Early life

Rudd was born on April 6, 1969, in Passaic, New Jersey. His father, Michael, was a historical tour guide and former vice-president of Trans World Airlines who died of cancer, while his mother, Gloria, was a sales manager at the television station KCMO-TV in Kansas City, Missouri. His parents were born in the United Kingdom, his father from Edgware and his mother from Surbiton, both in London. Rudd's parents were both Jewish (descended from Jewish immigrants who moved from Russia and Poland to England). The family's original surname, "Rudnitzky", was changed by his grandfather to "Rudd." Rudd had a bar mitzvah ceremony. When he was ten, Rudd's family moved to Lenexa, Kansas. His family also spent three years living in Anaheim, California, because of his father's occupation.

Rudd attended Broadmoor Junior High and Shawnee Mission West High School. Rudd then went to the University of Kansas, where he majored in theater. He was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity's Nu Chapter there. After graduating, he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts/West in Los Angeles. Rudd spent three months studying Jacobean drama at the British American Drama Academy based in Oxford, U.K. While attending acting school, Rudd worked as a Bar Mitzvah disc jockey.

On Screen Career

Early career (1992-99)

Rudd made his acting debut in 1992 with the television drama Sisters where he played Kirby Quimby Philby. In 1994 he appeared in Wild Oats for six episodes. Rudd left Sisters in 1995 to then appear in the comedy film Clueless with Alicia Silverstone. He also appeared in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, The Locusts, Overnight Delivery, The Object of My Affection, and 200 Cigarettes. He was then in the 1999 film The Cider House Rules that earned him and the cast a SAG nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

Success with leading roles (2000-2009)

He played FBI Agent Ian Curtis in Benny Chan's 2000 Hong Kong action film Gen-Y Cops. In 2002, he was cast as Mike Hannigan on the sitcom Friends who dates and then marries Phoebe Buffay, played by Lisa Kudrow. In 2006, he appeared in several episodes of Reno 911! as "Guy Gerricault" (pronounced "jericho"), the coach of a lamaze class, and then portrayed a drug lord in the Reno 911!: Miami film. He guest-starred as a has-been 1990s rock star, Desmond Fellows, on the television series Veronica Mars, in the 2007 episode "Debasement Tapes".

The year 2004 marked the start of his work with director/producer Judd Apatow, first on the film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy as Brian Fantana with Steve Carell, David Koechner and Will Ferrell, produced by Apatow and again in 2005 in The 40-Year-Old Virgin with Steve Carell and Seth Rogen, directed by Apatow. He subsequently worked with Apatow in 2007's Knocked Up, as frustrated husband Pete, married to Leslie Mann's character. In that film, he co-starred with Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogan, and Jay Baruchel. Rudd appeared as John Lennon in the comedy film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story in 2007 and as the drug-addled surf instructor in Nicholas Stoller's Forgetting Sarah Marshall in 2008 with Jason Segel and Jonah Hill, both of which Apatow produced. Rudd appeared as uncredited cameos in Year One (2009) and Bridesmaids (2011). In 2012, he starred and also co-produced with Apatow on the film Wanderlust with Jennifer Aniston. He starred in the comedy film This Is 40 with Leslie Mann, a spinoff from Knocked Up, which was directed and produced by Apatow. He reprised his role as Brian Fantana in the 2013 sequel Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.

In 2007, he starred in both The Oh in Ohio and The Ten, which reunited him with David Wain and Michael Showalter., and then in Over Her Dead Body with Eva Longoria the next year. His next comedy which he also wrote, Role Models, he and co-star Seann William Scott portray energy-drink salesmen forced to perform community service in a child mentoring program.

In 2009, Rudd again appeared with Jason Segel in I Love You Man where he and Segel play buddies who bond over their shared love for the rock band Rush. Both Rudd and Segel are themselves fans of the band. Also in 2009, Rudd co-created the TV series Party Down with John Embom, Rob Thomas and Dan Etheridge. He lent his voice to the DreamWorks computer-animated hit movie Monsters Vs. Aliens.

