Ed Helms

Ed Helms
Helms at the Dublin premiere for The Hangover, June 2009
Born	Edward Helms January 24, 1974 (1974-01-24) (age 35) Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Occupation	Actor/Comedian
Years active	2002–present
Official website

Edward "Ed" Helms (born January 24, 1974) is an American actor and comedian known for his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, as Andrew "Andy" Bernard on the U.S. version of the situation comedy The Office and for his role as Stu Price in the 2009 hit comedy The Hangover.

Early life

Ed Helms was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia,^[1] where he graduated from The Westminster Schools in 1992.^[2] He has said that, as an eight-year-old, Eddie Murphy's work on Saturday Night Live really made a big impression on him.^[3]

He attended Oberlin College where he studied a self-selected study course which was titled "Film Theory And Technology".^[4] After attending Oberlin College, he began his comedy and acting career as a writer and performer with New York City sketch comedy bands, and studied improvisation with the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe.^[1] Helms concurrently worked as a trainee film editor at a post-production facility. While doing so, he recorded some rough voiceover "scratch tracks" that eventually led to paying voiceover work, which in turn led to finding a talent agent.^[2]

Television work

Helms was performing standup comedy in New York City when, he recalled in a 2005 interview, "The Daily Show had a sort of open audition with a casting company that I had dealt with. I read for the part, and got it".^[2] In his April 2002 to mid-2006 tenure on the satirical news program, Helms contributed "field reports" in addition to hosting various segments of the show, such as "Digital Watch", "Ad Nauseam", and "Mark Your Calendar." He has also contributed to the "This Week in God" segment. Helms left the show in 2006, although he has occasionally returned for brief appearances. On July 21, 2008, he returned for "Obama Quest" — a segment covering then Senator Barack Obama's trip to Iraq. He occasionally narrates the "Prescott Group educational films" on sister series The Colbert Report.

In late July 2006, NBC announced that Helms would join the cast of the mockumentary, The Office, along with his fellow The Daily Show correspondent Steve Carell, in a recurring role as Andy Bernard. Helms has been a series regular since the third season.^[5] Helms returned to The Daily Show on December 5, 2006, stating he had been gone because he was "undercover at a paper company in Scranton", an allusion to his stint on The Office. In February 2007, NBC announced that Helms had been promoted to series regular. In June 2009, on a radio interview with National Public Radio, Helms said that like his character, Andy Bernard, he is also obsessed with a capella music.

Helms appeared on such television shows as Tanner on Tanner, Arrested Development, and Cheap Seats, as well as in various Comedy Central specials. He has done commercial voiceover work in campaigns for Burger King, Doritos, Sharp Aquos, and Advair asthma medication, and also voices "Angel", a character on Cartoon Network's Weighty Decisions series.

Film work

Helms starred in the 2009 film The Hangover, and previously appeared in small roles in films including Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, Meet Dave, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Evan Almighty, Semi-Pro, and, with Office co-star Jenna Fischer, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. While promoting The Hangover on The Late Show with David Letterman on May 21, 2009, Helms performed an impression of Tom Brokaw.^[6] The same year, Helms appeared in The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, directed by Neal Brennan and starring Jeremy Piven.

Helms at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, North Hollywood, California, March 2009

Helms has been developing, with Judd Apatow, a Universal Pictures film, A Whole New Hugh, in which Helms would star, and which he would co-write Jake Fleisher and Ian Berger.^[1] Variety reported in February 2009 that Helms would star and he and Fleisher would co-write a Warner Bros. feature about a time-traveling Civil War reenactor, with the film to be produced through The Office star Steve Carell's production company, Carousel.

It was announced in December 2009 that Helms was the main candidate to take over the role of Inspector Clouseau from Steve Martin in the next movie in The Pink Panther franchise, which currently has the working titles The Pink Panther 3-D and The Pink Panther Strikes Back.^{[citation needed]}

Is attached to star in the big screen version of 80's Superhero/Comedy series The Greatest American Hero for director Shawn Levy and producer Stephen J Cannell at Disney.^[2]

Audio/video

• Plum TV Telluride video of Ed Helms, Rob Corddry and Aziz Ansari at Comedy Fest 2008
• Ed Helms in "Zombie American" short

Filmography

Films

Television

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ed Helms

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ed Helms

• Official website
• Ed Helms at the Internet Movie Database
• Ken P., May 5, 2006 Helms Deep: Ken P. goes in-depth with Daily Show correspondent Ed Helms. at [IGN.com]. Retrieved 2009-10-28