Seth Rogen

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Seth Rogen
Rogen on Good Morning San Diego, 2007
Born	April 15, 1982 (1982-04-15) (age 26) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Years active	1999-present

Seth Rogen (born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian actor, comedian and writer.

He began his career doing standup comedy for four years during his teens, coming in second place in the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest when he was sixteen. After moving to Los Angeles, Rogen landed supporting roles in Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared (the latter of which also hired Rogen as a staff writer).

After landing a job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show, for which he and the other writers received an Emmy nomination, he was guided by director Judd Apatow toward a film career. He was cast in a major supporting role, and credited as a co-producer, in Apatow’s directorial debut The 40-Year-Old Virgin. After receiving critical praise for that performance, Universal Pictures agreed to cast him as the lead in Apatow’s next directorial feature, Knocked Up.

He has since appeared in the films Donnie Darko, You, Me, and Dupree and Fanboys, in addition to the Apatow-produced comedies Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Superbad (a semi-autobiographical comedy he originally intended to headline years ago, co-written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg). He also wrote the screenplay for another comedy which Apatow helped co-produce, Owen Wilson's Drillbit Taylor.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Early career 1.3 Writing career 1.4 Current projects 1.5 Improvisation 1.6 Personal life 1.7 Influences 2 Filmography 3 Awards and nominations 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Rogen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, the son of Sandy, a social worker, and Mark Rogen, who works for non-profit organizations and as an assistant director of a Workmen's Circle.^[1][2] Rogen has described his parents, who met at an Israeli kibbutz, as "radical Jewish socialists".^[2] Rogen attended a Talmud Torah school, as well as Camp Miriam, a Habonim Dror camp where he would perform stand-up comedy for fellow campers.^[1] Rogen got his start in show business at age 13 after signing up for a comedy class. With his trademark deadpan humour, he placed second in the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest at sixteen, then headed south of the border to continue stand-up and acting.

[edit] Early career

Rogen's first exposure to the entertainment field began with commercial work in Canada at the age of 13.^[3] After trying his hand as a standup comic, Rogen snapped up his first starring role in the Judd Apatow/Paul Feig 1980-set teen series Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000) with only two auditions. He played cynical, acerbic "freak" Ken Miller. Apatow was very impressed with Rogen's improvisational skills.^[4] After the show was cancelled in the middle of its first season, Rogen was cast in a similar role in Apatow's second, also short-lived series, Undeclared (2001-2002), and went on to write several episodes. In 2001, Rogen also had minor roles in Donnie Darko (playing Ricky Danforth) and Dawson's Creek, in an episode he claims he never saw.^[5] Following the cancellation of his second series in 2002, Rogen developed a soured attitude toward television, not wanting to act on another show unless Apatow was involved.^[6]x

[edit] Writing career

Rogen's first major writing job was for Apatow's second short-lived television series, Undeclared, for which he was hired as a writer before he was offered an acting role.^[7] During the show's run, Rogen wrote one episode by himself and co-wrote four others.^[6]

Rogen's experience with Undeclared paid off when he and his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, joined the writing staff of Da Ali G Show for its second season. In 2005, the Ali G Show writing staff, including Rogen and Goldberg, received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the Writing For A Variety, Music Or Comedy Program category. As it turned out, Rogen had signed on to the show for what became its final season; Da Ali G Show ended due to the creative decision that its mode of "surprise" comedy would become unsustainable if the show continued much longer. Rogen's association with the show's star, Sacha Baron Cohen, who had belonged to the same Jewish youth group, was not over, however; in a recent interview with Tokion Magazine(Issue 55), Rogen claimed to have made uncredited contributions to Cohen's film version of Borat.^[8]

Years ago Rogen wrote the script of the 2007 comedy Superbad, as a starring vehicle for himself. The Superbad team then looked for "an 18-year-old version" of Rogen and chose frequent Rogen collaborator Jonah Hill (who is ,ironically, a mere two years younger than Seth).^[9] Rogen also wrote the screenplay for the Owen Wilson vehicle, Drillbit Taylor, which is based on a 70-page scriptment written by John Hughes.^[10]

[edit] Current projects

Rogen returned to the big screen in 2005 with a major supporting role in Apatow's directorial debut The 40-Year-Old Virgin alongside Steve Carell. The film was a massive success, grossing $109,449,237 domestically ($177,358,395 worldwide).^[11] Apatow then cast Rogen as the lead in the 2007 film Knocked Up.^[12] Upon completing The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Apatow had approached Rogen about potential starring roles, but the actor suggested many high concept science fiction ideas. After Apatow insisted that Rogen would work better in real life situations, the two agreed on the accidental pregnancy concept that became Knocked Up.^[13]

In USA Today's recent profile of the 'frat-pack' group, they mention those actors' rising salaries makes it financially wiser to cast newcomers like Rogen as supporting characters, citing his roles in Virgin and Dupree as successful examples.^[14] When asked in an interview if he is in the group, Rogen has stated that he is not sure.^[5][15] Rogen and Apatow's latest project, as of summer 2007, is the teen comedy Superbad at Columbia Pictures. Rogen and Evan Goldberg wrote the film, with Apatow as one of the Producers. While Rogen did pen Owen Wilson's upcoming Drillbit Taylor, he does not expect to appear in it since the script mostly involves high school students. Freaks and Geeks co-star James Franco also revealed that he will reunite with Rogen for the Rogen/Goldberg-written comedy, The Pineapple Express.^[16] Rogen hosted Saturday Night Live on October 6, 2007.^[17] He is currently filming alongside Elizabeth Banks in Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno^[18] and is set to star in the Jody Hill directed mall cop comedy Observe and Report, which begins filming in April.^[19] He is also set to costar with Adam Sandler in Judd Apatow's third directorial feature about stand up comics, which is currently untitled. Rogen will play a young inexperienced comic while Sandler will play a mentor of sorts to Rogen's character and the film will have more drama in it than Apatow's previous directorial efforts.^[20]

