carell acted as "Uncle Arthur", imitating the camp mannerisms of Paul Lynde's original character for the 2005 remake of Bewitched with Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell. He also voiced Hammy the Squirrel in the 2006 computer-animated film, Over the Hedge and the 2008 animated film Horton Hears a Who! as the mayor of Whoville, Ned McDodd. He starred in Little Miss Sunshine during 2006, as Uncle Frank. His work in the films Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Bewitched established Carell as a member of Hollywood's so-called "Frat Pack" group. (This set of actors includes Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, and Luke Wilson). Carell acted as the title character of Evan Almighty, a sequel to Bruce Almighty, reprising his role as Evan Baxter, now a U.S. Congressman. Despite receiving mostly negative reviews, the film itself is currently the most expensive comedy ever made. During October 2006, Carell began acting for the film Dan in Real Life, co-starring Dane Cook and Juliette Binoche. Filming ended December 22, 2006, and the film was released on October 26, 2007. Carell played Maxwell Smart for a movie remake of Get Smart, which began filming February 3, 2007 and was filmed in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Moscow, Russia. The movie was successful, grossing over $200 million worldwide. During 2007, Carell was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Carell starred with Tina Fey in Date Night during late 2008 and was released on April 9, 2010 in the U.S. He voiced Gru, the main character in the Universal CGI film, Despicable Me along with Russell Brand, Miranda Cosgrove, and Kristen Wiig, which was very successful and reprised his role in its sequel Despicable Me 2. He has several other projects in the works, including a remake of the 1967 Peter Sellers film The Bobo. He is currently doing voiceover work in commercials for Wrigley's Extra gum. Carell has launched a television division of his Carousel Prods., which has contracted a three-year overall deal with Universal Media Studios, the studio behind his NBC comedy series. Thom Hinkle and Campbell Smith of North South Prods., former producers on Carell's alma mater, Comedy Central's The Daily Show, have been hired to manage Carousel's TV operations.

Personal life

Carell is married to Saturday Night Live alumna Nancy Walls, whom he met when she was a student in an improvisation class he was teaching at Second City. They have two children, Elisabeth Anne (born May 26, 2001) and John (born June 2004). Carell and his wife own a general store in Marshfield Hills, Massachusetts. In addition to working with Carell as a fellow correspondent on The Daily Show, Nancy Walls acted with him on The Office as his realtor and short-lived girlfriend Carol Stills, and also cameoed as a sex therapist in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and played Linda in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. In 2011, Carell earned $17.5 million making him the 31st highest paid actor (this excluded TV-related projects).

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1991	Curly Sue	Tesio	Film debut Cameo
2003	Bruce Almighty	Evan Baxter
2004	Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy	Brick Tamland	Nominated "? MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Team (shared with Will Ferrell, David Koechner and Paul Rudd) Nominated "? MTV Movie Award for Best Musical Performance (shared with Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd and Fred Armisen)
	Sleepover	Officer John Sherman
2005	Melinda and Melinda	Walt Wagner
	Bewitched	Uncle Arthur
	The 40-Year-Old Virgin	Andy Stitzer	Also Writer/Executive Producer MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance Nominated "? MTV Movie Award for Best Performance Nominated "? MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Team (shared with Romany Malco, Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd) Nominated "? Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay (shared with Judd Apatow)
2006	Over the Hedge	Hammy	Voice
	Little Miss Sunshine	Frank Ginsburg	Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Cast Chlotrudis Award for Best Cast Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Cast Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble Nominated "? Gotham Award for Best Ensemble Cast Nominated "? New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated "? Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor
2007	Evan Almighty	Evan Baxter	Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie: Scream Nominated "? Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor: Comedy Nominated "? Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie: Hissy Fit
	Stories USA	Mark Ronson
	Knocked Up	Himself
	Dan in Real Life	Dan Burns
2008	Horton Hears a Who!	Ned McDodd: Mayor of WhoVille	Voice
	Get Smart	Maxwell Smart	Also Executive Producer Nominated "? MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance
2010	Date Night	Phil Foster	Nominated "? Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actor: Comedy Nominated "? Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie: Dance (Shared with Tina Fey)
	Despicable Me	Gru	Voice Nominated "? Annie Award for Voice Acting in a Feature Production
	Dinner for Schmucks	Barry Speck	Nominated "? Satellite Award for Best Actor " Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
2011	Crazy, Stupid, Love.	Cal Weaver	Also producer Nominated "? Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie: Hissy Fit Nominated "? Teen Choice Award for Choice Chemistry (Shared with Ryan Gosling)-Best Actor-Comedy
2012	Seeking a Friend for the End of the World	Dodge Petersen
	Hope Springs	Dr. Bernie Feld
2013	The Incredible Burt Wonderstone	Burt Wonderstone	Also Producer
	The Way, Way Back	Trent
	Despicable Me 2	Gru	Voice
	Foxcatcher	John du Pont	Post-production
	Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues	Brick Tamland	Post-production
2014	Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	The Dana Carvey Show	Various characters	Sketch comedy
1996"2011	Saturday Night Live	Gary Big Head	15 episodes
1997	Over the Top	Yorgo Galfanikos	12 episodes; only 3 aired.
1998	Just Shoot Me!	Border Control Agent
1999"2005	The Daily Show	Correspondent
2002"2003	Watching Ellie	Edgar
2004	Fillmore!	Mr. Delancey	Voice Episode: Field Trip of the Just
2005"2011, 2013	The Office	Michael Scott	Lead Role (Seasons 1"7; 148 episodes) Guest Star (Season 9; one episode) Writer "? "Casino Night" and "Survivor Man", Director "? "Broke", "Secretary's Day and "Garage Sale" Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Television Series Musical or Comedy (2006) People Choice Award for Favorite TV Comedy Actor (2009) Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2007"?2008) Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actor: Comedy (2007"?2008) TV Land Future Classic Award Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy (2006) Writers Guild of America Award for Comedy Series (Shared with ensemble writers, 2007) Writers Guild of America Award for Episodic Comedy (For episode "Casino Night") Nominated "? Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Television Series Musical or Comedy (2007"?2011) Nominated "? Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor " Comedy Series (2006"?2011) Nominated "? Prism Award for Best Performance in a Comedy Series (2007) Nominated "? Satellite Award for Best Actor " Television Series Musical or Comedy (2006"?2007) Nominated "? Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series (2007"?2012) Nominated "? Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2009"?2012) Nominated "? Teen Choice Award for Choice TV Actor: Comedy (2006, 2009"?2011) Nominated "? Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy (2009) Nominated "? Writers Guild of America Award for Comedy Series (Shared with ensemble writers, 2008"?2009)
2010	2010 Kids' Choice Awards	Himself	Covered by slime
2011	Life's Too Short		Episode 4
	Rove LA		Episode 5
2012	The Simpsons	Dan Gillick	Voice Episode "Penny-Wiseguys"
2013	Pawn Stars	Himself	Episode "Hello, Goodbye"
	Web Therapy		Episode "Relax, Reboot, Revenge"

Other awards

Carell won the Spike TV 2008 "Guys Choice", Funniest M.F. Award.