| Seth Rogen | |
|---|---|
Rogen at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival |
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| Born | April 15, 1982 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
| Medium | Stand up, Film, Television |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Years active | 1996-present |
| Genres | Black comedy, Blue comedy, Satire, Deadpan |
| Influences | Judd Apatow, Kevin Smith, Adam Sandler |
| Spouse | Lauren Miller (m. 2011–present) |
Seth Rogen (pronounced /ˈroʊɡɪn/; born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian stand-up comedian, actor, producer, screenwriter, and voice artist. Rogen began his career doing stand-up comedy during his teen years, winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998. While still living in his native Vancouver, he landed a small part in Freaks and Geeks. Shortly after Rogen moved to Los Angeles for his role, Freaks and Geeks was canceled after one season due to poor ratings. He then got a part on the equally short-lived Undeclared, which also hired him as a staff writer.
After landing a job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show, for which Rogen and the other writers received an Emmy nomination, he was guided by film producer Judd Apatow toward a film career. Rogen was cast in a major supporting role and credited as a co-producer in Apatow's directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin. After Rogen received critical praise for that performance, Universal Pictures agreed to cast him as the lead in Apatow's directorial feature films Knocked Up and Funny People. Rogen and his comedy partner Evan Goldberg co-wrote the films Superbad, Pineapple Express, and The Green Hornet. Rogen has done voice work for the films Horton Hears a Who!, Kung Fu Panda, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Paul. He became engaged to fellow screenwriter Lauren Miller, with whom he married in October 2011.[1]
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Rogen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on April 15, 1982. His mother, Sandy (née Belogus), is a social worker, and his father, Mark Rogen, worked for non-profit organizations and as an assistant director of a Workmen's Circle.[2][3][4][5] He has described his parents, who met at an Israeli kibbutz, as "radical Jewish socialists."[3] He has one older sister, Danya.[2] Rogen attended Vancouver Talmud Torah Elementary School and Point Grey Secondary School (although he never graduated), incorporating many of his classmates into his writing. He was also known for the stand-up comedy he performed at Camp Miriam, a Habonim Dror camp.[2]
As a child, Rogen had no intention of pursuing any career other than comedy: "As soon as I realized you could be funny as a job, that was the job I wanted".[4] He got his start in show business at age 12, after signing up for a comedy workshop class taught by Mark Pooley.[2] His early comedy routines involved jokes about his bar mitzvah, his grandparents and his camp counselors.[2] During his teenage years he would perform stand-up comedy routines at places like bar mitzvahs and small parties before upgrading to bars.[6][7] He was even paid to write jokes by a mohel.[8] At the age of 13, he co-wrote a rough draft of Superbad with childhood friend Evan Goldberg, who he had met at bar mitzvah classes.[4][8] Based on their teenage experiences,[3] Rogen and Goldberg spent the rest of their time in high school polishing the script. They initially worried that the 1999 film American Pie had beaten them to the idea for the movie, but felt that it lacked "all honest interaction between characters, which is what [they]'re going for."[3]
His mother was supportive of his comic endeavors and would often drive him to stand-up gigs at the comedy club Yuk Yuks.[8] With his deadpan humor, he won the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest at 16 years old.[6] Also at age 16, Rogen's father lost his job and his mother quit hers, forcing them to put their house up for sale and relocate to a significantly smaller apartment. Around this time, he landed a role on Judd Apatow's television show Freaks and Geeks after attending a local casting call.[4][8] After dropping out of high school, he began working for Apatow[9][10] and relocated with his family to Los Angeles. Rogen paid the bills and had become the main wage earner at just 16.[4]