In April 2008, Empire reported that Rogen and Evan Goldberg will write an episode for the animated television series The Simpsons.^[21] He will also voice a character in the episode.^[22]

[edit] Improvisation

Though Rogen has penned scripts for both film and television, his comedic stylings tend to rely heavily on improvisational dialogue. Apatow noticed this improvisation talent on the set of Freaks and Geeks, which influenced his decision to have Rogen write for Undeclared and pitch jokes for The 40-Year-Old Virgin.^[4] As with most Apatow projects, the dialogue in Rogen's films is usually not what was on paper.^[13] Rogen says he prefers improvised dialogue because it captures the essence of real friends spouting jokes.^[23] Because Apatow never stops rolling after takes, allowing his actors to improvise differently each time, Rogen's two largest film roles to date (The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up) both achieved the rare milestone of shooting over a million feet of film, almost unprecedented for comedies.^[13]

[edit] Personal life

Rogen moved to Los Angeles at the age of 16, after Apatow discovered him in Vancouver.^[4] During his late teens, Rogen's parents moved from Canada with him, but by the time he landed his second television series, his parents would live in both Canada and the United States.^[6] Rogen still resides in Los Angeles. He continues to write and produce with longtime writing partner, Evan Goldberg, with whom he has worked on Da Ali G Show, Knocked Up, and Superbad, the latter of which is a semi-autobiographical take on their longtime friendship. Rogen and Lauren Miller attended the film premieres of The 40 Year-Old Virgin, You, Me and Dupree and Knocked Up.^[24][25] One of his most loved films is Army of Darkness.^[26]

[edit] Influences

Rogen has described the shock of being thrust into an industry where he is now working alongside the comedic icons he grew up watching, such as Will Ferrell, Owen Wilson, and Jim Carrey. Rogen cites the Adam Sandler album They're All Gonna Laugh at You! (which features Judd Apatow at certain points) as the funniest thing he has ever heard, stating that the track "At A Medium Pace" was the seed for what became his comedic persona. Rogen was also a huge fan of the Da Ali G Show's first season, so it was a shock to suddenly work for Cohen. Rogen cites the films Porky's and Bachelor Party, in addition to films by Kevin Smith, as inspirations for writing sex comedies.^[27] In an interview with Mtv, he said of Smith "I feel like my strengths were always kind of ripping off a Kevin Smith movie anyway. It's not a far departure."^[28] Of Smith and his films, Rogen has gone as far as to say "I wouldn’t be a writer if it wasn’t for you and your movies."^[29]

[edit] Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Freaks and Geeks (TV series)	Ken Miller	Series cast
2001	Undeclared (TV series)	Ron Garner	Series cast, writer
	Donnie Darko	Ricky Danforth
2004	Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy	Eager Cameraman
2005	The 40-Year-Old Virgin	Cal	Supporting role, co-producer
2006	You, Me and Dupree	Neil	Supporting role
	Borat	No role	Uncredited writing contributions
2007	Shrek the Third	Ship Captain	Voice only
	Knocked Up	Benjamin Stone	Lead role, executive producer
	Superbad	Officer Warren Michaels	Supporting role, writer, executive producer
2008	The Spiderwick Chronicles	Hogsqueal	Voice only
	Drillbit Taylor	Extra	Also co-writer
	Horton Hears a Who!	Morton	Voice only
	Fanboys	Admiral Seasholtz/The Pimp/Star Journey alien	3 different small roles[30]
	Kung Fu Panda	Master Mantis	Voice only
	Pineapple Express	Dale Denton	Co-headlining role, writer, executive producer
	Zack and Miri Make a Porno	Zack
2009	Untitled Judd Apatow/Adam Sandler Project		Lead role
	Monsters vs. Aliens	B.O.B.	Voice only
	Observe and Report	Ronnie Barnhardt	Lead role
2010	The Green Hornet	The Green Hornet	Lead role, writer, executive producer

[edit] Awards and nominations

Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
2000	Nominated	Young Artist Award	Best Performance in a TV Series - Young Ensemble for: Freaks and Geeks. Shared with cast
2005	Nominated	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program for: Da Ali G Show. Shared with writing staff
2006	Nominated	MTV Movie Award	Best On-Screen Team for: The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Shared with Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, and Romany Malco

[edit] References

[edit] Further reading

• Patterson, J. "Comedy's new centre of gravity", Film, The Guardian, 2007-09-14. Retrieved on 2007-09-23. 

[edit] External links

• Seth Rogen at the Internet Movie Database
• Seth Rogen Fan Site
• The Education of A Comic Prodigyon Time.com (a division of Time Magazine)
• The Onion A.V. Club interview
• Is this the face of Hollywood's next A-lister? (Profile from The Globe and Mail)
• Seth Rogen Interview in Complex Magazine
• Interview with Seth Rogen about Knocked UP
• Interview with Seth Rogen about Knocked Up

Seth Rogen
Television:	Freaks and Geeks  · Undeclared
Starring Movie Roles:	Knocked Up  · Pineapple Express  · Zack and Miri Make a Porno  · Observe and Report  · Untitled Judd Apatow Comedy
Supporting/Minor Movie Roles:	Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy  · The 40-Year-Old Virgin  · You, Me and Dupree  · Superbad  · Monsters vs. Aliens
Writing:	Undeclared  · Da Ali G Show  · Superbad  · Drillbit Taylor  · Pineapple Express
Other:	Ken Miller · Frat Pack · Evan Goldberg