Will Ferrell

Early Years

John William Ferrell was born July 16, 1967 in Irvine, California. Ferrell’s mother, Kay, was a teacher and his father, Lee, played keyboard for The Righteous Brothers. Will Ferrell attended University High School, playing on the football team as a kicker. He went on to attend the University of South California, where he earned a degree for Sports Information.

Following his college graduation in 1990, Ferrell became a member of the improvisational comedy group The Groundlings.

Saturday Night Live

In 1995, Will Ferrell became a cast member on Saturday Night Live, playing an assortment of memorable characters during his seven years on the sketch comedy show. Some of Ferrell’s well-known Saturday Night Live characters include:

• Alex Trebek
• Craig, one of the Spartan cheerleaders
• Music teacher Marty Culp
• George W. Bush
• Robert Goulet
• United States Attorney General Janet Reno
• Neil Diamond
• Night clubber, Steve Butabi (inspired the 1988 film A Night at the Roxbury)
• Inside the Actor’s Studio host James Lipton

Ferrell left Saturday Night Live in 2002 to pursue film roles.

Television Appearances

While Will Ferrell’s star grew bigger, it didn’t keep him from returning to his television roots. Ferrell returned to host Saturday Night Live on May 14, 2005.

Ferrell has also leant his voice to a number of animated shows, including The Oblongs, Cow and Chicken, Family Guy, King of the Hill and Fifteen Minutes of Shame. He has also been seen in guest starring roles on Strangers with Candy, The Tom Green Show and The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show.

Early Movie Roles

While Will Ferrell worked on Saturday Night Live, he also had roles in a number of movies:

• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
• A Night at the Roxbury (1998)
• Superstar (1999)
• Dick (1999)
• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
• The Ladies Man (2000)
• Drowning Mona (2000)
• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
• Zoolander (2001)

Post SNL Movie Roles

Following Saturday Night Live, Will Ferrell easily found film roles, beginning in 2003, when he co-starred with Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn in Old School.

Ferrell next appeared in Elf (2003) and was seen in the 2004 films Melinda and Melinda, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Starsky & Hutch, as well as 2005’s The Producers, Wedding Crashers, Bewitched and Kicking & Screaming.

Stranger Than Fiction, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby followed in 2006.

In 2007, Ferrell appeared opposite Napoleon Dynamite star Jon Heder in the ice skating comedy, Blades of Glory.

Ferrell’s vocal talents can be heard in the animated film Curious George (2006).

Upcoming film roles for Will Ferrell include Semi-Pro, Step Brothers and Land of the Lost.

Viral Video Makes the Rounds

In 2007, Will Ferrell became part of a viral video sensation, starring in the online video The Landlord. The video featured Ferrell and his landlady, played by writer and director Adam McKay’s two-year-old daughter, Pearl. The video was part of Ferrell and McKay’s website FunnyorDie.com, featuring other comedy video clips that are voted on by site visitors.

A follow up video also featured Pearl and Will Ferrell, called Good Cop, Baby Cop. Following the cop video, Pearl entered retirement.

Personal Life

Will Ferrell is married to actress Viveca Paulin; the two met in 1995 in an acting class. The couple has two children, Magnus, born March 2004, and Mattias, born December 2006.

Will Ferrell Facts

• Ferrell is known as one of Hollywood’s Frat Pack – a group of actors that includes Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Steve Carell and Luke Wilson.
• Ferrell met Chris Kattan while performing with The Groundlings – the two went on to become cast members on Saturday Night Live.
• Ferrell was voted Entertainment Weekly’s third funniest person in America.
• In 2007, he was ranked #17 on Entertainment Weekly’s 50 Smartest People in Hollywood list.
• He has been nominated for Golden Globe, Emmy and American Comedy awards; Ferrell won an American Comedy Award for Funniest Male Performer in a TV Special (for Saturday Night Live Presidential Bash 2000).