Early life

Pollak was born in San Francisco, California, the youngest son of Elaine Harlow and Robert "Bobby" Pollak. He has one older brother, who lives with his family in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended high school at Pioneer High School in San Jose, California.

Career

Acting

As an actor, Pollak's most notable roles are usually playing the best friend or confidant characters to the leading men, as he did in Ricochet (1991), A Few Good Men (1992), End of Days (1999), and The Wedding Planner (2001). However, he has also played a wide variety of parts, such as a criminal in The Usual Suspects (1995) and a gangster in The Whole Nine Yards (2000). He also briefly hosted Celebrity Poker Showdown in its first season. His most substantial role to date was in Deterrence (1999), in which he played the main character, a Vice President who must take over for a deceased President and deal with a nuclear crisis.

In December 2006, he played Karl Kreutzfeld in the Sci Fi Channel miniseries The Lost Room. Through 2008, he had a recurring role as a District Attorney on the television series Shark. In March 2008, Pollak played himself in the web series The Writers Room on Crackle. In 2010, he portrayed Sheriff Tom Wagner in Choose.

In January 2010, Pollak was scheduled to host Our Little Genius on FOX, but the series was pulled before it could air on television. Pollak was then seen hosting Million Dollar Money Drop, again on the FOX network at the end of 2010.

In 2014, Pollak began a recurring role as Alvin Biletnikoff on the CBS sitcom Mom. However, his time on the show was cut short by the death of his character.

Directing

Pollak's directorial debut was on the horror web series Vamped Out, featured on the internet television platform Babelgum. Jason Antoon, Seana Kofoed, Samm Levine and Pollak all acted in the ensemble cast. The screenbook was based on a simple joke that Antoon and Pollak had between them. Most recently, Pollak's feature film directorial debut, the comedy documentary Misery Loves Comedy, premiered at The 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The film sold North American rights to Tribeca Film, a US distribution company.

Pollak is currently directing the comedy film The Late Bloomer.

Stand-up

As a comedian, Pollak's most famous work was his 1992 HBO special Stop With the Kicking, directed by fellow comedian David Steinberg and produced by comedy writer Martin Olson. In July 2009, The Littlest Suspect, his most recent comedy special, was aired on Showtime.

Celebrity impressions

• Alan Arkin
• Albert Brooks
• Gabriel Byrne
• Johnny Carson
• Christopher Lloyd
• Robert De Niro
• Peter Falk
• Dudley Moore
• Jack Nicholson
• Al Pacino
• Keanu Reeves
• Paul Reiser
• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• William Shatner
• Jason Statham
• Christopher Walken
• Robin Williams
• Michael Richards

Kevin Pollak's Chat Show

Main article: Kevin Pollak's Chat Show

In April 2009, Pollak partnered with Jason Calacanis on a weekly Internet talk show, Kevin Pollak's Chat Show. Guests for the show include film directors Kevin Smith and Mike Binder, comedian Jimmy Pardo, and actors Nia Vardalos, Illeana Douglas, Bryan Cranston, Dana Carvey, Matthew Perry, Jon Hamm, Paul Rudd, Adam Carolla, Anthony Cumia, and Jason Lee.

The guest interviews are very in-depth and typically longer than an hour in duration, sometimes exceeding two hours. Common topics include the guests' childhoods, how they got into the business they are in (typically show business), how they got inspired to start certain creative endeavors, and unique experiences they have had while working. Viewers can interact via chat room during the show, and sometimes questions for the guest posed in the chat room are answered live.

The show's self-described "Paul Shaffer" is actor Samm Levine.

Recurring segments and bits on the show include:

• "The Larry King Game", which requires the guest to do a bad Larry King impression, reveal something about oneself (in the persona of Larry King) and then go to the phones and say a funny-sounding city
• "Tweet Five," where Pollak reads the guest five questions from a Twitter user, usually in a this-or-that style
• "Who Tweeted", in which a host (typically Samm Levine) reads tweets from the Twitter accounts of three female celebrities (the list of actresses varies, but typically includes Demi Moore (or, more recently, Justin Bieber), Tyra Banks, and Paris Hilton) and Pollak and his guest compete against each other game-show-style to guess who authored each tweet.
• "You're Not Buffering", in which Pollack freezes mid-statement during his interview as though the show has paused due to internet lag, but he's actually still live. He then breaks his pause and says, "You're not buffering." Although a simple gag, it's humorous and characterizes Pollack's dry humor.

