"I don't know if you can be a born-again virgin." -- Judd Apatow
Judd Apatow (; born December 6, 1967) is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. He is well known for his work in comedy, especially for films he has been involved with throughout the latter half of the 2000s. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, a film production company that also developed the critically acclaimed cult television series Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared.
Apatow was born in Flushing, New York to a Jewish family, and raised in Syosset, New York. His father, Maury Apatow, was a real estate developer, and his mother, Tami Shad, worked at a comedy club in Southampton. Apatow has an older brother, Robert, and a younger sister, Mia; His maternal grandfather was music producer Bob Shad. When Apatow was twelve 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 sense of humor provided access to friends during his teen years; obsessed with comedy, his childhood hero was Steve Martin. Apatow got his comic start while attending Syosset High School, where he hosted a program called Club Comedy on the school's 10-watt radio station WKWZ. He relied on his mother's contacts at the comedy club to gain access to the comedians; during this time, he managed to interview Steve Allen, Howard Stern, Harold Ramis and John Candy, along with then-unknowns Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Wright and Garry Shandling.
Apatow began performing stand-up comedy at age seventeen, during his senior year of high school. 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 Comic Relief and introducing comedians at the Improv. Apatow dropped out of USC after two years and moved into an apartment with comedian Adam Sandler, whom he met at the Improv. He also continued performing standup comedy; he has since admitted that although his act was well-written, he was unable to develop his own unique comedic personality.
After finding little success as a performer himself, Apatow began writing jokes for others, including up-and-coming star Roseanne Barr. He also appeared on HBO's 15th Annual Young Comedians Special in 1992. Also that year, Apatow produced The Ben Stiller Show for Fox; Apatow had met Stiller outside of an Elvis Costello show in 1990, and they became friends. Although the show was critically acclaimed and earned Apatow and the rest of the writing staff an Emmy Award, Fox canceled the show in 1993. In 1994, Apatow served as consulting producer and staff writer for the animated comedy The Critic, starring Jon Lovitz. Apatow's manager, Jimmy Miller, introduced him to comedian Garry Shandling, who hired Apatow as a writer and producer for The Larry Sanders Show in 1993. Apatow worked on the show for five years until the show's end in 1998. Apatow 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.
Apatow was hired to re-write the script for the movie The Cable Guy, which was released in 1996. He expected the film to be a major success, but it ultimately had a mediocre box office performance and poor reviews. It was during the shooting of the film, however, that Apatow met his wife, actress Leslie Mann. His next script was entitled Making Amends, and had Owen Wilson attached as a man in Alcoholics Anonymous who decides to apologize to everyone he has ever hurt. However, the film was never made. Apatow did an uncredited rewrite of the 1998 Adam Sandler comedy film The Wedding Singer and was featured in four tracks on Sandler's 1996 comedy album "What the Hell Happened to Me?." From 1999 to 2002, he produced the short-lived television series Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. Both shows received critical acclaim but were canceled after a season because of low ratings; USA Today media critic Susan Wloszczyna called the shows "two of the most acclaimed TV series to ever last only one season". He additionally wrote and produced three television pilots that were never aired: "North Hollywood", "Sick in the Head" and "Life on Parole" (with Brent Forrester). Apatow has screened and introduced them at "The Other Network", a festival of un-aired TV pilots produced by Un-Cabaret.
2004–2007
In 2004, Apatow produced the hit comedy The Legend of Ron Burgundy, starring Will Ferrell and directed by Adam McKay, marking his first major comedy hit after a string of critically acclaimed but relatively obscure shows. In 2005, he directed and co-wrote the comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin with Steve Carell, which was nominated for best original screenplay by the Writers Guild of America. The 40-Year-Old Virgin was a sleeper hit, grossing $177,378,645 worldwide and making many critics' Top 10 lists for the year. His film Knocked Up was released in June 2007 to wide critical acclaim. Apatow wrote the initial draft of the film on the set of Talladega Nights. In addition to being a critical success, the film was also a commercial hit, continuing Apatow's newfound mainstream success.
In August 2007, Apatow produced the film Superbad, which was written by Seth Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg. A concept Rogen and Goldberg had created as teens, Apatow convinced Rogen to write the film as a vehicle for himself in 2000. Rogen and Goldberg finished writing the film, but were unable to find a studio interested in producing it. Apatow then enlisted Rogen and Goldberg to write Pineapple Express, a stoner action movie that he felt would be more commercial. After the success of Anchorman and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Apatow was still unable to sell both Superbad and Pineapple Express; it was only after he produced the commercial hit Talladega Nights that Sony Pictures Entertainment decided to produce both. At this point, Rogen was unable to play the lead for Superbad, as he had grown too old to play the part of Seth. Subsequently, he was cast in a supporting role as a police officer and friend Jonah Hill took his role as the high school student. Apatow credits Rogen for influencing him to make his work more "outrageously dirty." In August 2008, Superbad opened at #1 in the box office to critical acclaim, taking in $33 million in its opening weekend. Industry insiders claimed Apatow was now a brand unto himself, creating movies geared toward older audiences, who would watch his movies even when the films delved into the teen genre.
Apatow has vowed to include a penis in every one of his movies. Apatow explained his position as, "I like movies that are, you know, uplifting and hopeful...and I like filth!"
