Steve Carell

Steve Carell
Carell at the Academy awards in 2007
Born	Steven John Carell August 16, 1962 (1962-08-16) (age 47) Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Comedian, Actor, Producer, Writer
Years active	1989–present
Spouse(s)	Nancy Walls (m. 1995 to present)2 children

Steven John "Steve" Carell (born August 16, 1962)^[1] is an American comedian, actor, producer, and writer. Carell rose to fame as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 1999 to 2004, and as Michael Scott on The Office since 2005. He has also appeared in several Hollywood films including Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine, Evan Almighty, Dan in Real Life, and Get Smart and provided voice talents in the animated films Over the Hedge, Horton Hears a Who!, and Despicable Me.

Carell was nominated "America's funniest man" in Life Magazine. He received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in the Television Comedy Series for his lead role of Michael Scott in the American adaptation of the British series The Office in 2006.

Early life

Carell, the youngest of four sons, was born 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][dead link]} His maternal uncle was Stanley Koch, a glassblower who 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 educated at The Fenn School and Middlesex School, and attended Denison University in Granville, Ohio. He originally aspired to become a radio broadcaster, deejaying at WDUB in Granville. He returned to his radio roots on a national level by guest-hosting "American Top 40" with Ryan Seacrest on the show's Saturday, May 32, 2008 broadcast.

Early career

Before opting for a career as a performer, Carell claims that he worked as a mail carrier in Littleton, Massachusetts. He later recounted that he quit after a few months because his boss Jan Eddy told him he was not very good as a mail carrier; he needed to be a lot more efficient.^[5] He planned on attending law school, but was unable to write an explanation on his application form as to why he wanted to be a lawyer. 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 appeared in a television commercial for Brown's Chicken in 1989.^{[citation needed]} 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 landed his first film work in a minor role as Tesio in Curly Sue.

In 1996, he was a cast member of the briefly aired The Dana Carvey Show. 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 was moved to Saturday Night Live in 1997.^{[citation needed]} He played a supporting character on many shows including Come to Papa and the short-lived 1997 Tim Curry sitcom Over the Top. He has made numerous notable guest appearances, including on an episode of Just Shoot Me titled "Funny Girl."

Other early screen credits include a role in Julia Louis-Dreyfus's short-lived sitcom Watching Ellie (2002–2003) and Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda. Carell has also poked fun at himself for auditioning for Saturday Night Live but losing the job to Will Ferrell.

Carell was a correspondent on The Daily Show from 1999 until 2005, with a number of regular segments including "Even Stephven" with Stephen Colbert and "Produce Pete." Carell appeared as a guest on The Daily Show on August 15, 2005 to promote The 40-Year-Old Virgin, June 18, 2007 to promote Evan Almighty and again, a year later on June 18, 2008, to promote his newest movie, Get Smart.

The Office

In 2005, Carell signed a deal with NBC to star in an American reimagination of the BBC British TV show The Office, a mockumentary about life at a mid-sized paper supply company. He plays Michael Scott, the idiosyncratic regional manager of Dunder Mifflin Inc, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The show, now in its sixth season, has become enormously popular, with Carell receiving praise for his comedic performance, as well as a Golden Globe award and multiple nominations. He has also been nominated for four Emmy Awards and has won two Writers' Guild of America Awards.

Mainstream success

Two important roles helped Carell get the attention of audiences: Bruce Almighty, in which Carell plays Evan Baxter (an arrogant rival to Jim Carrey's character), and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, in which Carell plays another news personality, as slow-witted weatherman Brick Tamland. Years later he would reprise the role of Evan Baxter in Evan Almighty, a film in which his character from Bruce Almighty has an experience similar to the biblical story of Noah's Ark. In spring of 2005, Carell began playing the lead role of Michael Scott on NBC's adaptation of a British program The Office. Although the first season of the adaptation was notable for its mediocre ratings, NBC renewed it for another season due to the anticipated success of Carell's movie The 40-Year-Old Virgin,^[6] and the show subsequently became a ratings success. Carell won a Golden Globe and Television Critics Association award in 2006 for his Office role. He also received Emmy nominations in 2006 and 2007 for his work in the series.

Carell earned approximately $175,000 per episode of the third season of The Office, twice his salary for the previous two seasons. 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 The Office.^[7]

He played the lead role in the 2005 film The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which he developed and co-wrote. Although the film was a surprise success, Carell revealed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that he has no plans to leave The Office.

Carell appeared as "Uncle Arthur" alongside Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell in the 2005 remake of Bewitched. He also voiced a starring role in the 2006 computer-animated film Over the Hedge as Hammy the Squirrel. He also voiced in the 2008 animated film Horton Hears a Who! as the mayor of Whoville, Ned McDodd. He starred in Little Miss Sunshine in 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 Frat Pack group. This set of actors, headlined by Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Jack Black, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson, has become a profitable force in modern comedy. Carell acknowledged his membership in the group in his monologue when hosting the first episode of Saturday Night Live's 31st season on October 1, 2005. Carell also mentioned that he auditioned to be a castmember on Saturday Night Live for the 1995-1996 season (season 21), but lost to Will Ferrell.

Carell appeared 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. In October 2006, Carell began shooting the film Dan in Real Life, co-starring Dane Cook and Juliette Binoche. Filming wrapped December 22, 2006, and the film was released on October 26, 2007.

Carell played Maxwell Smart in a movie remake of Get Smart, which began filming February 3, 2007 and was shot in Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Moscow, Russia). The movie was very successful, grossing over $200 million worldwide.^[8] In 2007, Carell was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.^[9][10]

Production closed down in 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 filmed a movie in late 2008 opposite Tina Fey, entitled Date Night. It is set to be released on April 9, 2010 in the US. 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 inked 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 tapped to run Carousel's TV operations.^[11]

Personal life

Carell, a devout Catholic, is married to Saturday Night Live alumna Nancy Walls, whom he met when she was a student in an improv class he was teaching at The Second City.^[12] They have two children, Elisabeth Anne "Annie" (born May 25, 2001) and John "Johnny" (born June 2004). Walls appeared with him on The Office as his realtor and short-lived girlfriend, Carol Stills. Like her husband, Walls had been a Daily Show correspondent.

Carell is an avid hockey fan and a skilled goalie, as he demonstrated in a Season Two episode of The Office. He plays in a men's league in Los Angeles, where he lives with his family.

Carell also has a home in the coastal town of Marshfield, Massachusetts. Carell recently helped to preserve some of the town's history by purchasing the 155-year-old Marshfield Hills General Store,^[13] an antique country store well-known for its candy counter.

He spoke at the We Are One Concert for the Inaugural Celebration on Sunday, January 18, 2009.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards

Carell won the Spike TV 2008 "Guys Choice", Funniest M.F. Award.^[14]

Salary

• The Office (Season 3) - $175,000 an episode (renegotiated in 2006).^[15] 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."^[16]
• The Office (Seasons 1, 2) - $76,000 an episode
• Evan Almighty - $5,000,000
• The 40-Year-Old Virgin - $500,000

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Steve Carell

• Steve Carell at the Internet Movie Database
• Steve Carell at TV.com
• Dateline NBC's interview with Carell
• Carell's antique country store in Marshfield, MA
• USA Today article on real-life CEO lessons
• Fan Site: Steve Carell Online