David Schwimmer

Schwimmer was born in Flushing, Queens, New York City, to attorneys Arthur (born 1941) and Arlene Coleman-Schwimmer (born 1940).

His family is Jewish.

He has an older sister named Ellie (born 1965).

His family subsequently moved to Los Angeles, where Schwimmer, at 10, had his first acting experience when he was cast as the fairy godmother in a Jewish version of Cinderella.

David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2, 1966) is an American actor, director, comedian, and producer.

In 1979, Schwimmer went to a Shakespeare workshop given by English actor Sir Ian McKellen in Los Angeles.

He recalls being riveted by the experience.

Schwimmer then entered a contest in the Southern California Shakespeare Festival three years in a row, winning two first prizes.

Following his mother's successful career as a divorce lawyer, the family moved to Beverly Hills, where Schwimmer attended Beverly Hills High School.

His classmates included actor Jonathan Silverman.

Schwimmer admitted to being an outsider during his time at the school, recalling, "When I was there I always felt: 'This is not me, I'm surrounded by people with a different value system. And I just wanted to get out of California.'" His best subjects were science and math and he thought he would become a doctor.

Schwimmer enrolled in a drama class, where he appeared in stage productions.

Encouraged by his school drama teacher to further his acting, he flew to Chicago for a summer acting program at Northwestern University.

He noted that the experience was both "enlightening and exhilarating".

For much of the late 1980s, he lived in Los Angeles as a struggling, unemployed actor, until he starred in the television movie A Deadly Silence in 1989 and appeared in a number of television roles in the early 1990s, including L.A. Law, The Wonder Years, NYPD Blue, and Monty.

In 1984, Schwimmer graduated from Beverly Hills High and wanted to go straight into acting, but his parents insisted he go to college first so he would have something to fall back on.

Schwimmer enrolled in Northwestern University, where he had attended the summer acting program earlier.

At the university, he studied theater and was in an improv group with Stephen Colbert, the No-Fun Mud Piranhas.

In 1988, he graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in theater and speech.

After graduation, Schwimmer co-founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company.

After graduating in 1988, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in theater and speech, Schwimmer co-founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company.

Subsequently, he returned to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

After his supporting role debut in the ABC television movie A Deadly Silence (1989), Schwimmer followed this with roles on the legal drama L.A. Law in 1992, and the comedy-drama series The Wonder Years.

He made his feature film debut in Flight of the Intruder (1991), had a recurring role as a lawyer-turned-vigilante in NYPD Blue before auditioning, unsuccessfully, for a series pilot called Couples.

He landed his first regular series role as the liberal son of a conservative talk show host (Henry Winkler) in the sitcom Monty.

In 1994, Schwimmer was cast as Ross Geller in NBC's situation comedy Friends, a series that revolved around a group of friends who live near each other in Manhattan.

He played a hopeless-romantic paleontologist who works at a museum and later becomes a professor at a university.

Schwimmer initially turned down the role as Ross, but accepted later.

Executive producer Kevin S. Bright said that he had previously worked with Schwimmer, the character of Ross was written with him in mind, and he was the first actor cast.

He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Ross Geller in the sitcom Friends, for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1995.

While still acting in Friends, his first leading film role was in The Pallbearer (1996), followed by roles in Kissing a Fool; Six Days, Seven Nights; Apt Pupil (all 1998); and Picking Up the Pieces (2000).

He was then cast in the miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) as Herbert Sobel.

Schwimmer began his acting career performing in school plays at Beverly Hills High School.

After the series finale of Friends in 2004, Schwimmer branched out into film and stage work.

He was cast as the title character in the 2005 drama film Duane Hopwood, and voiced Melman the Giraffe in the animated Madagascar film franchise, acted in the dark comedy Big Nothing (2006), and the thriller Nothing but the Truth (2008).

Schwimmer made his West End stage debut in the leading role in 2005's Some Girl(s).

He made his Broadway debut in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial in 2006.

His feature film directorial debut followed in 2007 with the comedy Run Fatboy Run, and the following year he made his Off-Broadway directorial debut in Fault Lines.

He has also worked as a director, including many episodes of Friends during his time on the series.

In 2016, Schwimmer starred as lawyer Robert Kardashian in The People v. O. J. Simpson, for which he received his second Primetime Emmy Award nomination, this time for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.