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Andy Samberg
Samberg at the Time 100 Gala, May 4, 2010
Birth name	David Andrew Samberg[1]
Born	(1978-08-18) August 18, 1978 (age 33) Mill Valley, California, U.S.
Medium	Internet, stand-up, music, television, film
Nationality	American
Years active	2001–present
Genres	Sketch comedy Situational comedy
Influences	Mel Brooks, Steve Martin, Adam Sandler
Notable works and roles	Saturday Night Live, Hot Rod, Space Chimps, I Love You, Man, The Lonely Island
Website	thelonelyisland.com
Emmy Awards Outstanding Original Music And Lyrics 2007 "Dick in a Box" (SNL)

David Andrew "Andy" Samberg (born August 18, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, rapper, and writer best known as a member of the comedy group The Lonely Island and as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 2005 to 2012. On Saturday Night Live, he and The Lonely Island have been credited with popularizing the Emmy-winning SNL Digital Shorts, the comical short films and music videos starring Samberg and other members of the SNL cast.^[2] As a film actor, Samberg has appeared in Hot Rod; Space Chimps; Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist; I Love You, Man; Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs; Friends with Benefits; and What's Your Number?

Early life[link]

Samberg was born in Mill Valley California,^[3] the son of Joe Samberg, a photographer, and Margi (née Marrow), an elementary school teacher who taught at Old Mill School.^[4] Samberg also has two sisters, Johanna and Darrow.^[5] He was raised in a Jewish household. His maternal grandfather, Alfred J. Marrow, served as the executive chair of the American Jewish Congress, although Samberg describes himself as "not particularly religious."^[6][7][7] Samberg discovered Saturday Night Live as a child while sneaking past his parents to watch professional wrestling on television.^[8] He became "obsessed" with the show, and his devotion to comedy became frustrating to teachers who felt he was unfocused on his schoolwork.^[8]

Samberg graduated from Berkeley High School in 1996. While there, he became interested in creative writing; he says: "[Writing classes] were the ones that I put all my effort into...that's what I cared about and that's what I ended up doing."^[9] He attended college at University of California, Santa Cruz, for two years before transferring to New York University for its acclaimed film school. He majored in experimental film, where he starred as "Monkey" in the music video for James Kochalka's song "Monkey vs. Robot".^[10]

Career[link]

Prior to joining the cast of SNL, Samberg was (and remains) a member of the comedy troupe The Lonely Island (along with Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer). The trio began writing for Saturday Night Live in 2005 and released their debut album, Incredibad, in 2009. Samberg has appeared in numerous theatrical films, commercials, music videos and has hosted special events like the 2009 MTV Movie Awards.

[edit] Saturday Night Live

Samberg in 2007

In September 2005, The Lonely Island confirmed that Samberg would be joining Saturday Night Live as a featured player and his fellow group members would join the show's writing staff. While his live sketch roles were limited in his first year, he appeared in many recorded sketches, including commercial parodies and various other filmed segments.

For the December 17, 2005 show, he and Chris Parnell starred in the Digital Short "Lazy Sunday", a nerdcore hip hop song performed by two Manhattanites on a quest to see the film The Chronicles of Narnia. The short quickly became an Internet phenomenon and garnered Samberg significant media and public attention, as did "Dick in a Box," a duet with Justin Timberlake that won a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.^[2] Samberg has found success with the song "Jizz in My Pants," which garnered over 100 million views and about 52,000 comments on YouTube.^[11] His comedy troupe's collaboration with T-Pain, the "I'm on a Boat" music video, had over 56 million views on YouTube after debuting on February 7, 2009, and was nominated for a Grammy Award. Another digital short, "Motherlover" (also featuring Timberlake), was released on May 10, 2009 (to commemorate Mother's Day), and is a sequel of "Dick in a Box."^[12] On December 12, 2010, Samberg and the other members of the Lonely Island debuted their next digital short, titled "I Just Had Sex." The video, which has already gathered over 160 million views on YouTube, features R&B singer Akon, with cameos by former tennis professional John McEnroe, and actresses Blake Lively and Jessica Alba. On January 29, 2011, The Lonely Island released another single from its upcoming second album titled The Creep featuring Nicki Minaj and John Waters (filmmaker). This was followed on May 7, 2011, with the song Jack Sparrow which featured Michael Bolton.

Outside of his prerecorded segments, he also participates in recurring live segments, such as his Blizzard Man sketch.^[13]

In 2012, Samberg delivered the Class Day speech at Harvard University.

On June 1, 2012, Samberg's spokesperson announced that he would be leaving Saturday Night Live after 7 years on the show.

Filmography[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Andy Samberg at the Internet Movie Database
• The Lonely Island
• Andy Samberg profile
• Short Movies with Andy Samberg at Channel 101
• Premiere.com article
• Andy Samberg interview, SPIN magazine