Steve Carell, one of American comedy's most popular faces who edited a school newspaper as a child, is now celebrated as the funniest man on the cover of Life Magazine and on NBC's SNL, where he hosted the 2005-2006 season premiere. He became an unusually versatile comic after more than two decades of improv skits and bit parts, and received the 2006 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in Television Comedy for the leading role of Michael Scott in his remake of Britain's existential comedy The Office.

He was born Steven John Carell on August 16, 1962, into an Italian-American family in Concord, Massachusetts, USA. He was educated at The Fenn School, an all boys private school in Concord, Massachusetts, then at Middlesex School in Concord. He studied and graduated from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, then took acting at Chicago's Second City troupe. Carell made his film debut in 1991, as Tesio in Curly Sue. From 1990-1996 he taught improvisational comedy class and also performed with The Second City troupe in Chicago. During the 1990s he was writing for The Dana Carvey Show, then he had a stint as one of correspondents on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Carell shot to fame after his breakout performances on the big screen as Evan Baxter opposite Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty and opposite Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell in Bewitched. He co-wrote the original screenplay for the summer box-office hit The 40 Year Old Virgin which was chosen as one of the Top Ten movies of 2006 by the American Film Institute. Carell co-stars with Greg Kinnear in Little Miss Sunshine, an independent dark comedy that gives an unusually sharp and sarcastic view on America. Carell is slated to reprise his role as Evan Baxer, filling Jim Carrey's leading-man shoes as a politician asked by God to build a giant ark in Evan Almighty, a second installment of the "Almighty" franchise, co-starring Lauren Graham and Morgan Freeman. Carell is also a producer of the film.

Steve Carell has been enjoying a happy family life with his wife, actress Nancy Walls, whom he met when she was a student in an improv class he was teaching at The Second City comedy troupe in Chicago. The couple have two children, daughter Elisabeth (born in May 2001), and son John (born in June 2004). Steve Carell is currently residing with his family in Los Angeles, California.


Dinner for Schmucks (2010): $12,000,000
Despicable Me (2010): $500,000
Date Night (2010): $12,500,000
Evan Almighty (2007): 5,000,000
The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005): $500,000

Daughter Elisabeth Anne born in May 2001. Married to actress/writer Nancy Carell, whom he met while both were writer/performers with the famed Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, Illinois. Frequently plays news reporters. Of Italian descent. His father, Edwin Caroselli, changed his name to Carell before Steven was born. Provides the voice of Gary on "The Ambiguously Gay Duo" cartoons on "Saturday Night Live" (1975). Has the rare distinction of being in two movies that opened on the same day in the U.S. - Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) and Sleepover (2004) (July 9, 2004). Worked the overnight shift in a Store 24 in Maynard, Massachusetts, and takes many of his characters from this experience. Is a member of what the media refers to as the Frat Pack, along with Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Will Ferrell, Owen Wilson, and Luke Wilson. The Frat Pack name is a reference to the film Old School (2003), featuring Vaughn, Ferrell, and Luke Wilson, due to the wide number of films featuring the seven actors. Carell's Frat Pack films include Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), Bewitched (2005) and Melinda and Melinda (2004). Editor-in-Chief of his high school newspaper, Newton South's "The Lion's Roar." Attended Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. Good friends with fellow former "The Daily Show" (1996) correspondent Stephen Colbert. Was a member of Burpee's Seedy Theatrical Co., Denison University's improv-comedy group and the oldest collegiate improv group in the country. He and Jim Carrey were both ice hockey goalies in their childhood. He was nominated for a 1993 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Revue for "Truth, Justice, or the American Way" at the Second City Theatre in Chicago, Illinois. He auditioned to be on the British version of Whose Line is it Anyway. Mike Myers also auditioned for it but both were unsuccessful.