Simon Helberg

Simon Helberg
Helberg at the San Diego Comic-Con in July 2009
Born	(1980-12-09) December 9, 1980 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Medium	Stand up, Film, Television
Nationality	American
Years active	1999–present
Spouse	Jocelyn Towne (2007–present; 1 child)
Children	Adeline (b. 2012)

Simon Helberg (born December 9, 1980) is an American actor, voice actor and comedian best known for his role as Howard Wolowitz in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, currently in its seventh season, for which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He has appeared on the sketch comedy series MADtv and is also known for his role as Moist in the Joss Whedon-led web miniseries Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

Personal life

Helberg was born on December 9, 1980 in Los Angeles, California to Jewish parents. He is the son of actor Sandy Helberg and casting director Harriet Helberg (née Birnbaum).

Inspired by the film The Karate Kid, Helberg trained extensively in karate during his childhood and earned a black belt at the age of 10.^[1] He was raised in Judaism, "Conservative to Reform but more Reform as time went on."^[2]

Helberg attended middle and high school at the Crossroads School in Santa Monica, California, with Jason Ritter, who later became his roommate at NYU.^[3] He attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts,^[4] where he trained at the Atlantic Theater Company.^[5]

Helberg is married to actress Jocelyn Towne; they dated for several years, before marrying in 2007. Jocelyn's uncle is screenwriter Robert Towne.^[6] Helberg and Towne purchased a US$3 million^[7] 4,179 square foot Hollywood estate from Brooke Mueller, Charlie Sheen's ex-wife.^[8] Helberg and Towne had their first child, a daughter Adeline, on May 8, 2012.^[9]

Career

For many years, Helberg performed with comedian Derek Waters as the sketch comedy duo Derek & Simon. In 2007, the two starred together in Derek & Simon: The Show, a web series they created with comedian Bob Odenkirk for the comedy web site Super Deluxe. They also made two short films "Derek & Simon: The Pity Card" (co-starring Zach Galifianakis and Bill Hader) and "Derek & Simon: A Bee and a Cigarette" (co-starring Casey Wilson and Emily Rutherfurd) and had a pilot deal with HBO in 2005. One of Helberg's earliest jobs in television was briefly joining the cast of MADtv for one season in 2002.

Helberg appeared in the 2002 feature film National Lampoon's Van Wilder as one of the geeky students for whom Van Wilder was throwing a party. He had a minor role in the 2003 movie Old School. In 2004, he was in two episodes of Reno 911!: Student Driver in Raineesha X and Hooker Buying Son in Not Without My Mustache. He had a small role in the sixth episode of Quintuplets, Get a Job, as a man called Neil working behind the counter at a shoe shop where Paige and Patton were working.

He also played a small role in the film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story as a Jewish record producer. In 2004 he appeared in the film A Cinderella Story starring Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray. Helberg played the minor role of Terry in George Clooney's 2005 film Good Night, and Good Luck, where he had one line. In 2005 he had a bit part on Arrested Development as Jeff, an employee of the film studio where Maeby worked. From 2006 to 2007, he had a minor supporting role as Alex Dwyer in the drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. In 2006, he appeared in a series of comical TV commercials for Richard Branson's UK financial services company Virgin Money. He made a short appearance on The Soup on 2011.

He also appeared as the character Moist in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, and had a small role in the pilot of the Judd Apatow-produced sitcom Undeclared. In the 2009 Coen brothers film A Serious Man he played junior Rabbi Scott Ginsler. He had a minor role in the Season 4 finale of The Guild as one of the Game Masters ("GM").

Beginning in 2007, Helberg has been playing Howard Wolowitz, a geeky, wannabe "Casanova" with an eccentric fashion sense,^[10] in the CBS comedy series The Big Bang Theory.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

• Simon Helberg at the Internet Movie Database
• Simon Helberg's Official Twitter Account

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