Early life

Hader was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the son of Sherri Renee (née Patton) and William Jacob Hader. His father owned an air-freight company and worked as a restaurant manager, a truck driver and occasionally a stand-up comedian; his mother was a dance teacher. He has two younger sisters, Katie and Kara. His ancestry includes German, Danish, Irish, and English; his surname originates in Germany. On the show Finding Your Roots, Hader learned that he is a direct descendent of Charlemagne, his fortieth great-grandfather.

Hader attended Patrick Henry Elementary School, Edison Junior High, and Cascia Hall Preparatory School. He had "a hard time focusing on class," and was always "joking around." Though he was not hated by classmates, he felt he never truly fit in, and filled his time with watching movies and reading. He appreciated Monty Python, British comedy, and the films of Mel Brooks and Woody Allen, many of which he was introduced to through his father. He made short films with friends, and starred in a school play of The Glass Menagerie.

He was unable to gain admission to top film schools because of his "abysmal" grades, so he instead enrolled at The Art Institute of Phoenix, and later Scottsdale Community College. He worked as an usher at a movie theater in nearby Tempe, which allowed him to see films for free. He was fired for spoiling the ending of Titanic to noisy patrons. At Scottsdale, he met Nicholas Jasenovec, the director of Paper Heart.

Early career

Hader's aspirations of becoming a filmmaker eventually led him to drop out of college and move to Los Angeles in 1999. His parents were supportive of his decision to move, and Hader used the money they had saved for college to live on when he arrived in Los Angeles. He found work as a production assistant while scouring the back pages of The Hollywood Reporter, and he hoped to advance far enough to become an assistant director. He spent much of his young adulthood "lonely and underemployed," filling large amounts of spare time with movie marathons. He regularly worked 18-hour days as a PA, having little time to pursue his creative ambitions. He worked as a production assistant on the DVD Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy; the feature films James Dean, Spider-Man, and Collateral Damage; as well as a post-production assistant on VH1 television's The Surreal Life. Hader briefly worked as a PA and stage manager on Playboy TV's Night Calls; he quit, as he feared it would disappoint his parents. He quit being a production assistant after a bad experience shooting The Scorpion King.

He subsequently secured a job working as a nighttime assistant editor at post-production facility Triage Entertainment. He invested money into his own short film, but was too embarrassed to release it. Shortly thereafter, he and a longtime girlfriend broke up. Desperate for a change, he began attending comedy classes with friends at improvisational comedy enterprise the Second City in March 2003. It soon became a creative outlet, and he formed a comedy group named Animals from the Future, alongside Matt Offerman. The group performed backyard shows in Van Nuys. Offerman's brother, the actor Nick Offerman, told his wife, Megan Mullally, about the group. Mullally invited Lorne Michaels, creator and executive producer of Saturday Night Live (SNL), to come to Los Angeles and see a performance. The group later flew to New York to perform once more for a group of SNL producers. As a result of the audition, Hader got an agent and manager. Prior to his audition, he was nervous and struggled to highlight his strengths. Just before he was discovered for SNL, Hader was working as an assistant editor on Iron Chef America.

Saturday Night Live

Hader was hired as a featured player and made his debut on the show on October 1, 2005. His first role was as a psychologist giving his views about life and death during the emergency landing of JetBlue Airways Flight 292. He felt he had gone from "preschool to Harvard." He became the "impressions guy," hoping to fill a utility-player role "like his hero Phil Hartman". Hader's list of impressions include Vincent Price in the Variety Vault sketches, Harvey Fierstein, Charlie Rose, Al Pacino, Brian Grazer, Rick Perry, John Malkovich, Seth Rogen, James Carville, Julian Assange, Eliot Spitzer, Alan Alda, Clint Eastwood, and Charlie Sheen. On July 19, 2012, Hader received his first nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on Saturday Night Live. He is the first male SNL cast member to receive this nomination since Eddie Murphy in 1984.

Despite this, Hader suffered from anxiety and sleep problems during his tenure at the program. He never felt "truly comfortable" throughout his first four seasons. He was insecure that he had less comedy experience than his peers. He would often not sleep on Fridays before the show, and would feel light-headed prior to broadcasts. He was neurotic regarding his performances; Hader called his early performances "rigid." On one occasion, he began having a panic attack, live, while impersonating Assange. It was the final episode of 2010, and Hader remembered it: "It felt like someone was sitting on my chest. I couldn’t breathe, I started sweating. I thought, This is not good — abort! abort!" Michaels tried to put him at ease by remarking to him, "You can work here as long as you want," after one show hosted by Seth Rogen.