Rogen's acting debut was in Apatow's 1980s-set cult hit series Freaks and Geeks as Ken Miller, a cynical, acerbic "freak".[4] Revolving around a group of teenagers' lives, Freaks and Geeks first aired in 1999. Although well-reviewed, the show was NBC's lowest-viewed program and was canceled after one season due to poor rating.[9][11] Very impressed with Rogen's improvisational skills,[8] Apatow then chose him as the lead in another of his shows, Undeclared. Rogen was originally set to play a fairly popular but nerdy college freshman, but the network did not think he was leading male material. Apatow opted not to go along with the show but, after facing the risk of getting sued, he hired him for a small role.[8] Rogen also served as a staff writer to the short-lived production.[12][13] Following the show's 2002 cancellation, Rogen did not get many auditions, which was not upsetting to him as he always thought he would achieve better success as a writer.[14] He would soon be a part of Apatow's "frat pack", a close knit group that includes Steve Carell and Paul Rudd.[6] Of the awkwardness of a grown man spending so much time with a teenaged Rogen, Apatow said: "I'm such a comedy fan that even though he's 16, I know I'm hanging out with one of the guys who's going to be one of the great comics."[8] Around this time Apatow would come up with odd requests for Rogen and Goldberg to pass, such as: turn an idea of his into a movie in 10 days and come up with 100 one-page-long ideas for films.[14] Regarding Apatow's professional effect on Rogen, the actor said in 2009, "Obviously, I can't stress how important Judd's been to my career".[6]
Next, he had brief parts in the Drew Barrymore-produced Donnie Darko (2001) and Apatow's Will Ferrell-starring 2004 film Anchorman.[15] A big career point for him was becoming a staff writer for Sacha Baron Cohen's last season of Da Ali G Show in 2004.[10] Along with the show's other writers, Rogen received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.[16] He became familiar to audiences as one of the main character's witty co-workers in Apatow's well-reviewed buddy comedy directorial debut feature The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005).[17][18] Rogen also co-produced it and improvised all his dialogue.[10][19] "[Rogen] hadn’t done any screen work that indicated he could carry as memorable and convincing a performance as he does with the character Cal," MTV's John Constantine wrote.[15] Boston Globe reviewer Wesley Morris wrote that Rogen, along with co-stars Rudd and Romany Malco, were each hilarious in their own right[20] and Orlando Sentinel's Roger Moore believed that Rogen had his moments in the film[21] whereas Moira Macdonald of the Seattle Times said the actor was a "droopily deadpan."[22] He followed this with a small role in You, Me and Dupree, a critically panned 2006 comedy also featuring Michael Douglas.[23]
His breakthrough came when Universal Studios greenlit him for the lead in yet another Apatow production: Knocked Up (2007), a dramedy that follows the repercussions of a drunken one-night stand between his slacker character and Katherine Heigl's just-promoted media personality that results in an unintended pregnancy. Upon completing The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Apatow had approached Rogen about potential starring roles, but the actor suggested many high-concept science fiction ideas. After Apatow insisted that he would work better in real life situations, the two agreed on the accidental pregnancy concept of this production.[24] Rogen called shooting sex scenes with Heigl "nerve racking" and found comfort with the supporting cast since, even though he played the lead, the focus was not all on him.[25][26] Made on a $30 million budget and released on June 1, Knocked Up was a critical and commercial box office hit, garnering an approval rating of 90 percent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and grossing $219 million.[27][28] Rogen also received favorable reviews.[29][30] Later that year he played a supporting part as an irresponsible police officer in Superbad, which he had written with his writing partner and was co-produced by Apatow. Michael Cera and Jonah Hill originate the main roles, two teenage best friends whose party plans go wrong, based on them.[3] The film and their writing was praised, with critics finding it to be very authentic.[31] It topped the US box office for two weeks in a row.[32] Rogen hosted Saturday Night Live on October 6, 2007 and again on April 4, 2009.[33][34]