Continued success (2010-present)

In 2010, Rudd reunited with Steve Carell for the first time since The 40-Year-Old Virgin for the Jay Roach-directed comedy Dinner for Schmucks. In 2012, he had a supporting role in the teen drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower, playing Mr. Anderson, a teacher of Charlie, played by Logan Lerman. He starred in the 2011 comedy-drama film Our Idiot Brother with Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, and Emily Mortimer. It would be the fifth film that Rudd starred in with Elizabeth Banks. He had previously appeared with her in Wet Hot American Summer (2001), The Baxter (2005), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) and Role Models (2008).

In 2012, he signed to appear on four episodes of NBC's Parks and Recreation as Bobby Newport, a candidate for City Council and a rival of Amy Poehler's character Leslie Knope, a role for which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series.

On December 19, 2013, Rudd was officially confirmed as cast in the 2015 Marvel film Ant-Man. He played lead character Scott Lang/Ant-Man, and also co-wrote the screenplay with Adam McKay. Rudd reprised his role in Captain America: Civil War (2016).

Rudd will next be seen in the comedy-drama film The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving, alongside Selena Gomez, and will lend his voice to the animated films Sausage Party, starring Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill, and The Little Prince, starring Jeff Bridges and Benicio Del Toro. He will also reprise his role as Andy from Wet Hot American Summer in the Netflix prequel Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, alongside an ensemble cast including Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler and Elizabeth Banks, all reprising their roles from the 2001 film.

Rudd often stars with other Apatow film regulars like Seth Rogen (four films), Steve Carell (four films), Jonah Hill (three films), Leslie Mann (three films), Kristen Wiig (three films), Jason Segel (three films), Elizabeth Banks (five films), and Joe Lo Truglio (seven films), as well as working with director David Wain (five films).

In 2014 he began providing voiceovers for Hyundai television commercials. He has also voiced the audiobook recordings of John Hodgman's books The Areas of My Expertise (2005) and More Information Than You Require (2008).

Theatre

Rudd has also appeared in Broadway plays, the first being The Last Night of Ballyhoo as Joe Farkas in 1997. The next year he appeared in Twelfth Night with Kyra Sedgwick and Max Wright at the Lincoln Center Theatre. In 2006, he appeared in the Broadway production of Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain with Bradley Cooper and Julia Roberts at the Bernard Jacobs Theater.

In 2012, Rudd appeared in the Broadway production of Craig Wright's Grace. The play was shown at the Cort Theatre. Starring alongside Rudd was Academy award nominee Michael Shannon, Kate Arrington, and seven-time Emmy award winner Ed Asner. The play was first acclaimed at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C. In 2004. It would then go on to receive equal praise at NorthLight Theatre in Chicago and then at the Pasadena Playhouse in LA, where it received three L.A. Drama Critics Circle Awards, including Best Play.

Personal life

In 2003, Rudd married Julie Yaeger and the couple have two children: a son, Jack Sullivan (b. 2006), and a daughter, Darby (b. 2010). He is a fan of MLB's Kansas City Royals and of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs, for whom he narrated the 2007 season of HBO's Hard Knocks.

Rudd received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 1, 2015. He unveiled the 2,554th star on the mile-long strip of plaques on Hollywood Boulevard. At the occasion Rudd said, "I remember being a kid and walking this boulevard and reading the names and thinking about what so many other millions of people thought about, which is, you know, who's that?"