Hader decided to leave SNL after eight seasons, telling cast and crew in February 2013. He came to the conclusion that he needed to leave when his wife and he were constantly having to travel to Los Angeles for work, which made it difficult for their children. Working on the program had become difficult upon the birth of his first daughter, and even more so when his second child arrived. His final episode was on May 18, 2013. "It was a hard decision, but it has to happen at some point," he told reporters. "It got to a point where I said, 'Maybe it's just time to go.'" On October 11, 2014, Hader returned as host with musical guest Hozier.

Characters

• Stefon: Weekend Update's flamboyant New York City correspondent, whose recommendations consist solely of bizarre nightclubs involving nightmarish characters (which, according to the Ben Affleck/Nelly episode, are real). He is in love with and married to Seth Meyers, and, according to the Bruno Mars episode from season 38, is homeless (he lives in a garbage can next to a Radio Shack on 23rd and 7th). He was originally a one-shot character on a season 34 sketch where a screenwriter named David Zolesky (played by Ben Affleck) invites his estranged brother Stefon over to pitch a family-friendly sports drama about a college student who bonds with his grandfather so he can try out for the college football team. He is based on two people SNL writer John Mulaney and Hader met: a wannabe club owner who always invited Mulaney to weird underground clubs and a barista Bill Hader met who looks, speaks, and dresses like Stefon.
• Vinny Vedecci: An Italian talk show host who chain-smokes and insults his crew. (played by Fred Armisen and Will Forte, who was later replaced by Paul Brittain). He has a son (played by Bobby Moynihan) and speaks little English, even though his guests (played by the guest hosts as themselves) are English speakers.
• Herb Welch: A bitter, elderly on-the-scene news reporter (who used to be a desk reporter but was fired for praying with a rosary on the air) who keeps hitting his interviewees in the face with his microphone. He will also say politically incorrect and outdated terms when speaking to interviewees. He often clashes with the Anchor (played by Jason Sudeikis, Nasim Pedrad and later Taran Killam) and openly insults him.
• Anthony Peter Coleman: A former war vet who disturbs the instructor and other students of a puppetry class that he's enrolled in with memories from his time in the service.
• Greg the Alien: The co-host of a sports talk show who appears to be an alien despite co-host Randy Duke's (Kenan Thompson's) constant claims that Greg is not an alien.
• Nitro: One of the main characters in the SNL Digital Short Laser Cats.
• One of the four guys (the others being Will Forte (later replaced by Andy Samberg), Jason Sudeikis and the host) who reveal crazy aspects about themselves while singing a song in the Song Memories sketches.
• Tony DiNato: One of the "Two Gay Guys from New Jersey" segment of Weekend Update. He is the only one whose real name was revealed.
• DJ Frontal Assault: Co-host on Deep House Dish.
• Danny: A guy who has the mutant "Kuato" (played by Andy Samberg) living in his stomach.
• Mr. Triggs: The father of an ugly, socially inept girl named Stacia. (played by Kristen Wiig)
• Jerry: A sleazy businessman who works with Carl (Will Forte). Both are often drunk and insulting to their co-workers.
• Dwayne Vogelcheck: The brother in Kissing Family, (his parents are played by Kristen Wiig and Fred Armisen) where another sibling, usually played by the celebrity host, brings a friend or girlfriend home to their overly affectionate family.
• Brady Trunk: The co-host of "Hollywood Dish", with Kristen Wiig.
• One of The Three Merryville Brothers robots, along with Taran Killam. The third member has been played by Jim Carrey, Justin Timberlake, and Bruno Mars with Tom Hanks).
• Leonard: The production assistant on advice shows produced by Roger Brush (Fred Armisen).
• Lyle Round: The host of the 1960s game show, "Secret Word." He often gets annoyed with his celebrity contestants, particularly Mindy Gracin (Kristen Wiig).
• Vince Blight: The host for the game show "What's That Name?" On the Alec Baldwin/Radiohead episode, Blight was the host of a game show called "Who's On Top?" and on the episode hosted by Anna Faris/Drake. Blight hosted a Lifetime-based game show called "What's Wrong With Tanya?"
• Derek Gash: A member of the British punk band, Ian Rubbish and the Bizarros.
• Devon: One of the characters from the sketch The Californians, along with Kristen Wiig, Fred Armisen and Vanessa Bayer among others.
• Mike Underballs: An advertisement director who must deal with an easily offended crew member (Jason Sudeikis) who attempts to disrupt the advertisement due to disliking the celebrity host.

