Paul Rudd is one of those rare individuals who has made the successful leap from television to film. He has a quirky acting style which makes any character that he choses to portray loveable rather it be a hero or a villain.
Rudd was born on April 6, 1969 in Passaic, New Jersey to Michael and Gloria Rudd. Michael, a historical tour guide, and Gloria, a sales manager at a television station in Kansas City, Missouri, always instilled in young Paul to follow his dreams whatever they were. Rudd graduated from Shawnee High School in New Jersey and then attended the University of Kansas where he majored in Theater.
Rudd’s first acting gig happened in 1992 when he appeared as Kirby Quimby Philby in the television show Sisters. His first jump to film was indeed a successful one as he starred in the 1995 hit Clueless as Josh, the step brother of Cher (Alicia Silverstone). In 1999 Rudd and the entire cast of the movie The Cider House Rules earned a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) nomination in the category for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
After that, Rudd did several forgettable movies and television appearances but in the 2000s is when his movie career really began to blossom with such films as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007), Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), Year One (2009), Bridesmaids (2011), Wanderlust (2012), and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2012).
In 2012, Rudd went back to television when he portrayed the character Bobby Newport on NBC’s Parks and Recreation. The role he portrayed won the Critic’s Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series.
Up until 2015 Rudd had basically been the co-star in many of his films but that changed when Marvel Films announced that he would be the lead character in the film Ant-Man. It was a gamble but Rudd decided to take the role and what a good gamble it was. So far Ant-Man has grossed over $176 million worldwide. And to show their appreciation, Marvel announced that Rudd would be reprising his role in their upcoming film Captain America: Civil War due out in May of 2016.
Rudd married Julie Yaeger in 2003 and they have two children, Jack and Darby. The family resides in Southern California.