Paul Rudd
Paul Stephen Rudd (born April 6, 1969) is an American actor and comedian. He studied theater at the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before making his acting debut in 1991. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in July 2015,[1] and was included on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2019.[2] In 2021, he was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive".
For other people named Paul Rudd, see Paul Rudd (disambiguation).
Paul Rudd
- Actor
- comedian
- producer
- screenwriter
1991–present
2
His films include Clueless (1995), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007), I Love You, Man (2009), This Is 40 (2012), and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013). Most famously, he has played the superhero Scott Lang / Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), beginning with Ant-Man (2015) and most recently in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), and the Ghostbuster Gary Grooberson in Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024).
Rudd has also appeared in numerous television shows, including the sitcom Friends as Mike Hannigan, guest roles on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, Reno 911! and Parks and Recreation, and as guest host of Saturday Night Live multiple times. He had a dual role in the comedy series Living with Yourself, which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy. He starred in the miniseries The Shrink Next Door (2021).
Early life and education[edit]
Paul Stephen Rudd was born on April 6, 1969, in Passaic, New Jersey, to English-born Jewish parents.[3][4] His father, Michael Rudd (1943–2008), was a historical tour guide and former vice-president of TWA.[5][6][7] His mother, Gloria Irene Granville, was a sales manager at television station KSMO-TV in Kansas City, Missouri.[8][9] They were both from London, his father hailing from Edgware and his mother from Surbiton,[10][11] and both were descended from Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants who moved to England from Belarus, Poland and Russia.[8][12][13][3][14][15][16] His grandfather changed his paternal family's original surname, Rudnitsky, to Rudd. His maternal family's surname was Goldstein; his parents were second cousins.[16][17] Rudd had a Bar Mitzvah service[8][18] in Ontario, Canada.[19] Growing up, he loved reading the British comics The Beano and The Dandy, which his uncle sent him from the United Kingdom.[20]
When Rudd was ten, his family moved to Lenexa in Johnson County, Kansas. Because of his father's occupation, they also spent three years in Anaheim, California.[21][22][23] In Kansas, Rudd attended Broadmoor Junior High and graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School in 1987. He attended the University of Kansas, where he majored in theater[24] and belonged to the Sigma Nu fraternity's Nu Chapter.[25] He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts,[26] with fellow actor Matthew Lillard.[24] He also spent three months studying Jacobean drama at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford.[27][28] While at acting school, he worked as a DJ at bar mitzvahs.[29] After graduation, he had a variety of odd jobs, including glazing hams at the Holiday Ham Company in Overland Park.[30]