Celebrity impersonations

Hader has said that he performed impersonations of teachers and friends when he was growing up but did not do impersonations of famous people until his Saturday Night Live audition. He developed his Al Pacino impersonation after watching the actor's Emmy acceptance speech for Angels in America. Hader's Vincent Price impersonation came from his love of Price's Edgar Allan Poe films, such as The Fall of the House of Usher. His Peter O'Toole impersonation came partly from O'Toole in My Favorite Year, and Jack Lemmon's drunken Prince Hapnick from The Great Race and Cher from Burlesque.

Another one of Hader's impersonations from Saturday Night Live is of former governor Eliot Spitzer. Hader has also impersonated Adam Levine, Fox News Channel host Shepard Smith, Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, Michael "The Situation" Sorrentino from MTV's Jersey Shore, Pearl Jam's frontman Eddie Vedder, Dave Matthews, Rod Serling, John Boehner, Ben Mankiewicz, John Mayer, Conan O'Brien, Alan Alda, Dr. Oz, Rick Perry, Charlie Sheen, political strategist James Carville, Clint Eastwood, Harvey Fierstein, Tim Burton, and - in a guest appearance - Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! mainstay James Quall (requiring Hader to impersonate Quall's own tenuous celebrity impersonations).

Bill played Garrison Keillor as one of the many people who were suggested to replace Regis Philbin, after he left the Regis and Kelly show.

Hader also does an impression of Dateline NBC 's Keith Morrison, parodying his reporting style of being overly interested in horrific tales of tragedy or murder and asking inane questions. After discovering that Morrison works at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where both Dateline and Saturday Night Live are filmed, Hader half-jestingly said on the March 30, 2009, episode of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon that he lived in fear of getting into the same elevator as Morrison at 30 Rock.

In December 2010, he portrayed Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, who interrupts the broadcast from a British prison. In this sketch he hacks commercials for companies that are apologizing about WikiLeaks (such as MasterCard) and informs America about his status. He also performed a parody of TMZ with Assange playing the role of Harvey Levin.

On February 18, 2012, he briefly impersonated author Stephen King, as part of a sketch in which Maya Rudolph impersonated a Maya Angelou who creates pranks. Maya tells King, who is autographing books, that his car has been towed. He leaps up in horror, then recognizes her and says, in a Maine accent, "It's an 'awnuh' ."

Film roles

After his film debut You, Me and Dupree, Hader had a wide range of roles such as Katherine Heigl's character's editor at E! in Knocked Up, the acid-taking mechanic Dave in Hot Rod (alongside SNL castmate Andy Samberg), a recumbent biker in The Brothers Solomon (which featured SNL castmate Will Forte in one of the film's co-leading roles) and, most famously, as Officer Slater in the Judd Apatow produced Superbad. His role in Superbad helped boost his public awareness and allowed him to appear on mainstream programs like Total Request Live, The Tonight Show, and MTV's Video Music Awards.

In 2008, Hader appeared in two other Apatow projects: Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Pineapple Express. He also starred alongside Ben Stiller, Robert Downey, Jr. and Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder.

He also teamed up with director Greg Mottola for three feature films: Superbad, Adventureland and Paul.

In addition to these films, Hader has made several short films, including Back in the Day, Sounds Good to Me: Remastering the Sting, and The Jeannie Tate Show with SNL writer Liz Cackowski and wife Maggie Carey.

He made a small appearance in the 2009 film Year One with Jack Black and Michael Cera.

Hader lent his voice to the critically acclaimed 2009 Sony Pictures Animation film Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, as well as its sequel, playing the lead role of Flint Lockwood as well as his invention in the films, the FLDSMDFR. He voiced a gazelle in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.

Hader appeared in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian as Major General George Armstrong Custer.

He provided a voiceover in the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. He portrayed "The Voice", the disembodied voice that pops up during certain moments of the film's video game-inspired fight scenes. He also had a small cameo as the voice of the USS Vengeance computer in 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness.

Hader has written a slasher film to be produced by Judd Apatow, which he will star in if the film is produced.

In April 2009, Hader was a part of Vanity Fair's list of "Comedy's New Legends".

Hader starred in a dramatic role in the 2014 film The Skeleton Twins, opposite Kristen Wiig, with whom he worked on Saturday Night Live. The film won for 'Best Screenplay' at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2015, Hader voiced the character of Fear in the critically acclaimed Disney-Pixar film, Inside Out, and was attached to voice a dinosaur in the Pixar film The Good Dinosaur. However, Hader, alongside John Lithgow, Lucas Neff, Neil Patrick Harris and Judy Greer, left the project after their characters were re-designed.

Most recently, Hader had his first romantic-comedy leading man role opposite Amy Schumer in Trainwreck (2015).

