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| Adam McKay | |
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 David Koechner (left) and McKay (right) performing on stage in Chicago |
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| Born | 17 April 1968 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Occupation | Writer, Director, Comedian |
| Nationality | American |
| Genres | Comedy |
| Notable work(s) | Saturday Night Live Anchorman Talladega Nights Step Brothers |
| Spouse(s) | Shira Piven (1996-) |
| Children | 2 |
Adam McKay (born April 17, 1968) is an American writer, director and comedian.
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Early life
McKay was born in Colorado, graduated from Great Valley High School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, in 1986, and attended Penn State and Temple universities. He is one of the founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade improv comedy group and a former performer at Chicago's ImprovOlympic theater and Child's Play Touring Theatre. While a member of the mainstage cast at Second City, he wrote and performed in that company's landmark revue, Pinata Full of Bees. In several politically charged sketches, McKay played characters like Noam Chomsky as a substitute kindergarten teacher, and a hapless personnel manager trying to inform a corporate vice president (Scott Adsit) of some disastrous IQ test results without losing his own job. The latter performance was excerpted in Second City's 40th anniversary compilation.
Career
McKay originally auditioned for Saturday Night Live to be an on-screen performer, but did not make the cut. However, the scripts he submitted to the long-running sketch show earned him a job as writer from 1995 to 2001, including three seasons as head writer. He also directed a number of popular short films for the show, including the original SNL Digital Shorts. McKay encouraged former Second City castmate Tina Fey to submit some of her scripts to Saturday Night Live, and she later succeeded him as head writer on the show. Though McKay was never an actual SNL castmember, he did make several on-camera appearances over the years and even had a recurring role as an obnoxious audience member named "Keith" who would often shout insults at the celebrity hosts during their opening monologue.
After leaving Saturday Night Live, he teamed with comedian Will Ferrell to write the feature films Anchorman (2004), Talladega Nights (2006), and Step Brothers (2008).
Since May 2005, he has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.
In April 2007 he launched, with Will Ferrell, the user submitted comedy video site Funny or Die. A video on the site, titled "The Landlord"[1] features both him and his young daughter Pearl. Though he has received criticism for having his daughter use profanity, he stated that his daughter does not swear in reality because she is still young. Pearl also starred in a second video titled Good Cop, Baby Cop which at the end states that the video was Pearl's last and she would go into "baby retirement".
McKay recently announced that he and Will Ferrell would be interested in making Anchorman 2, a sequel to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. There has been no official word however.
McKay has co-produced (with Will Ferrell) a HBO show starring Danny McBride called Eastbound & Down.[2]
He directed and co-wrote with Ferrell the Broadway show, You're Welcome America, A Final Night with George W. Bush.
McKay is currently directing the upcoming 2010 action-comedy The Other Guys, starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. He also co-wrote the script.
Filmography
- Anchorman (2004) - Writer/Director
- Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie (2004, Direct-To-DVD) - Writer/Director
- Talladega Nights (2006) - Writer/Director/Executive Producer
- Step Brothers (2008) - Writer/Director/Executive Producer
- Land of the Lost (2009) - Executive Producer
- The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard (2009) - Producer
- The Other Guys (2010) - Writer/Director/Executive Producer
Personal life
He has been married to actress and director Shira Piven (the sister of actor Jeremy Piven) since 1996. They have two children.
References
External links
- Adam McKay at the Internet Movie Database
- The official Upright Citizens Brigade Theater website
- The Landlord at Funny or Die
- The Landlord Outtakes at Funny or Die
- Good Cop, Baby Cop at Funny or Die
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