Steve Carell

Steve Carell
Carell at the Sydney Crazy, Stupid, Love. premiere in July 2011
Born	Steven John Carell (1962-08-16) August 16, 1962 (age 49) Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Denison University
Occupation	Actor, comedian, voice artist, producer, writer, director
Years active	1989–present
Notable work(s)	The Daily Show The Office Despicable Me Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy Crazy, Stupid, Love.
Spouse	Nancy Carell (m. 1995)
Children	Annie Carell (b. 2001) John Carell (b. 2004)
Awards	Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Comedy Series 2006 The Office

Steven John "Steve" Carell ( /kəˈrɛl/; born August 16, 1962)^[1] is an American comedian, actor, voice artist, producer, writer, and director. Although Carell is notable for his role on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he found greater fame in the late 2000s for playing Michael Scott on The Office. He 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, and Crazy, Stupid, Love.; 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

Carell, the youngest of four brothers, was born at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts, and was raised in nearby Acton by his parents, Harriet T. (née Koch), a psychiatric nurse, and Edwin A. Carell, an electrical engineer.^[2][3] His maternal uncle, Stanley Koch, worked with Allen B. DuMont to create cathode ray tubes.^[4] Carell's paternal grandfather was Italian;^[2] his father was born with the surname "Caroselli", later shortening it to "Carell".^[3] Carell was raised Roman Catholic,^[5] and was educated at The Fenn School and Middlesex School. Carell also played ice hockey as a teenager for his high school.^{[citation needed]} He 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,^[6] in which he earned his degree from Denison University in Granville, Ohio in 1984.^[7][8] While at Denison, Carell was a member of Burpee's Seedy Theatrical Company, a student-run improvisational comedy troupe.^[9]

Career

Carell states that he worked as a mail carrier in Littleton, Massachusetts. He later recounted that he quit after a few months because his boss told him he was not very good as a mail carrier; he needed to be more efficient.^[10] Early in his performing career, Carell acted on the stage in a touring children's theater company and later in the comedy musical, Knat Scatt Private Eye. He also acted in a television commercial for Brown's Chicken in 1989.^[11] After that, Carell performed with Chicago troupe The Second City in 1991, where Stephen Colbert was his understudy for a time. That same year, he obtained his first film work in a minor role as Tesio in Curly Sue.

During the spring of 1996, he was a cast member of The Dana Carvey Show, a primetime 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.^[12] During this 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. He has also made fun of himself for auditioning for Saturday Night Live but losing the job to Will Ferrell. 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."

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 plays 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,^[13] 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 has also received five Emmy Award nominations^[14] for his work in the series (2006–2010). His last episode for the show, "Goodbye, Michael" aired on April 28, 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."^[15] 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.^[16] 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,^[17] 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".^{[citation needed]}

On April 29, 2010, Carell stated he would be leaving the show when his contract expired at the conclusion of the 2010–2011 season.^[18]

His last episode, "Goodbye, Michael", aired April 28, 2011 with his final shot showing Carell walking to a Colorado-bound plane to join his fiancée, Holly Flax.

Film career

Carell at the Academy Awards in 2007

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^[19] 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 a starring role for the 2006 computer-animated film Over the Hedge as Hammy the Squirrel. He also voiced for 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. Although, ostensibly, God tasks Baxter with building an ark, Baxter also learns that life can generate positive returns with people offering Acts of Random Kindness. 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.^[20] During 2007, Carell was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.^[21][22]

Carell filmed a movie during late 2008 opposite Tina Fey, titled Date Night. It was released on April 9, 2010 in the U.S. He voiced Gru who is the main character in the Universal CGI movie Despicable Me along with Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Miranda Cosgrove, and Julie Andrews, which was very successful (he will likely be reprising the role for the upcoming sequel). 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.^[23]

Carell with wife Nancy at the 2010 Academy Awards in March 2010

Personal life

Carell is married to Saturday Night Live alumna Nancy Carell, whom he met when she was a student in an improvisation class he was teaching at Second City.^[24] They have two children, Elisabeth Anne "Annie" (born May 26, 2001) and John "Johnny" (born June 2004). In addition to working with him as a fellow correspondent on The Daily Show, Nancy also 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.

Filmography

Film

Television

Other awards

Carell won the Spike TV 2008 "Guys Choice", Funniest M.F. Award.^[38]

References

External links

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Steve Carell

• Steve Carell at the Internet Movie Database
• Steve Carell on Charlie Rose
• Works by or about Steve Carell in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Dateline NBC's interview with Carell
• Carell's antique country store in Marshfield, Massachusetts
• USA Today article on real-life CEO lessons
• Steve Carell at Emmys.com