Other work

Hader has been a creative consultant and producer on South Park since the show's twelfth season. His involvement in the series stems from his friendship with Matt Stone; the two held a similar sense of humor and Hader began going on writer's retreats with the staff. He began working on the program hoping to learn story structure. Hader is among the series producers to win the 2009 Emmy Award for Best Animated Series. He also appeared on the commentary recorded for the 2009 Blu-ray edition of South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut, and the Comedy Central special 6 Days to Air, a documentary filmed during production of the 2011 South Park episode "HumancentiPad." Hader re-joined the writing staff for South Park for its seventeenth season. Hader won a Peabody Award for his participation in Saturday Night Live Political Satire, 2008. He has also been on the MTV show Punk'd. Hader voiced an array of different characters on the second season of the Adult Swim show Xavier: Renegade Angel.

Hader and SNL castmate Seth Meyers penned a Spider-Man one-off entitled The Short Halloween. It was illustrated by Kevin Maguire and came out May 29, 2009. It was given three and a half out of five stars by Benjamin Birdie of Comic Book Resources.

Hader took on the voice role of Professor Impossible on the fourth season of The Venture Brothers, a part originated by Stephen Colbert. In the game Grand Theft Auto IV he played Wilson Taylor Sr (On in-game radio show: Pacemaker). Hader appeared on Tim and Eric Awesome Show impersonating the recurring character James Quall on the episode "Jazz".

In July 2008, Hader starred in, and co-wrote with Simon Rich, the web series The Line on Crackle. Hader lent his voice to the audiobook of Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates. Hader voiced the Pod in the Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "IAMAPOD" as well as Hitler in the episode "Der Inflatable Fuhrer." Hader played Kevin, Matt Damon's co-pilot, in the live episode of 30 Rock, recorded October 14, 2010.

He hosted the 2011 and 2012 seasons of Essentials, Jr. on Turner Classic Movies. In the series premiere of The Mindy Project, he guest starred as Mindy's ex-boyfriend. His character returns later in the first season. Hader voices Dr. Malocchio in the original Hulu series The Awesomes.

In 2013, Hader replaced Robert Downey, Jr. as the voice of Mr. Peanut. Ironically, Hader has a severe peanut allergy.

In 2015, Hader appeared in Brooklyn Nine-Nine as the Captain of the 99th Precinct. Also in 2015, Hader reunited with fellow SNL alumnus Fred Armisen for the IFC mokumentary series Documentary Now!, where he was actor and writer.

Drew McWeeny of HitFix reported in December 2015 that the voice of BB-8 was supplied by Hader and Ben Schwartz, both credited as "BB-8 vocal consultants" in the film. The voice was created by Abrams manipulating their voices through a talkbox, attached to an iPad running a sound effects app. He recently starred in YouTube channel Bad Lip Reading's parody of Star Wars voicing multiple characters.

Personal life

In 2006, Hader married writer-director Maggie Carey. They have three daughters together: Hannah Kathryn, born October 6, 2009, Harper, born July 28, 2012, and Hayley Clementine, born November 15, 2014.