2008 was a busy year for the actor. Among his projects were Jimmy Hayward's Horton Hears a Who!, an animated film based on the Dr. Seuss book, that Rogen voiced a character in.[35] Rogen additionally co-wrote Drillbit Taylor, a starring Owen Wilson as the homeless titular character that is also produced by Apatow.[36] He based the screenplay on a 70-page scriptment done by John Hughes.[37] The movie was panned by critics who thought its plot – a grown man becoming three kids' bodyguard and beating up their bullies – had no focus and was drawn out. "If Superbad were remade as a gimmicky Nickelodeon movie, it would probably look something like Drillbit Taylor" Josh Bell wrote in the Las Vegas Weekly.[38] He again lent his voice to another animated movie, this time Kung Fu Panda, with Jack Black and Angelina Jolie.[39] It did exceptionally well in theaters, making more than $630 million.[40] Rogen, Goldberg and Apatow were behind the stoner action comedy Pineapple Express directed by David Gordon Green at Columbia Pictures. Apatow produced it while Rogen and Goldberg wrote the script.[41] The actor chose to play the film's protagonist, a 25-year-old who accidentally witnesses a murder while delivering a subpoena. James Franco was cast as his hippie pot dealer that he goes on the run with. When asked about its inspiration, Rogen said he wrote what he knew.[42] Pineapple Express was released to theaters on August 6 and made $101 million in ticket sales against its $27 million production budget.[43] Movie critics lauded it, appreciating their performances and its humor.[41][44]
In April 2008, Empire reported that the actor and Goldberg would write an episode for the animated television series The Simpsons.[45] He also voiced a character in the episode,[46] entitled "Homer the Whopper", which opened the twenty-first season.[47] Kevin Smith's romantic comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno rounded out 2008 for the actor. He and Elizabeth Banks portrayed the title roles: Pennsylvania roommates who try to make some extra cash by making an adult film together. After having difficulty trying to secure an R rating, Rogen commented to MTV, "It's a really filthy movie" but complained "It's really crazy to me that Hostel is fine, with people gouging their eyes out and shit like that... But you can't show two people having sex — that's too much".[48] The picture was distributed on Halloween by The Weinstein Company and disappointed at the box office.[49] Along with Reese Witherspoon, he voiced a character in the animated science fiction Monsters vs Aliens (2009), did well commercially, with a total of $381.5 million.[50] He then starred in the Jody Hill-directed mall cop comedy Observe and Report,[51] in which he portrayed bipolar mall security guard Ronnie Barnhart. The film opened in theaters on April 10. Critics noted a departure in Rogen's acting style from playing laid-back roles to playing a more sadistic character; Wesley Morris from the Boston Globe opined that "Often with Rogen, his vulnerability makes his coarseness safe...Ronnie is something altogether new for Rogen. Vulnerability never arrives. He's shameless."[52] Later in 2009, Rogen starred in Apatow's third directorial feature, Funny People, with Adam Sandler. Rogen played a young, inexperienced comic while Sandler played a mentor of sorts to his character; the film had more dramatic elements in it than Apatow's previous efforts.[53] Funny People was a commercial failure, coming short of its $75 million budget, but has a "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[54][55]
After years of development, a feature film adaptation of The Green Hornet was handled by Rogen and Goldberg, with a theatrical release in January 2011. Rogen chose to do a re-imagining of the titular character.[6] Besides executively producing the movie, he also cast himself as the main part. Rogen later admitted to having been overwhelmed by handling its $120 million budget. "It's insane. But it's not so much the specific amount of money that's stressful, it's all the things that go along with making a movie of that size."[56] The actor also went on a strict weight-loss diet to play the slim crime fighter.[6] The Green Hornet was a critical disappointment; Adam Graham of the Detroit News called it "a big, sloppy, loud, grating mess of a movie"[57] and the Arizona Republic's Bill Goodykoontz found its story to have fallen apart.[58] Nonetheless it still opened at number one at the box office, making $33 million in its opening weekend before going on to gross more than $225 million.[59]
He reprised his voice role in Kung Fu Panda 2,[60] as well as produced and took a supporting role in 50/50, from Mandate Pictures. The dramedy about cancer was based on an autobiographical script by screenwriter Will Reiser,[61] and was released in September 2011. In mid-2010, Rogen shot scenes for another upcoming film, Take This Waltz, with Michelle Williams.[62] Another of his movies, Paramount Pictures's road movie My Mother's Curse, also starring Barbara Streisand, is due out in cinemas in 2012. The film is about an inventor (Rogen) who invites his mother (Streisand) on a road trip as he attempts to sell his new product while also reuniting her with a lost love.[63]
