Bob Odenkirk
Odenkirk holding a producer credit for The 1 Second Film in January 2005
Born	Robert Odenkirk (1962-10-22) October 22, 1962 (age 49) Berwyn, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, comedian, director, producer, writer
Years active	1987–present
Spouse	Naomi Odenkirk (1997–present)

Robert "Bob" Odenkirk (born October 22, 1962) is an American actor, comedian, writer, director and producer. He is best known for his award winning appearances in Breaking Bad and The Larry Sanders Show and as co-creator and co-star of the HBO sketch comedy series Mr. Show with Bob and David.

In the 1980s and 1990s, he worked as a writer for such notable shows as Saturday Night Live, Get A Life, The Ben Stiller Show, and The Dennis Miller Show. In the mid-1990s, Odenkirk and David Cross created the Emmy-winning sketch comedy program Mr. Show, which ran for four seasons and ultimately became a cult success.^[1] In the early 2000s, Odenkirk discovered Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim and produced their television series Tom Goes to the Mayor and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!. He has directed three films: 2003's Melvin Goes to Dinner, 2006's Let's Go to Prison, and 2007's The Brothers Solomon.

Early life[link]

Odenkirk was born in Berwyn, Illinois, and was raised in nearby Naperville. He is one of seven children of Barbara and Walter Odenkirk, who was employed in the printing business.^[2][3] His brother is comedy writer Bill Odenkirk. Odenkirk is of half Irish descent.^[2] His parents later divorced, and Walter eventually died from cancer and was "pretty down on his luck" towards the end of his life.^[2] His father's battle with alcoholism would later influence Bob's decision to avoid alcohol almost completely.^[2] Odenkirk would later say that he grew up "hating" Naperville because "it felt like a dead end, like Nowheresville. I couldn’t wait to move into a city and be around people who were doing exciting things."^[2]

Odenkirk has said his strongest comedic influence was Monty Python's Flying Circus, primarily due to its combination of cerebral and simple humor.^[4] His other influences included SCTV, Steve Martin's Let's Get Small, Woody Allen, The Credibility Gap, and Bob and Ray.^[4] He also visited Chicago's Second City Theater at the age of 14.

He began his foray into comedy writing as a radio DJ for WIDB, his local college station at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He worked at WIDB with newsman Greg Weindorf and traffic man Matt "The Agitator" Helser now of Dirty Laundry Podcast fame. After 3 years of college, Odenkirk decided to try writing and improv in the Chicago comedy scene. First studying with the famous improv-guru Del Close (who had mentored the likes of Bill Murray and John Belushi) Odenkirk also attended "The Players Workshop of the Second City" where he met Robert Smigel and they began a collaboration that would last for years and take Bob to Saturday Night Live.

Career[link]

Work in television[link]

[edit] Saturday Night Live: 1987-1991

Odenkirk was hired as a writer at Saturday Night Live in 1987 and worked there through 1991. Working alongside Robert Smigel and Conan O'Brien, he contributed to many sketches they created, but felt uncertain of his own writing and not very effective at the show. He acted in several small roles on the show, most visibly during a 1991 parody commercial for Bad Idea Jeans.^[5]

In Odenkirk's final year at SNL, he worked alongside Adam Sandler, David Spade, Chris Rock, and Chris Farley, but his desire to perform caused him to leave the show. Odenkirk has credited SNL with teaching him many lessons about sketch writing, from senior writers like James Downey and Al Franken, as well as his friends Smigel and O'Brien.^[4]

When Saturday Night Live took its 1988 summer break, Odenkirk returned to Chicago to perform a stage show with Smigel and O'Brien, titled Happy Happy Good Show. The following summer he did a one-man show, Show-Acting Guy, directed by Tom Gianas. During his final summer hiatus, he wrote and acted in the Second City Mainstage show, Flag Burning Permitted in Lobby Only. In that particular show, he wrote the character "Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker", for Chris Farley, which would later be reprised on SNL.^[4]

Various writing and acting work: 1991-1994[link]

In 1991, Odenkirk was hired to write for the TV show Get a Life, which starred Late Night With David Letterman alumnus Chris Elliott.^[6] Other notable writers on the show included Adam Resnick and Charlie Kaufman. The show was short-lived, and in 1992, Odenkirk briefly wrote for The Dennis Miller Show.^[6]

Odenkirk's friendship with Ben Stiller, whom he shared an office with briefly at SNL, would lead to him being hired for the cast of The Ben Stiller Show in 1992. Working as both a writer and actor on the show, he created and starred in the memorable sketch "Manson Lassie", and helped the show win an Emmy Award for writing. However, the show had already been canceled by the time it won the award.^[1] Odenkirk also met David Cross at Ben Stiller; shortly afterward, the pair began performing live sketch shows, which eventually evolved into Mr. Show with Bob and David.

In 1993, Odenkirk began a recurring role on The Larry Sanders Show as Larry Sanders' agent, Steve Grant.^[6] He would sporadically continue the character through 1998.^[6] Also in 1993, Odenkirk had brief acting roles on Roseanne and Tom Arnold's The Jackie Thomas Show.^[6]

[edit] Mr. Show: 1995-1998

Created by Odenkirk and David Cross, Mr. Show ran on HBO for 4 seasons, over 33 episodes. The show featured a number of comedians in the early stages of their careers, including Sarah Silverman, Paul F. Tompkins, Jack Black, Tom Kenny, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Brian Posehn and Scott Aukerman.

While nominated for multiple Emmy awards in writing and generally well liked by critics, it never broke out of a "cult" audience into larger mainstream acceptance. After Mr. Show, Bob and David and the writers from the staff wrote the movie Run, Ronnie, Run. The film was an extension of a sketch from the first season of the show. However, the studio took production control away from Cross and Odenkirk during the editing stages, and the pair has disowned the final product.

