Paul Rudd

Biography:

Paul Stephen Rudd was born on April 6, 1969, in Passaic, New Jersey, to English-born Jewish parents. His father, Michael Rudd (1943–2008), worked as a historical tour guide and was employed by Trans World Airlines (TWA), while his mother, Gloria Irene Granville, served as a sales manager for KSMO-TV in Kansas City, Missouri. Both parents were originally from London—his father from Edgware and his mother from Surbiton—and were descendants of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants who had migrated to England from Belarus, Poland, and Russia. Interestingly, his parents were also second cousins. Rudd had his bar mitzvah ceremony in Ontario, Canada. During his childhood, he enjoyed reading British comic books such as The Beano and The Dandy, which his uncle regularly sent from the United Kingdom.

When Rudd was ten years old, his family relocated to Lenexa, a suburb in Johnson County, Kansas, though they later spent three years living in Anaheim, California, due to his father’s profession. While in Kansas, Rudd attended Broadmoor Junior High School and graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School in 1987. During his school years, he demonstrated an early interest in performance and earned fifth place in Humorous Interpretation at the 1987 National Forensics League National Tournament. He went on to study theater at the University of Kansas, where he was a member of the Sigma Nu fraternity’s Nu chapter. Rudd later trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he studied alongside fellow actor Matthew Lillard, and spent three months in Oxford studying Jacobean drama at the British American Drama Academy. To support himself during this time, he worked as a disc jockey at bar mitzvahs and held various odd jobs after graduation, including glazing hams for the Holiday Ham Company in Overland Park, Kansas.

Rudd’s professional acting career began in 1991 when he appeared in a commercial for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System—a role he humorously referenced years later in a 2025 commercial for the Nintendo Switch 2. His first recurring television role came in 1992 as Kirby Quimby Philby on the drama series Sisters, followed by a six-episode stint on Wild Oats in 1994. He gained widespread attention in 1995 when he left Sisters to star in the hit comedy film Clueless. Subsequent roles included appearances in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, The Locusts, Overnight Delivery, The Object of My Affection, and 200 Cigarettes. He was part of the ensemble cast of The Cider House Rules (1999), which earned a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

In 2000, Rudd portrayed FBI Agent Ian Curtis in the Hong Kong action movie Gen-Y Cops. Two years later, he joined the popular sitcom Friends as Mike Hannigan, Phoebe Buffay’s love interest, and eventual husband. He appeared on several episodes of Reno 911! in 2006 as Lamaze class coach Guy Gerricault and reprised the character in Reno 911!: Miami. In 2007, he made a guest appearance as washed-up rock musician Desmond Fellows in an episode of Veronica Mars.

Rudd’s collaborations with producer and director Judd Apatow began in 2004 with Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, followed by The 40-Year-Old Virgin in 2005 and Knocked Up in 2007. That same year, he served as narrator for HBO’s Hard Knocks, which featured his favorite football team, the Kansas City Chiefs—the only season not narrated by Liev Schreiber. Rudd also portrayed John Lennon in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) and played a spaced-out surf instructor in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), both Apatow-produced films. He later appeared in Year One (2009) and Bridesmaids (2011) in uncredited cameos.

In 2007, Rudd starred in The Oh in Ohio and The Ten, reuniting with frequent collaborators David Wain and Michael Showalter, followed by Over Her Dead Body in 2008. That same year, he co-wrote and starred in Role Models, playing an energy drink salesman sentenced to community service alongside Seann William Scott. His comedic chemistry with Jason Segel continued in I Love You, Man (2009), where they portrayed friends bonded by their love for the rock band Rush. In the same year, he co-created the television series Party Down and voiced a character in DreamWorks’ animated film Monsters vs. Aliens.

In 2010, Rudd reunited with Steve Carell for Dinner for Schmucks and went on to appear in Our Idiot Brother (2011) and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012). His collaborations with Elizabeth Banks include Wet Hot American Summer (2001), The Baxter (2005), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Role Models (2008), and Our Idiot Brother (2011). Between 2012 and 2015, Rudd made guest appearances on Parks and Recreation as Bobby Newport, a role that earned him the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series. He also began narrating Hyundai commercials in 2014 and provided audiobook readings for John Hodgman’s The Areas of My Expertise and More Information Than You Require.

Rudd joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in December 2013 when he was officially cast as Scott Lang, also known as Ant-Man, in Ant-Man (2015). He reprised the role in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)—which he also co-wrote—Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023). He is set to return in Avengers: Doomsday (2026). In addition, Rudd revisited his role as Andy in the Netflix series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (2015) and appeared in The Fundamentals of Caring (2016), The Little Prince (2015), Sausage Party (2016), and Nerdland (2016). In 2018, he starred as baseball player–turned–spy Moe Berg in The Catcher Was a Spy and later headlined Netflix’s Living with Yourself (2019), which he also produced. More recently, he appeared in Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building (Season 3).

From 2004 to 2021, Rudd maintained a long-running gag during appearances on Conan O’Brien’s talk shows, where instead of showing a clip from his latest project, he would repeatedly air the same scene from the 1988 film Mac and Me. In 2022, he continued the prank in audio form during an episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. In 2024, Rudd earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations: one for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for Only Murders in the Building and another for Outstanding Narrator for Secrets of the Octopus.

Rudd’s stage credits include The Last Night of Ballyhoo (1997), Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center (1998), Three Days of Rain on Broadway (2006), and Grace (2012), in which he performed alongside Michael Shannon and Ed Asner. His London theater work includes Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2000–2001) and The Shape of Things (2001), which he later reprised Off-Broadway and in its 2003 film adaptation.

In 2003, Rudd married Julie Yaeger, a former publicist who later became a screenwriter and producer. The couple resides in Rhinebeck, New York, with their two children—a son born in 2006 and a daughter in 2010. Rudd is a dedicated supporter of the Kansas City Royals, Kansas City Chiefs, and the University of Kansas Jayhawks. He has narrated multiple episodes of America’s Game: The Super Bowl Champions dedicated to the Chiefs’ victories in 2020, 2023, and 2024.

He received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 1, 2015, expressing his childhood awe at seeing the names on the boulevard and imagining his future in entertainment. In 2014, Rudd and fellow actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan purchased and now co-own Samuel’s Sweet Shop, a local candy store in Rhinebeck, to prevent it from closing after the owner’s sudden death.

Rudd’s youthful appearance has become a frequent subject of online jokes and pop culture references, including in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), where a character jokes that “Paul Rudd finally aged.” The actor attributes his seemingly ageless look to consistent sleep, exercise, and healthy living.

Although Rudd identifies as Jewish, he describes himself as not particularly religious. While promoting Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, he remarked that, if given the chance to speak with anyone in history, he would choose Jesus.