Hader is a fan of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Prior to Game 2 of the 2012 NBA Finals, he joined the NBA GameTime television analysts and did an impression of Ernie Johnson, Jr., a sportscaster for Turner Sports, which owns NBA TV, the network producing NBA GameTime.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2006	You, Me and Dupree	Mark
2006	Doogal	Sam the Soldier (voice)
2007	Knocked Up	Brent
2007	Hot Rod	Dave
2007	Superbad	Officer Slater
2007	The Brothers Solomon	Recumbent Biker
2007	Purple Violets	Bookstore Fan	Uncredited cameo
2008	Forgetting Sarah Marshall	Brian Bretter
2008	Pineapple Express	Private Greg B. Miller
2008	Tropic Thunder	Rob Slolom
2009	Adventureland	Bobby
2009	Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian	George Armstrong Custer
2009	Year One	The Shaman
2009	Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs	Gazelle (voice)
2009	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs	Flint Lockwood (voice)
2010	Scott Pilgrim vs. the World	The Voice (voice)
2011	Paul	Agent Haggard
2011	Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil	Hansel (voice)
2012	Men in Black 3	Andy Warhol / Agent W
2012	This is 40	Man at Store	Uncredited cameo
2013	Arcade Fire in Here Comes The Night Time	Captain Bill; Man on telephone	NBC Special
2013	Escape from Planet Earth	Announcer / Soldier / Radio Host / Fresh Plarbe (voices)	Uncredited
2013	Monsters University	Referee / Slug (voices)
2013	Star Trek Into Darkness	Computer of the USS Vengeance (voice)
2013	Turbo	Guy Gagne (voice)
2013	The To Do List	Willy Mclean
2013	The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby	Stuart
2013	Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2	Flint Lockwood (voice)
2013	Her	Chat Room Friend #2 (voice)
2014	The Skeleton Twins	Milo
2014	They Came Together	Kyle
2014	22 Jump Street	Culinary School Villain	Uncredited cameo
2015	Accidental Love	Doctor Turnstall
2015	Trainwreck	Aaron Conners
2015	Inside Out	Fear (voice)	Also wrote additional dialogue
2015	Maggie's Plan	Tony
2015	Riley's First Date?	Fear (voice)	Short film
2015	Star Wars: The Force Awakens	BB-8 (voice)	Vocal consultant
2016	The Angry Birds Movie	Leonard (voice)
2016	Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping	TBA	Roadie
2016	Finding Dory	Ned (voice)
2016	The BFG	The Bloodbottler
2016	Sausage Party	Guacamole / Old Bottle of Liquor (voices)	Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2005-2013	Saturday Night Live	Various roles	160 episodes; also writer
2006	Late Night with Conan O'Brien	Announcer / Vincent Price (voices)	Episode: "The Skeleton Show"
2008-2012	Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday	Various	6 episodes; also writer
2008-present	South Park	Various voices	8 episodes; also writer and producer
2008	Human Giant	Himself / Little Kevin	4 episodes
2008	Tim and Eric Awesome Show	James Quall	Episode: "Jazz"
2009	Xavier: Renegade Angel	Pavlov / Priest (voices)	2 episodes
2009-2010	Aqua Teen Hunger Force	Der Inflatable Hitler / The Pod (voices)	2 episodes
2010	Ugly Americans	William Dyer (voice)	Episode: "An American Werewolf in America"
2010	30 Rock	Kevin	Episode: "Live Show"
2010	Freaknik: The Musical	Tad (voice)	Television film
2010-2013	The Venture Bros.	Professor Impossible / Alien villain / Phage (voices)	7 episodes
2011	Funny or Die Presents	Athletic Trainer	4 episodes
2012-2014	Bob's Burgers	Mickey / Big Bob (voices)	7 episodes
2012	NTSF:SD:SUV::	Tad McMilrthy	Episode: "Comic-Con-Flict"
2012	The Secret Policeman's Ball 2012	Julian Assange	Television Special
2012-2014	The Mindy Project	Tom	5 episodes
2013	Portlandia	Birdman	Episode: "Blackout"
2013	The Simpsons	Slava (voice)	Episode: "The Fabulous Faker Boy"
2013	The Office	Himself	Episode: "Finale"
2013	Drunk History	John Pemberton	Episode: "Atlanta"
2013	Comedy Central Roast of James Franco	Himself / President of Hollywood	Television Special
2013	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Himself	Episode: "Bill Hader Wears A Grey Button Down Shirt & Sneakers"
2013	Clear History	Rags	Television film
2013-2015	The Awesomes	Dr. Giuseppe Malocchio (voice)	22 episodes
2014	Saturday Night Live	Host	Episode: "Bill Hader/Hozier"
2014	Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja	Whoopee 2 (voice)	Episode: "Whoopee 2: The Wrath of Whoopee 2"
2015	Man Seeking Woman	Adolf Hitler	Episode: "Lizard"
2015	Inside Amy Schumer	Cliffley Bennett / Doug	Episode: "I'm Sorry"
2015-present	Documentary Now!	Various roles	7 episodes; also co-creator, writer and executive producer
2015	Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Captain Seth Dozerman	Episode: "New Captain"

Video Games

Video games

Year	Title	Voice role
2008	Grand Theft Auto IV	Wilson Taylor Sr.
2009	Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian	George Armstrong Custer

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2009	Gotham Award	Best Ensemble Cast	Adventureland	Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Animated Program	South Park for "Margaritaville"	Won
2011			South Park for "Crack Baby Athletic Association"	Nominated
2012		Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series	Saturday Night Live	Nominated
2013				Nominated
2014	American Comedy Award	Best Comedy Supporting Actor - TV		Won
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Animated Program	South Park for "Black Friday"	Nominated
	Gotham Award	Best Actor	The Skeleton Twins	Nominated
	Women Film Critics Circle Award	Best On-Screen Couple		Won
2015	MTV Movie Award	Best Musical Moment		Nominated
	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series	Saturday Night Live	Nominated
		Outstanding Animated Program	South Park for "Freemium Isn't Free "	Nominated
2016	Critics' Choice Movie Award	Best Actor in a Comedy	Trainwreck	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]