Apatow has helped to foster the acting careers of Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, and Jason Segel, and also tends to work with his close friends. He has frequently worked with producer Shauna Robertson, whom he met on the set of Elf. He reunited with Jason Segel and Amy Poehler for the 2001 Fox sitcom pilot, North Hollywood. He tries to keep a low budget on his projects and usually makes his movies about the work itself rather than using big stars. After his success in film, he hired the entire writing staff from Undeclared to write movies for Apatow Productions. He never fires writers and he keeps them on projects through all stages of productions. Apatow is not committed to any specific studio, but his projects are typically set up at Universal and Sony.
2007–2010
served as producer and writer for the musician biopic spoof Walk Hard starring John C. Reilly, Kristen Wiig and Jenna Fischer, which was released in December 2007. While the film received positive reviews, it was a commercial failure, having only made back half of its budget. In 2008, he served as producer for Drillbit Taylor starring Owen Wilson and his wife Leslie Mann and written by Seth Rogen, which opened in March and earned negative reviews. For the rest of 2008, Apatow produced the comedy films Forgetting Sarah Marshall starring Jason Segel and Kristen Bell; Step Brothers, which reunites Talladega Nights co-stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly; and Pineapple Express starring Seth Rogen and James Franco, both of whom originally starred on Freaks and Geeks. In addition, he served as co-writer for the Adam Sandler comedy film You Don't Mess with the Zohan, which Sandler and Robert Smigel also co-wrote.
In 2009, Apatow served as producer for the biblical comedy film Year One, starring Jack Black and Michael Cera, and directed by Harold Ramis, which opened on June 19 and earned negative reviews. He also released his third directorial feature on July 31 that same year, titled Funny People. He also wrote the film by himself, and starred Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen as a pair of standup comedians, one of whom has a terminal illness. Other co-stars included his wife Leslie Mann and Eric Bana, who was a comedic actor in Australia before appearing in American films. The film contained more dramatic elements than Apatow's previous directorial efforts. In 2010, Apatow served as producer on the Forgetting Sarah Marshall spin-off Get Him to the Greek with Russell Brand reprising his role and Jonah Hill returning from the original film, albeit as a different character.
New York Magazine noted that [former Apatow associate] Mike White ... was "disenchanted" by Apatow's later films, "objecting to the treatment of women and gay men in Apatow's recent movies", saying of Knocked Up, "At some point it starts feeling like comedy of the bullies, rather than the bullied."
Apatow has claimed to strive to avoid marginalizing women in his work and to develop authentic female characters. Following many of these accusations, in a highly publicized Vanity Fair interview, lead actress Katherine Heigl admitted that though she enjoyed working with Apatow, she had a hard time enjoying Knocked Up itself, calling the movie, "a little sexist," claiming that the film "paints the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight." In response to accusations of sexism, Apatow did not initially deny the validity of such accusations, saying flippantly, "I'm just shocked she [Heigl] used the word 'shrew.' I mean, what is this, the sixteen-hundreds?"
Upcoming films
Apatow will also provide the voice of an elephant in Kevin James' Zookeeper, where Adam Sandler is also voicing an animal.
It was recently announced that Apatow is producing a yet-untitled comedy based around Sherlock Holmes and his partner Watson, which was written by Etan Cohen. Sacha Baron Cohen will play Holmes while Will Ferrell is set to play Watson.
He is reportedly producing an upcoming musical comedy with internet comedian Bo Burnham.
Five Year Engagement is an upcoming comedy starring Jason Segel and directed by Nicholas Stoller. It is about a couple and their rocky five year engagement.
Bill Hader will be writing and starring in an upcoming horror/comedy film that he says it will be a mixture of Halloween, Home Alone, The Monster Squad and Straw Dogs. Apatow encouraged Hader to write the screenplay.
He recently signed a deal with Aziz Ansari and Jason Woliner to produce three of their films. The first, tentatively titled Let's Do This, is “a road movie about two guys who work for a motivational speaking company.” The second stars Ansari as a disgraced cosmonaut who’s forced to return to space. The third apparently came out of Ansari’s role in Funny People.
Apatow has also stated the possibility for a sequel to Pineapple Express.
He is also set to produce Wanderlust, starring Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, in which a married couple decides to leave New York City to live in a hippie commune.
It was recently announced that Apatow is in works to produce another Pee-wee Herman film.
He admires filmmakers James L. Brooks, Hal Ashby, Robert Altman and John Cassavetes. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rejected his first application for membership, even though he was sponsored by Academy Award-winning screenwriters Akiva Goldsman and Stephen Gaghan. Apatow became a member in 2008. He married actress Leslie Mann, whom he met on the set of The Cable Guy and who has appeared in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Drillbit Taylor, and Funny People. The couple have two daughters, Maude and Iris. Both girls appeared in Knocked Up and Funny People as Leslie Mann's character's daughters. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his family.
Recurring collaborators
Apatow frequently collaborates with the same cast and crew in his projects. To date, Seth Rogen has been involved with 11 of Apatow's projects, as an actor, writer, and/or producer. His wife Leslie Mann has starred in 5, Will Ferrell has starred in 5, Paul Rudd has starred in 7, Jonah Hill has starred in 7, and Jason Segel has starred in 4 (as well as written one). Adam McKay has directed and/or written for 4 of his projects. While Saturday Night Live and Whip It star Kristen Wiig has appeared in four Apatow movies and, alongside Leslie Mann is Apatow's main female collaborator. Apatow is currently writing a Kristen Wiig vehicle-movie which he will also direct. They are due to start filming in 2011.
