Bill Hader
William Thomas Hader Jr.[1] (born June 7, 1978)[2] is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and director. Hader gained widespread attention for his eight-year stint as a cast member on the long-running NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2005 to 2013, for which he received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations and a Peabody Award. He became known for his impressions and especially for his work on the Weekend Update segments, where he played Stefon Meyers, a flamboyant New York City nightclub tour guide.
Bill Hader
- Actor
- comedian
- writer
- producer
- director
1999–present
3
Hader co-created the HBO dark comedy series Barry (2018–2023) with Alec Berg, in addition to playing the title role as Barry Berkman. He also served as producer, writer and director, for which his efforts garnered him eight Emmy Award nominations for the series. He won two, consecutively, for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.[3][4] He is a star and producer of the IFC mockumentary comedy series Documentary Now! (2015–present) along with Fred Armisen and Seth Meyers. He was Emmy-nominated for his guest role in Curb Your Enthusiasm in 2022.
Hader has had supporting roles in the films Hot Rod (2007), Superbad (2007), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Adventureland (2009) and The BFG (2016), and leading roles in The Skeleton Twins (2014), Trainwreck (2015), and as an adult Richie Tozier in It Chapter Two (2019). He has also done extensive voice work, portraying leading and supporting characters in films such as the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs franchise (2009–2013), Turbo (2013), Inside Out (2015), Power Rangers (2017) and Toy Story 4 (2019).
Early life and education[edit]
Hader was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 7, 1978,[2] the son of dance teacher Sherri Renee (née Patton; b. 1956)[5] and air cargo company owner, restaurant manager, truck driver, and occasional stand-up comedian William Thomas Hader (b. 1953).[6][7] He has two younger sisters, Katie and Kara.[6] His ancestry includes Danish, English, German and Irish.[1][8] He attended Patrick Henry Elementary School, Edison Junior High and Cascia Hall Preparatory School.[9][10]
Hader grew up with writer Duffy Boudreau, with whom he later collaborated. He says he "had a hard time focusing in class" and "was always joking around". Feeling he did not fit in, Hader filled his time watching movies and reading. He appreciated Monty Python, British comedy, and the films of Woody Allen and Mel Brooks, much of which his father showed him.[11] He made short films with friends and starred in a school production of The Glass Menagerie.[12] He was unable to gain admission to top film schools because of his "abysmal" grades, so he enrolled at The Art Institute of Phoenix,[13] and later Scottsdale Community College.[11] Hader's first job was as a Christmas tree salesman. He was also an usher at a Tempe cinema, where he could see films for free, but was fired for spoiling the ending of Titanic (1997) for unruly viewers.[14][15] At Scottsdale Community College, he met Nicholas Jasenovec, who later directed Paper Heart (2009).[16]
Career[edit]
1999–2004: Early career[edit]
Hader's aspirations of becoming a filmmaker eventually led him to drop out of college and move to Los Angeles in 1999.[7][11] His parents supported his decision, and let him use the money they had saved for his education for his living expenses.[12] He found work as a production assistant (PA) while scouring the back pages of The Hollywood Reporter,[17] and hoped to become an assistant director.[17] He spent much of his life as a young man "lonely and underemployed" and large amounts of his time watching movies.[17] He regularly worked 18-hour days as a PA, leaving little time to pursue his creative ambitions.[12] He was a PA on the documentary Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy (2004) and the feature films James Dean (2001), Spider-Man (2002) and Collateral Damage (2002).[7][18] He was also a post-production assistant on the VH1 reality show The Surreal Life (2003–2006).[19] He was briefly a PA and stage manager on Playboy TV's sexual fantasy show Night Calls,[20][21][22] but soon quit as he feared it would disappoint his parents.[15] He eventually quit being a PA altogether after a bad experience while shooting The Scorpion King (2002).[17]
Hader subsequently got a job as a night-time assistant editor at the post-production facility Triage Entertainment.[12][17] He invested money in his own short film, but was too embarrassed to release it. Shortly thereafter, he and his then-longtime girlfriend broke up.[23] Desperate for a change, he began attending comedy classes with friends at improvisational comedy enterprise the Second City in March 2003.[13] He quickly realized that comedy was the creative outlet he had been looking for,[12] and soon he, his new comedy compatriot Matt Offerman, and their two friends and fellow humor enthusiasts Eric Filipkowski and Mel Cowan formed a sketch comedy group,[24] which they called Animals from the Future, and performed frequently for small audiences at backyard shows in Van Nuys.[17] Matt's brother, actor Nick Offerman, told his wife, Megan Mullally, about them.[25][26] After attending one of their backyard shows, Mullally told Hader she wanted to discuss him with Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live (SNL). After Mullally's recommendation, Hader was invited to fly to New York to audition for SNL producers. He had no material prepared when he was invited to audition, and was nervous and struggled to display his strengths during the audition. This resulted in his spontaneous imitation of an Italian man he had once overheard; the impression later become Vinny Vedecci, the first of his many recurring characters on the show.[17] As a result of the audition, Hader got an agent and manager.[11] Just before he was invited to work on SNL, he worked as an assistant editor on Iron Chef America.[27]
Influences[edit]
Hader has said that his comedy influences included Woody Allen,[64][65][66] Monty Python, Alan Alda, Mel Brooks and Eddie Murphy.[14]
Personal life[edit]
Marriage and relationships[edit]
Hader married writer and director Maggie Carey in 2006;[67] they have three daughters.[68][69] They divorced in 2018.[70] Hader later dated actress Rachel Bilson, with whom he had co-starred in The To Do List,[71][72] and actress Anna Kendrick.[73][74] As of April 2023, he has been in a relationship with comedian and actress Ali Wong.[75]
Interests[edit]
Hader is an avid reader who has said that he "didn't really go to college, which is probably why [he] enjoy[s] reading the classics". He named works by Tobias Wolff, Fyodor Dostoevsky, William Faulkner, Richard Ford, George Saunders, and Jun'ichirō Tanizaki as influences.[76] He is a fan of the Chicago Cubs. He is also an avid film fan enjoying films of the Golden Age of Hollywood as well as films directed by the Coen Brothers, Stanley Kubrick, and Akira Kurosawa.[77]
Health issues[edit]
Hader has an anxiety disorder.[78] During his tenure on Saturday Night Live, he had anxiety and sleep problems.[11] He never felt "truly comfortable" during his first four seasons.[17] He worried that he had less comedy experience than his peers, would often not sleep on Fridays before the show, and felt lightheaded before broadcasts.[11] He was neurotic about his performances, and he called his early appearances "rigid".[17] During the final show of 2010, he began having a panic attack, live on air, while impersonating Julian Assange. He recalled: "It felt like someone was sitting on my chest. I couldn't breathe, I started sweating. I thought, This is not good—abort! abort!" [17] Hader is prone to migraines. When he suffered one live on air, Jason Sudeikis had to guide him on and offstage as he could not see anything. Lorne Michaels tried to put him at ease after the incident by telling him, "You can work here as long as you want."[17] He has a severe peanut allergy.[79]