In 2012, Pollak began a new podcast called Talkin Walkin in which he spends an hour or more with a new guest in character as Christopher Walken. After three episodes, the show was rated in the top 5 of all comedy podcasts by iTunes.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	The Right Stuff	Dwight D. Eisenhower (voice)	Uncredited
1987	Million Dollar Mystery	Officer Quinn	First credited role in a motion picture
1988	Willow	Rool
1990	Coming of Age	Brian Brinker	Television series
1990	Avalon	Izzy Kirk
1991	L.A. Story	Frank Swan
1991	Another You	Phil
1991	Morton & Hayes	Chick Morton	Television series
1991	Ricochet	Larry Doyle
1992	The Opposite Sex and How to Live with Them	Eli
1992	A Few Good Men	Lt. Sam Weinberg
1993	Indian Summer	Brad Berman
1993	Wayne's World 2	Jerry Segel
1993	Grumpy Old Men	Jacob Goldman
1994	ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter	Spinlok	Disney World Ride (has since been replaced with Stitch's Great Escape!)
1994	Clean Slate	Rosenheim
1995	Usual Suspects, TheThe Usual Suspects	Todd Hockney	National Board of Review Award for Best Cast
1995	Miami Rhapsody	Jordan Marcus
1995	Canadian Bacon	Stu Smiley
1995	Casino	Phillip Green
1995	Grumpier Old Men	Jacob Goldman
1995	Chameleon	Matt Gianni
1995	The Drew Carey Show	Mr. Bell	Television series, 1st season only
1996	House Arrest	Ned Beindorf
1996	That Thing You Do!	Victor 'Boss Vic Koss' Kosslovich
1997	Truth or Consequences, N.M.	Gordon Jacobson
1997	Perversions of Science		Television series, one episode
1998	Buffalo '66	TV Sportscaster
1998	Ruby Bridges	Dr. Robert Coles
1998	From the Earth to the Moon	Joe Shea	Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Actor - Miniseries or Television Film
1998	Hoods	Rudy
1999	Outside Ozona	Wit Roy
1999	Deal of a Lifetime	Jerry
1999	She's All That	Wayne Boggs
1999	The Sex Monster	Dr. Jerry Berman
1999	Deterrence	President Walter Emerson
1999	End of Days	Bobby Chicago	Nominated — Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Favorite Supporting Actor (Action/Science-Fiction)
1999	Work with Me	Jordan Better	television series
2000	The Whole Nine Yards	Janni Pytor Gogolak
2000	Steal This Movie!	Gerry Lefcourt
2001	The Wedding Planner	Dr. John Dojny
2001	3000 Miles to Graceland	Damitry
2001	Dr. Dolittle 2	Riley/Alligator
2002	Stolen Summer	Rabbi Jacobsen
2002	Frank McKlusky, C.I.	Ronnie Rosengold
2002	Juwanna Mann	Lorne Daniels
2002	Mother Ghost	Dr. Norris
2002	The Santa Clause 2	Cupid
2003	Rolling Kansas	Agent Brinkley	Uncredited
2003	Blizzard	Archimedes
2004	Seven Times Lucky	Harlan
2004	The Whole Ten Yards	Lazlo Gogolak
2004	Our Time is Up	Dr. Stern
2005	Hostage	Walter Smith
2005	Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon 3D	Director (Voice)
2005	The Aristocrats	Himself
2006	The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause	Cupid
2006	The Lost Room	Karl Kreutzfeld	Mini-series
2007	Numb	Tom
2007	Shark	D.A. Leo Cutler	Television series
2008	Otis	Eli
2008	Picture This	Tom Gilbert	Straight to DVD
2008	Tortured	Dr. Shaw	Straight to DVD
2008	Entourage	Mr. Bob Levine	Television series, episode 503 - The All Out Fall Out
2009	2:13	Dr. Simmons
2009	Middle Men	Curt Allmans
2010	Columbus Circle	Klandermann	Co-writer & co-executive producer
2010	Cop Out	Hunsaker
2010	Vamped Out	Elliot Finke	Web series (also director, creator, writer, and producer)
2011	Choose	Sheriff Tom Wagner
2011	Red State	ASAC Brooks
2011	The Big Year	Eli
2012	Geezers!	Kevin	Post-production
2012	Chez Upshaw	Heaton Upshaw	filming
2012	Men at Work	Pavel	Television series, episode 105 - Toilet of Eden
2012	The Magic of Belle Isle	Joe Viola
2013	Grace Unplugged	Frank "Mossy" Mostin
2014	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Various	Television series, 2 episodes
2014	Mom	Alvin Biletnikoff	Television series
2015	Borealis	Tubby
2015	Transformers: Robots in Disguise	Fracture	Television series
2016	Special Correspondents	Geoffrey Mallard
2016	Angel from Hell	Marv Fuller, M.D.	Television Series

[ Source: Wikipedia ]