Ed Helms
Edward Parker Helms[1] (born January 24, 1974)[2] is an American comedian and actor. From 2002 to 2006, he was a correspondent on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He played paper salesman Andy Bernard in the NBC sitcom The Office (2006–2013), and starred as Stuart Price in The Hangover trilogy. He later starred in the comedy series Rutherford Falls (2021–2022), which he co-wrote.
Ed Helms
- Comedian
- actor
1998–present
1
Helms has also starred in dramatic films and comedic films such as Cedar Rapids, Jeff Who Lives at Home (both 2011), We're the Millers (2013), Vacation (2015), Chappaquiddick (2017), A Futile and Stupid Gesture, Tag (both 2018) and Together Together (2021). He provided his voice to the animated films, Everyone's Hero (2006), Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), The Lorax (2012), Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie, Mune: Guardian of the Moon (both 2017) and Ron's Gone Wrong (2021).
He has received six Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series winning in 2008. He also received a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Writing for a Comedy or Variety Special for The Fake News with Ted Nelms (2018).
Early life[edit]
Helms was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia.[3] He is of English, Irish, German, Dutch and French descent. He had open-heart surgery at age 13 to correct a severe congenital heart defect involving supravalvular aortic and pulmonic stenosis.[4][5] According to Helms, his surgery lasted nine hours, and he was kept in an intensive care unit for one week after.[6]
He attended Interlochen Center for the Arts as a youth and graduated in 1992 from The Westminster Schools, one year after The Office castmate Brian Baumgartner.[7] Helms entered Oberlin College as a geology major, but graduated in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts in film theory and technology. He spent a semester as an exchange student at New York University Tisch School of the Arts.[8][9][6] During his college years, he turned down a summer internship with Late Night with Conan O'Brien because he had committed to an internship with WNBC's press and publicity department.
Career[edit]
Early work[edit]
After graduating from Oberlin, Helms began his comedy and acting career as a writer and performer with New York City sketch comedy bands. While studying improvisation with the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe,[10] he was a trainee film editor at Crew Cuts, a post-production facility in New York City, where he recorded some rough voiceover tracks that eventually led to paying voiceover work. He soon found a talent agent.[11]
Civic life[edit]
Helms is a board member at RepresentUs,[26] a non-profit group that works to pass anti-corruption laws in the United States.
Helms partnered with VoteRiders in 2022 to encourage volunteers to write letters and send texts to registered voters to let them know how to overcome voter ID barriers that could prevent them from casting a ballot.[27]