Judd Apatow

Judd Apatow (born December 6, 1967) is an American director, producer and screenwriter, best known for his work in comedy films.

In the September 1985 issue of Laugh Factory Magazine, he is listed as an associate editor.

After graduating from high school in 1985, he moved to Los Angeles and enrolled in the screenwriting program at University of Southern California.

While at USC, he organized and hosted a number of on-campus "Comedy Night" events, featuring headliners such as Saturday Night Live performer Kevin Nealon.

Apatow introduced the acts at these events with short standup routines of his own.

He also began volunteering at (and later producing) benefit concerts for HBO's Comic Relief and performing and seeing standup at the Improv in Hollywood.

He dropped out of college during his second year and later moved into an apartment with comedian Adam Sandler, whom he met at the Improv.

He competed in the Johnnie Walker Comedy Search in 1989 directed by Saturday Night Live short film producer Neal Marshad.

Apatow had met Stiller outside of an Elvis Costello concert in 1990, and they became friends.

Shortly thereafter, Apatow was introduced by manager Jimmy Miller to Garry Shandling which resulted in Apatow being hired as a writer for the 1991 Grammy Awards that year, which Shandling hosted.

He went on to co-produce comedy specials by Roseanne Arnold, Tom Arnold, and Jim Carrey.

In 1992, Apatow appeared on HBO's 15th Annual Young Comedians Special and shortly afterwards went on to co-create and executive produce The Ben Stiller Show for Fox.

Despite critical acclaim and an Emmy Award for Apatow and the rest of the writing staff, Fox canceled the show in 1993.

Apatow went on to join HBO's The Larry Sanders Show in 1993 as a writer and consulting producer, and he later served as a co-executive producer and director of an episode during the show's final season in 1998.

He credits Shandling as his mentor for influencing him to write comedy that is more character-driven.

Apatow earned six Emmy nominations for his work on Larry Sanders.

During this same time, he worked as a consulting producer and staff writer for the animated show The Critic, starring Jon Lovitz.

In 1995, Apatow co-wrote (with Steve Brill) the feature film Heavyweights.

Apatow also produced the films The Cable Guy (1996), Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), Superbad (2007), Pineapple Express (2008), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Get Him to the Greek (2010), Bridesmaids (2011), Begin Again (2013), Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013), and The Big Sick (2017).

Throughout his career, Apatow has received nominations for 11 Primetime Emmy Awards (two wins), five Writers Guild of America Awards (one win), two Producers Guild of America Awards, one Golden Globe Award, and one Grammy Award.

One of three children of Maury Apatow, a real-estate developer, and Tamara Shad, who ran the music label Mainstream Records founded by her father, Bob Shad, Judd Apatow was born in the Flushing neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens, and raised in Syosset, New York, on Long Island.

His family is Jewish, but nonreligious.

Apatow has an older brother, Robert, and a younger sister, Mia.

Around the same time, Apatow was hired to produce and do an uncredited re-write of the script for the movie The Cable Guy, which was released in 1996 to mixed reviews.

It was during the pre-production of the film that Apatow met his future wife, actress Leslie Mann.

Apatow did uncredited re-writes on two other Jim Carrey films: Liar Liar and Bruce Almighty.

His next script was titled Making Amends, which had Owen Wilson attached to star as a man in Alcoholics Anonymous who decides to apologize to everyone he has ever hurt.

However, the film was never made.

Through Apatow Productions he produced and developed the television series Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000), Undeclared (2001–2002), Funny or Die Presents (2010–2011), Girls (2012–2017), Love (2016–2018), and Crashing (2017–2019).

He is the founder of Apatow Productions, through which he produced and directed the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007), Funny People (2009), This Is 40 (2012), Trainwreck (2015), The King of Staten Island (2020), and The Bubble (2022).

Their mother died in 2008.

His maternal grandmother, Molly, co-starred in his film This Is 40.

When Apatow was 12 years old, his parents divorced.

Robert went to live with his maternal grandparents, and Mia went to live with her mother.

As a child, Apatow lived mainly with his father, and visited his mother on weekends.

Apatow's mother spent a summer working at a comedy club, which is where Judd was first exposed to live stand-up comedy.

Apatow's deep interest in comedy dates back to his childhood; his heroes were Steve Martin, Bill Cosby and the Marx Brothers.

Apatow got his comic start washing dishes at the Long Island East Side Comedy Club, and while attending Syosset High School, he played jazz and hosted a program called Comedy Club on the school's 125-watt radio station WKWZ which he created as a way to meet and learn from the comedians he looked up to.

He cold-called comedians he admired during this time, managing to interview Steve Allen, Howard Stern, Harold Ramis and John Candy, along with emerging comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Wright, and Garry Shandling.

Apatow began performing stand-up comedy at age seventeen, during his senior year of high school.