Recent television work: 1999-2011[link]

Since Mr. Show, Bob has acted in numerous television shows and some films. He has written and produced many TV pilots, including The Big Wide World of Carl Laemke and David's Situation, but none have made it to air or been picked up as a series.^[7]

In 2004, Bob received an unsolicited package including the work of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. Inspired by their unique voice, he connected with them and helped them develop a semi-animated show for Adult Swim called Tom Goes to the Mayor. Bob also assisted Tim and Eric with the development of their second series, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job.

Odenkirk has had a number of small featuring roles on TV shows, including Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, Seinfeld, NewsRadio, Just Shoot Me!, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, Entourage, Weeds, and How I Met Your Mother.^[6] He also appeared in Everybody Loves Raymond as Scott Preeman.^[8]

In 2009, Odenkirk joined the cast of AMC's Breaking Bad as the corrupt lawyer Saul Goodman. He appeared as a guest star in three episodes of the second season, and became a series regular in the third season.

In 2011, Odenkirk wrote and developed "Let's Do This!" for Adult Swim. Odenkirk stars as "Cal Mackenzie-Goldberg, two-bit movie mogul and head of Cal-Gold Pictures as he leads a collection of crazy, fame-hungry strivers chasing Hollywood dreams." The pilot can be seen on Adult Swim's website.^[9]

Work in film[link]

In 2003, Odenkirk directed Melvin Goes to Dinner, which won the Audience Award at the SXSW Film and Music Festival. It was later self-released in five cities, then distributed on DVD by Sundance. Odenkirk directed Let's Go to Prison in 2006, written by Tom Lennon and Ben Garant of The State and Reno 911 fame. Let's Go To Prison starred Will Arnett of Arrested Development, as well as Dax Shepard and Chi McBride. In 2007, Odenkirk directed The Brothers Solomon, written by Will Forte. The film starred Forte, Will Arnett and Lee Majors.

Personal life[link]

Odenkirk is married to Naomi Odenkirk (née Yomtov), and the couple have two children.^[10]

Filmography/television appearances[link]

Further reading[link]

• Odenkirk, Naomi. Mr. Show: What Happened?! The Complete Story and Episode Guide. Squaresville Productions, September 2002.
• Klein, Robert. Patinkin, Sheldon. The Second City: Backstage at the World's Greatest Comedy Theater. Sourcebooks, October 2000.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Bob Odenkirk at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website
• Bob Odenkirk discusses Breaking Bad at AMCtv.com
• Interview With Bob Odenkirk at Scene Missing Magazine
• Better Call Saul! - official homepage for Odenkirk's character on Breaking Bad

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Jeff Garlin
Garlin at the Aladdin Theater in Portland, Oregon, on March 19, 2010.
Birth name	Jeffrey Garlin
Born	(1962-06-05) June 5, 1962 (age 50) Chicago, IL, U.S.
Medium	Film, television, stand-up
Nationality	American
Years active	1983-present

Jeffrey "Jeff" Garlin (born June 5, 1962) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, producer, voice artist, director, writer and author, best known for his role as Jeff Greene on the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm. He is also a producer on the show.

Early life[link]

Garlin was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 5, 1962 and grew up in Morton Grove, Illinois where his father had a plumbing supply business and his mother was active in community theater. Garlin is Jewish^[1] and attended Hebrew school.^[2][3] He graduated from Fort Lauderdale's Nova High School in 1980. He attended Broward Community College followed by a stint at the University of Miami, but eventually dropped out. He began performing stand-up comedy there.^[4]

Career[link]

In 1984, at the age of 22, Garlin moved back to Chicago, to perform with the comedy troupe The Second City, into which he had been accepted, as well as to pursue a stand-up comedy career there.^[5] Several years later, he was roommates with Conan O'Brien, who was then a comedy writer. (He remains close to O'Brien, and after O'Brien was removed as host of The Tonight Show in 2010 so that Jay Leno could return, Garlin stated that he would not be a guest on the show again.)^[5]

Film and television[link]

Garlin has a variety of television and film appearances to his credit, as an actor and a stand-up, including Dr. Katz, Arrested Development, Everybody Loves Raymond, Late Show with David Letterman, Tom Goes to the Mayor, The Life and Times of Tim, The Daily Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and Entourage. Garlin appeared with Eddie Murphy in Daddy Day Care and appeared in Steven Soderbergh's Full Frontal.

Garlin went on to appear in a small cameo role in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me in 1999. Other cameo appearances include Run Ronnie Run, After the Sunset, Fat Albert, and Sleepover.

His feature directorial debut, I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With (which he also wrote), premiered to favorable reviews at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. It opened in September 2007. The film co-stars Sarah Silverman and Bonnie Hunt, with supporting appearances by Paul Mazursky, Dan Castellaneta, and Amy Sedaris.

In 2005, Garlin played a small role in Fun with Dick and Jane as a man who falls victim to Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni's crime spree.

In 2006, Garlin also directed This Filthy World, a one-man show performed by director John Waters. Garlin also was a voice actor in WALL-E, an animated film by Pixar that was released June 27, 2008, as the Captain of the Axiom spaceship. According to an interview, Garlin developed a harmful nodule in his throat due to the long process of recording his voice for this role.^[6]

He had a recurring role on the series Wizards of Waverly Place as Uncle Kelbo, appearing in three episodes over the first three seasons.

In 2008, Garlin appeared in The Rocker as Stan. During 2008, he also played Ed Lawson in the film Strange Wilderness. He lent his voice to Disney/Pixar's film Toy Story 3, as Buttercup.^[7] Garlin also appeared as Sid, alongside Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler, in the 2010 comedy-action film The Bounty Hunter.