Early life

Reiser was born in New York City, the son of Helen, a homemaker, and Sam Reiser, a wholesale health food distributor. His family is Jewish. Reiser attended the East Side Hebrew Institute and graduated from Stuyvesant High School. He earned his bachelor's degree at Binghamton University, where he majored in music (piano, composition).

During his university years, Reiser was active in student theater productions at the Hinman Little Theater, an on-campus community theater organization located in Hinman College, Reiser's dorm community. It was later renamed the Hinman Production Company. He found his calling as a comedian while performing in New York clubs during university summer breaks.

Career

After developing his skills as a stand-up comedian, Reiser had a breakout film role in 1982 when he appeared in Diner, a coming-of-age film directed by Barry Levinson. Reiser's character, Modell, a closet stand-up comedian, effectively brought Reiser's abilities to the attention of Hollywood. He followed this success by playing a detective in Beverly Hills Cop (1984), a role he reprised in its sequel, Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). Reiser also had roles in James Cameron's Aliens (1986), in which he played the corrupt Carter Burke; The Marrying Man (1991) and Bye Bye Love (1995).

Reiser starred as one of two possible fathers of a teenage girl in the TV sitcom My Two Dads (1987-90), and later came to prominence in North America as Paul Buchman in Mad About You (1992-99), a comedy series he co-created, in which Helen Hunt co-starred as his on-screen wife. He was also the co-composer of the show's theme song, "The Final Frontier" (with Don Was), and performed the piano for the theme's recording. Reiser's role in Mad About You earned him nominations for an Emmy, a Golden Globe, an American Comedy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. For the show's final season, Reiser and Hunt received $1 million ($1.4 million today) per episode.

In 2001, Reiser played a dramatic role as a man desperate to locate his biological mother, after learning he has a serious illness, in the British TV film My Beautiful Son. In 2002, Reiser made a guest appearance as himself on Larry David's HBO sitcom, Curb Your Enthusiasm. In the TV comedy film Atlanta (2007), Reiser appears as one half of a couple who, after meeting at a funeral, are unable to stay away from each other. In 2010, Reiser collaborated with the singer Julia Fordham to create a CD album titled Unusual Suspects, which includes the song "UnSung Hero", dedicated to American soldiers serving in Afghanistan. The two embarked on an acoustic tour after its release. Reiser also co-wrote the song, "No There There" with Melissa Manchester for her 2015 album, You Gotta Love the Life. Early in his career, Resier was the opening act for Manchester, she warned him that music audiences can be rough on comedians and that the last comedian that opened for her, left the stage in tears. Reiser reflects about this warning and on how he then bombed at the Concord Hotel. The story is detailed the chapter, "Don't Worry if They Suck", by Paul Reiser, in 'I Killed: True Stories of the Road from America's Top Comics (2010), By Ritch Shydner, Mark Schiff.

Reiser scripted and starred in the semi-autobiographical comedy series The Paul Reiser Show, which aired on NBC as a mid-season replacement during the 2010-11 TV season. "This is nice", commented Reiser on the Stephanie Miller radio program, "because you get to sit around and root for other shows to fail." However, due to the lack of lead time and promotion by NBC prior to its debut (as well as poor scheduling), the low-rated show was canceled on April 22, 2011, with only two episodes aired.

Reiser has written three books: Couplehood, about the ups and downs of being in a committed relationship; Babyhood, about his experiences as a first-time father; and Familyhood (released in May 2011), a collection of humorous essays. Couplehood is unique in that it starts on page 145; Reiser explained this as his method of giving the reader a false sense of accomplishment. In 1996, Reiser appeared on Late Show with David Letterman in the middle of writing Babyhood. Since he had not yet decided on a title, he presented a prop book, titled simply "Book" and with the same cover as that of Couplehood.

Personal life

Reiser married Paula Ravets on August 21, 1988. They have two sons: Ezra Samuel (born 1995) and Leon (born 2000). He is the cousin of screenwriter and producer Will Reiser, who is known for writing the semi-autobiographical comedy-drama film 50/50 (2011).

Reiser's first cousin is the legal scholar Richard Epstein of New York University, the Cato Institute, Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and the University of Chicago.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	Diner	Modell
1984	Beverly Hills Cop	Jeffrey
1986	Odd Jobs	Max
1986	Aliens	Carter Burke
1987	Beverly Hills Cop II	Det. Jeffrey Friedman
1987	Cross My Heart	Bruce Gaynor
1990	Crazy People	Stephen Bachman
1991	The Marrying Man	Phil Golden
1992	3½ Blocks from Home	Unknown
1993	Family Prayers	Dan Linder
1994	Mr. Write	Charlie Fisher
1995	Bye Bye Love	Donny
1999	Get Bruce	Unknown
1999	The Story of Us	Dave	Uncredited
1999	Pros & Cons	Prison Man #1	Uncredited
2001	One Night at McCool's	Carl
2002	Purpose	Ben Fisher
2005	The Thing About My Folks	Ben Kleinman
2005	The Aristocrats	Himself
2009	Funny People	Himself
2014	Life After Beth	Noah Orfman
2014	Whiplash	Mr. Neiman
2015	Concussion	Dr. Elliot Pellman
2016	The Darkness		Post-production
2016	The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea	Wendell	Post-production
2016	War on Everyone	Lt. Gerry Stanton	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	Remington Steele	Ivan Turbell	Episode: "A Good Night's Steele"
1987	Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color	Dexter Bunche	Episode: "You Ruined My Life"
1987-1990	My Two Dads	Michael Taylor	60 episodes
1992-1999	Mad About You	Paul Buchman	164 episodes Viewers for Quality Television Award for Best Actor in a Quality Comedy Series Nominated—American Comedy Award for Funniest Male Performer in a Television Series Nominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor - Television Series Musical or Comedy Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series Nominated—Viewers for Quality Television Award for Best Actor in a Quality Comedy Series
1993	The Tower	Tony Minot	Television movie
1995	37th Annual Grammy Awards	Host	TV special
1995	Saturday Night Live	Host	Episode: "Paul Reiser/Annie Lennox"
2001	My Beautiful Son a.k.a. Strange Relations	Jerry Lipman	Television movie
2002	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Paul Reiser	Episode: "The Terrorist Attack"
2002	Women vs. Men	Bruce	Television movie
2011	The Paul Reiser Show	Paul Reiser	7 episodes
2013	Behind the Candelabra	Scott's attorney	Television movie
2014-2015	Married	Shep	10 episodes
2014-present	Red Oaks	Getty	9 episodes

[ Source: Wikipedia ]