Twenty years ago, a young Judd Apatow, fresh off an appearance in HBO’s 15th Annual Young Comedians Special, got his first major TV gig: writer and producer for “The Ben Stiller Show,” the short-lived FOX sketch series that’s since become a cult classic. Two decades later, and with "The Larry Sanders Show," "Freaks and Geeks," and "Undeclared" (as well as "The Critic" and "Girls," to a certain degree) under his writing, directing, and producing belt, Apatow's become one of the biggest names in comedy. And his shows have launched the careers of many big-name actors and actresses.
On the occasion of the Friday release of the new film The Five-Year Engagement, which reunites "Freaks" star Jason Segel star with producer Apatow (plus Alison Brie with a British accent!), here are 20 celebrities who got their big break, if not their first role, on one of his shows.
Actor: Andy Dick
Show: "The Ben Stiller Show"
Biggest Gig Before Then: Brownnoser in TV movie "Earth Angel"
Actor: Dino Stamatopoulos
Show: "The Ben Stiller Show"
Biggest Gig Before Then: N/A
Actor: David Cross
Show: "The Ben Stiller Show"
Biggest Gig Before Then: N/A
Actress: Janeane Garofalo
Show: "The Ben Stiller Show"
Biggest Gig Before Then: Counter Girl in Late for Dinner
Actor: Jeremy Piven
Show: “The Larry Sanders Show”
Biggest Gig Before Then: Mark in Say Anything
Actor: Todd Barry
Show: “The Larry Sanders Show”
Biggest Gig Before Then: Foosball Player in Who’s the Caboose?
Actor: Martin Starr
Show: "Freaks and Geeks"
Biggest Gig Before Then: Allen in Coma in Hero (credited as Martin Schienle)
Actress: Lizzy Caplan
Show: "Freaks and Geeks"
Biggest Gig Before Then: Lily in TV movie From Where I Sit
Actress: Busy Phillips
Show: "Freaks and Geeks"
Biggest Gig Before Then: Karen Carter in The Smokers
Actor: Seth Rogen
Show: “Freaks and Geeks”
Biggest Gig Before Then: N/A
Actress: Rashida Jones
Show: "Freaks and Geeks"
Biggest Gig Before Then: Feminist in TV movie If These Walls Could Talk 2
Actress: Kayla Ewell
Show: "Freaks and Geeks"
Biggest Gig Before Then: Faith Cleary in "Profiler"
Actor: Alexander Gould (a.k.a. Shane from "Weeds" and the voice of Nemo)
Show: "Freaks and Geeks"
Biggest Gig Before Then: Young Bailey Kipper in "Bailey Kipper's P.O.V."
Actor: Matt Czuchry (a.k.a. Logan from "Gilmore Girls" and Cary from "The Good Wife")
Show: "Freaks and Geeks"
Biggest Gig Before Then: N/A
Actress: Alex Breckenridge (a.k.a. Moira from "American Horror Story" and Dustin's girl)
Show: "Freaks and Geeks"
Biggest Gig Before Then: Arden in TV movie "Locust Valley"
Actress: Samaire Armstrong (a.k.a. Anna from "The O.C.")
Show: "Freaks and Geeks"
Biggest Gig Before Then: N/A
Actor: Charlie Hunnam
Show: "Undeclared"
Biggest Gig Before Then: This choice is cheating — Hunnam was already a TV veteran thanks to his role as Nathan on "Queer of Folk." But I love imagning Jax saying Lloyd's dialogue, so he's on the list.
Actor: Kevin Hart
Show: "Undeclared"
Biggest Gig Before Then: Shawn in Paper Soldiers
Actor: Simon Helberg
Show: “Undeclared”
Biggest Gig Before Then: Andy Tinker in “Cursed”
Actress: Jenna Fischer
Show: "Undeclared"
Biggest Gig Before Then: College Girl in The Specials
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God, I love me some bald Piven
We might have different definitions of “celebrities.”
@Otto Man, and also “big break” unless being an un-named character in one scene of one episode of an Apatow show can somehow be directly linked to getting later roles after *already* having other credits. (See: Helberg, Fischer)
A thin excuse for another list one might say.
Rashida Jones was on “Freaks and Geeks”!?!?!?!
*Head explodes*
I actually think her episode was one of the ones that didn’t originally air in the initial run. If you look at the episode listing it is a disjointed mess because of how NBC handled that show.
Her episode is the 6th episode in the series, but here is how the airdates went: 9/25/99, 10/2/99, 10/30/99, 11/6/99, 11/13/99, 4/30/00 (this is the episode out of order), 1/10/00 (almost 2 months of hiatus), 1/17/00, 1/24/00, 1/31/00, 2/7/00, 3/13/00 (another month of hiatus), 3/20/00 (then Rashida’s was the next episode to air a month and 10 days later), the final 3 episodes on 7/8/00 and then after it moved to The Family Channel episodes 14 and 15 aired in October of 2000.
So it’s easy to see why her’s was missed. In fact, I think I didn’t even see it until it aired on The Family Channel, and I tried really hard to keep up with it. But NBC really motherfucked that show.
@Armorcladinosor she was the girl bully that gave Sam fear boners. Also, where’s John Francis Daley on this list?
Did you miss Shia Labeouf? Not sure what the criteria were for making the list.
Breckenridge sure grew up, huh?
It’s a weird list. Why did you intentionally ignore the biggest names like Segal, Franco, Cardellini and Baruchal from Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared? Was it supposed to be more of a “people you didn’t realize were on these shows” type of thing? Because if so, why have Seth Rogen, Andy Dick and Janeane Garafolo? And as mentioned, where is Shia Lebeouf? Also, Ben Foster had his first non-Tucker role on Freaks and Geeks.
And another thing….Jeremy Piven’s biggest role pre-Apatow was, without a doubt, as a jock in Lucas. This isn’t even debatable. It is a fact.
Many of the names I didn’t mention who went on to bigger, not necessarily better things were already vets. Baruchel, for instance, had already been working for six years, and was in Almost Famous.
Ben Foster was epic in F&G. He brought such dimension to that role. A retarded kid who could be the sweet innocent, but also kind of a dick. Baby Goose should turn down a role or two, and give Foster some oxygen!
Undeclared remains in my frequently-watched DVD series, and I am not ashamed.
Shia Lebeouf was in Freaks & Geeks also. He played the viking mascot in ‘We’ve got Spirit’
Tom Welling aka Clark Kent
[25.media.tumblr.com]
BOOM!