Charlie Day

Charles Peckham Day (born February 9, 1976) is an American actor, writer, producer, and podcaster.

Charles Peckham Day was born in New York City on February 9, 1976.

His family lived in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx.

He spent most of his childhood in Middletown, Rhode Island.

He is the younger of two children, with an elder sister named Alice.

His father, Dr. Thomas Charles Day, who is of Italian and Irish descent, is a retired professor of music history at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island; and his mother, Mary (née Peckham), was a music teacher at The Pennfield School (formerly The New School) in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

She was of English descent.

His paternal grandfather changed the family name from Del Giorno to Day to assimilate during WWII; he died in a military training accident when his son Thomas was only four.

Day attended Pennfield School and graduated from the Portsmouth Abbey School, both in Portsmouth, Rhode Island.

He attended Merrimack College, where he majored in art history and was active in the Onstagers, Merrimack's student theater organization.

While still in college, Day was active in the training programs at the Williamstown Theatre Festival every summer from 1997, where he was a contemporary of actors such as Jimmi Simpson, David Hornsby, Kathryn Hahn, Justin Long and Sterling K. Brown.

Day went on to play the lead role in Dead End, at the Huntington Theatre in Boston.

After graduating, Day worked on small television roles, advertisements, and voiceovers for the Independent Film Channel, and supplemented his income by waiting tables and answering phones for a telethon.

He graduated in 1998.

In the early 2000s, he had guest and recurring appearances on television shows such as Law & Order, Third Watch, Reno 911! and the short-lived sitcom Luis.

In the early years of his career, Day often made comedy sketches and absurd short films in his spare time with Jimmi Simpson, whom he was living with in New York City, and several friends including David Hornsby, Nate Mooney, Logan Marshall-Green and other actors, many of whom they had met through the Williamstown Theatre Festival.

These home videos served as the inspiration for several scripted short films he later developed with Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton in 2003, once he had moved out to LA.

Among these home movies were two scenes about three struggling self-involved actors in LA getting into awkward and darkly comedic situations between auditions and jobs, which went on to form the basis of the pilot episode of the comedy series that would go on to be known as It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

He is best known for playing Charlie Kelly on the FX comedy It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005–present), which he co-created with Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton, and of which he is also a writer and an executive producer.

In 2005, the first season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was released on FX television.

In addition to being a co-creator, executive producer and prolific writer on the show, Day plays Charlie Kelly, one of the main characters on the show.

His performance received widespread recognition and has been the source of several memes through the years, most notably the Pepe Silvia conspiracy meme.

In 2021, Sunny became the longest running live action comedy on American television with the release of its fifteenth season.

The series is still ongoing with its sixteenth season released in 2023.

Since November 2021, Day, McElhenney and Howerton have been releasing The Always Sunny Podcast. They set out to rewatch the entire series and share behind-the-scenes information, but the podcast's focus shifted to the banter and dynamic between the three creators.

Day has also co-created and produced several television shows in addition to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

In 2011, he was nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award and a Satellite Award for the role.

In 2011 and 2012, he produced the short-lived comedies How to Be a Gentleman (2011–2012) and Unsupervised (2012), which were created by Sunny writers David Hornsby, Scott Marder and Rob Rosell.

In July 2011, Day starred in New Line Cinema's Horrible Bosses with Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, and Jamie Foxx.

The film was a commercial success and Day's performance as Dale Arbus was praised by critics.

In film, Day is best known for his performances as biologist Dr. Newton Geiszler in Guillermo del Toro's science-fiction monster movie Pacific Rim (2013) and its sequel Pacific Rim Uprising (2018), Dale Arbus in the comedy Horrible Bosses (2011) and sequel Horrible Bosses 2 (2014), and teacher Andy Campbell in the comedy Fist Fight (2017).

He is also known for his voice roles in Monsters University (2013), The Lego Movie film franchise (2014–2019) and Nintendo franchise character Luigi in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).

He made his directorial debut with Fool's Paradise in 2023.

In May 2014, he gave the commencement speech for Merrimack's graduating class and received an honorary Ph.D.

He later reprised the role in the sequel Horrible Bosses 2 released in November 2014.

In 2017, he co-created the Fox sitcom The Cool Kids (2018–2019), starring Vicki Lawrence, Martin Mull, David Alan Grier and Leslie Jordan and set in a retirement community.

He served as an executive producer through its first season after which the show was canceled.

He subsequently co-created the Fox sitcom The Cool Kids (2018–2019) with Paul Fruchbom and the Apple TV+ comedy Mythic Quest (2020–present) with Rob McElhenney and Megan Ganz, and continues to executive-produce the latter.

On August 9, 2019, Mythic Quest (2020–present), a new half-hour comedy series co-created by Day, McElhenney and Megan Ganz, who is also an executive producer on Sunny, was announced as one of the original productions for the then-upcoming streaming service, Apple TV+.

In addition to being co-creator, Day is an executive producer on Mythic Quest, which has been renewed for a fourth season.