Rogen began dating writer Lauren Miller in 2004. The two met while he was working on Da Ali G Show.[10] The couple became engaged in September 2010,[64] and married on October 2, 2011 in Sonoma, California.[1] Miller has had minor on-screen roles in a few of Rogen's films.[65]
His favorite music artists are Led Zeppelin and the Wu-Tang Clan.[66]
Rogen has spoken out about awareness of Alzheimer's disease. No one in his biological family has it but it runs in his wife's side, and has affected her mother for several years. "I think until you see it firsthand, it's kind of hard to conceive of how brutal it is," Rogen said to CNN. "Until I saw it, you just don't get kind of how heartbreaking it can be."[67] During the interview, Rogen talked about how he tries to be emotionally supportive and around as much as he can for Miller's mother. Both he and Miller spoke to Larry King for A Larry King Special, Unthinkable: The Alzheimer's Epidemic, which aired in April 2011.[67]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Donnie Darko | Ricky Danforth | |
| 2004 | Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy | Scottie | |
| 2005 | The 40-Year-Old Virgin | Cal | Co-producer |
| 2006 | You, Me and Dupree | Neil | |
| 2007 | Knocked Up | Benjamin Stone | Executive producer |
| Jay and Seth vs. The Apocalypse | Seth | Writer | |
| Superbad | Officer Michaels | Writer, executive producer | |
| 2008 | The Spiderwick Chronicles | Hogsqueal (voice) | |
| Horton Hears a Who! | Morton the Mouse (voice) | Animated film | |
| Strange Wilderness | Ranger In The Helicopter (voice) | ||
| Drillbit Taylor | Writer only | ||
| Kung Fu Panda | Master Mantis (voice) | Animated film | |
| Step Brothers | Sporting Goods Manager | ||
| Pineapple Express | Dale Denton | Writer, executive producer | |
| Zack and Miri Make a Porno | Zack Brown | ||
| 2009 | Fanboys | Various | |
| Monsters vs. Aliens | B.O.B. (voice) | Animated film | |
| Observe and Report | Ronnie Barnhardt | ||
| Funny People | Ira Wright | Executive Producer | |
| Paper Heart | Himself | ||
| 2011 | The Green Hornet | Britt Reid/The Green Hornet | Writer, executive producer |
| Paul | Paul (voice) | ||
| Kung Fu Panda 2 | Master Mantis (voice) | Animated film | |
| 50/50 | Kyle | Producer | |
| Take This Waltz | Lou Rubin | ||
| 2012 | My Mother's Curse | Andy Brewster | Post-Production |
| Neighborhood Watch | Filming; Writer [68] | ||
| The Apocalypse | Seth Rogen | Pre-Production; Director, Writer & Producer[69] |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999-2000 | Freaks and Geeks | Ken Miller | TV series (18 episodes) |
| 2001 | Undeclared | Ron Garner | TV series (17 episodes) Staff writer |
| 2003 | Dawson's Creek | Bob | TV series (1 episode, "Rock Bottom") |
| 2004 | Da Ali G Show | TV series (6 episodes) Staff writer only |
|
| 2009 | Family Guy | Himself/Guest in Ellen show (1 episode) (voice) | Animated TV series (2 Episodes) |
| 2009 | The Simpsons | Lyle McCarthy (voice) | Animated TV series (1 episode, "Homer the Whopper") Also wrote the episode |
| 2011 | Take Two with Phineas and Ferb | Himself | Live action and animated talk show (1 episode, "Seth Rogen") |
| 2011 | The League | Dirty Randy | Live action TV series (1 episode) |
| Year | Song | Role | Artist | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | "Like A Boss" | Himself | The Lonely Island | |
| 2011 | "Make Some Noise" | Mike D | Beastie Boys |
| Year | Award | Category | Title of work | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Young Artist Award | Best Performance in a TV Series – Young Ensemble | Freaks and Geeks | Nominated[70] | Shared with cast |
| 2005 | Primetime Emmy Award | Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program | Da Ali G Show | Nominated[16] | Shared with writing staff |
| 2006 | MTV Movie Award | Best On-Screen Team | The 40-Year-Old Virgin | Nominated[71] | Shared with Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and Romany Malco |
| 2007 | Satellite Award | Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy | Knocked Up | Nominated[72] | |
| 2007 | High Times Stony Award | Stoner of the Year | Won[73] | ||
| 2008 | Canadian Comedy Award | Best Writing (Film) | Superbad | Won[74] | |
| 2008 | Canadian Comedy Award | Canadian Comedy Person of the Year | N/A | Won[74] | |
| 2008 | MTV Movie Award | Best Comedic Performance | Knocked Up | Nominated[75] | |
| 2008 | MTV Movie Award | Breakthrough Performance | Knocked Up | Nominated[75] | |
| 2008 | ShoWest | Comedy Star of the Year | Knocked Up and Superbad | Won[76] | |
| 2009 | Canadian Comedy Award | Canadian Comedy Person of the Year | N/A | Won[77] | |
| 2009 | MTV Movie Award | Best Fight | Pineapple Express | Nominated[78] | Shared with James Franco and Danny McBride |
| 2009 | Teen Choice Award | Choice Movie Actor: Comedy | Observe and Report and Pineapple Express | Nominated[79] |