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	The Moment of Truth	Scott
1994	Runaway Daughters	Jimmy
1995	Clueless	Josh
1995	Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers	Tommy Doyle	Credited as Paul Stephen Rudd
1996	Romeo + Juliet	Dave Paris
1996	Size of Watermelons, TheThe Size of Watermelons	Alex
1997	Locusts, TheThe Locusts	Earl
1998	Overnight Delivery	Wyatt Trips
1998	Object of My Affection, TheThe Object of My Affection	George Hanson
1999	200 Cigarettes	Kevin
1999	Cider House Rules, TheThe Cider House Rules	Wally Worthington
2000	Gen-Y Cops	Ian Curtis
2000	Great Gatsby, TheThe Great Gatsby	Nick Carraway	Television film
2001	Wet Hot American Summer	Andy
2001	Reaching Normal	Kenneth
2001	Château, TheThe Château	Graham Granville
2003	Shape of Things, TheThe Shape of Things	Adam Sorenson
2003	Two Days	Paul Miller
2003	House Hunting	Daniel
2004	Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy	Brian Fantana
2004	P.S.	Sammy Silverstein
2004	Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie	Brian Fantana	Straight-to-DVD
2005	Baxter, TheThe Baxter	Dan Abbott
2005	40-Year-Old Virgin, TheThe 40-Year-Old Virgin	David
2005	Tennis, Anyone...?	Lance Rockwood
2006	Oh in Ohio, TheThe Oh in Ohio	Jack Chase
2006	Diggers	Hunt
2006	Night at the Museum	Don
2007	Reno 911: Miami	Ethan
2007	I Could Never Be Your Woman	Adam Pearl
2007	Ex, TheThe Ex	Leon
2007	Knocked Up	Pete
2007	Ten, TheThe Ten	Jeff Reigert	Also producer
2007	Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story	John Lennon	Uncredited
2008	Over Her Dead Body	Dr. Henry Mills
2008	Forgetting Sarah Marshall	Chuck
2008	Role Models	Danny Donahue	Also writer
2009	I Love You, Man	Peter Klaven
2009	Monsters vs. Aliens	Derek (voice)
2009	Year One	Abel	Uncredited
2010	Dinner for Schmucks	Tim Conrad
2010	How Do You Know	George Madison
2011	Our Idiot Brother	Ned
2012	Wanderlust	George	Also producer
2012	Perks of Being a Wallflower, TheThe Perks of Being a Wallflower	Bill Anderson
2012	This Is 40	Pete
2013	Admission	John
2013	Prince Avalanche	Alvin
2013	This Is the End	Himself	Cameo
2013	All Is Bright	Rene
2013	Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues	Brian Fantana
2014	They Came Together	Joel
2015	The Little Prince	Mr. Prince (voice)
2015	Ant-Man	Scott Lang / Ant-Man	Also writer
2016	The Fundamentals of Caring	Ben
2016	Nerdland	John (voice)
2016	Captain America: Civil War	Scott Lang / Ant-Man
2016	Sausage Party	(voice)	Post-production
2017	Ideal Home		Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992-1995	Sisters	Kirby Quimby Philby	20 episodes
1994	Wild Oats	Brian Grant	6 episodes
1996	Clueless	Sonny	Episode: "I Got You Babe"
2000	Deadline	Zander Price	Episode: "Lovers and Madmen"
2000	Strangers with Candy	Brent Brooks	Episode: "The Last Temptation of Blank"
2002-2004	Friends	Mike Hannigan	18 episodes
2005	Stella	Greg	Episode: "Office Party"
2006	Cheap Seats	Dave Penders	Episode: "1996 Spelling Bee: Part 2"
2006	Robot Chicken	Jasper the Douchebag Ghost / Ang Lee (voice)	Episode: "Book of Corrine"
2006-2007	Reno 911!	Guy Gerricault	5 episodes
2007	Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show, TheThe Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show	Antagonistic Passenger	Episode: "Gold Watch"
2007	Veronica Mars	Desmond Fellows	Episode: "Debasement Tapes"
2007	Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Kansas City Chiefs	Himself	Narrator
2008	Little Britain USA	French president	Episode: "1.3"
2008-2013	Saturday Night Live	Himself (host)	3 episodes
2009	Delocated	Himself	Episode: "Pilot"
2009-2010	Party Down	—	Co-creator, writer, executive producer
2012	Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!	Himself / Celery Man / Oyster / Tayne	Episode: "Man Milk"
2011, 2014	Simpsons, TheThe Simpsons	Dr. Zander / Himself (voice)	2 episodes
2012, 2015	Parks and Recreation	Bobby Newport	5 episodes
2012	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Himself	Episode: "Paul Rudd Wears A Red Lumberjack Flannel Shirt"
2012	Louie	Himself	Episode: "Late Show: Part 3"
2013	Burning Love	Nate	3 episodes
2015	The Jack and Triumph Show	Himself	Episode: "Coffee"
2015	Moone Boy	George Gershwin	Episode: "Gershwin's Bucket List"
2015	Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp	Andy	8 episodes
2015	Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter	Himself	Episode: "Made Ya Look"
2016	Bob's Burgers	Jericho (voice)	Episode: "The Horse Rider-er"

Web series

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2015	WHIH Newsfront	Scott Lang / Ant-Man	First appearance as the Character

Awards and nominations

Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Paul Rudd

[ Source: Wikipedia ]