Ed Helms Biography

Edward Parker "Ed" Helms (born January 24, 1974) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show as well as playing Andy Bernard in the U.S. version of The Office and Stuart Price in The Hangover trilogy.

Early life

Helms was born in Atlanta, Georgia. His father, John A. Helms, was a lawyer, insurance executive, and Navy veteran, and his mother, Pamela Ann (ne Parker), was a school administrator. Helms is the youngest of three children, having one sister and one brother. Helms had open-heart surgery to correct a severe heart murmur at age 14. He graduated from The Westminster Schools one year after The Office cast-mate Brian Baumgartner in 1992. Helms entered Oberlin College as a geology major, but ended up graduating in 1996 with his B.A. in film theory and technology. He spent a semester as an exchange student at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Helms is the recipient of an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from Knox College, where he delivered the 2013 Commencement Address. In May 2014, Helms gave the convocation speech at Cornell University, alma mater of Andy Bernard, the character he portrayed for seven seasons on The Office. In May 2015, Helms gave the valedictory speech at the University of Virginia.

Career

Early work

After graduating from Oberlin, Helms began his comedy and acting career as a writer and performer with New York City sketch comedy bands, and studied improvisation with the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe. Helms concurrently worked as a trainee film editor at Crew Cuts, a post-production facility in New York City. While doing so, he recorded some rough voiceover scratch tracks that eventually led to paying voiceover work, which in turn led to finding a talent agent.

Television

Helms was performing comedy in New York City when, as he recalled in a 2005 interview, "The Daily Show had a sort of open audition with a casting company that I had dealt with. I read for the part, and got it". In his April 2002 to mid-2006 tenure on the satirical news program, Helms contributed "field reports" in addition to hosting various segments of the show, such as "Digital Watch", "Ad Nauseam", and "Mark Your Calendar". He has also contributed to the "This Week in God" segment. His 2005 segment "Battle of the Bulge", which focused on the wearing of Speedo bathing suits on the beaches of Cape May, New Jersey, and his "Mass. Hysteria" segment, in which he reported criticism of Massachusetts when it became the first state to legalize gay marriage, are regarded by TV Guide as his signature segments on the program.

Helms left the show in 2006, but has occasionally returned for brief appearances. On July 21, 2008 he returned for Obama Quest - a segment covering then-Senator Barack Obama's trip to Iraq. He occasionally narrates the Prescott Group educational films on sister series The Colbert Report. In late July 2006, NBC announced that Helms was added to the cast of the mockumentary The Office, alongside fellow The Daily Show correspondent Steve Carell, in a recurring role as Andy Bernard, a nostalgic Cornell graduate who is obsessed with a cappella music. Helms was a series regular starting with the 3rd season. "He had so much in common with this character we wanted to create," recalled Paul Lieberstein, a writer for the show who also plays Toby Flenderson, the human resources representative at the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin. "I can't remember when they started merging." Helms returned to The Daily Show on December 5, 2006, stating he had been gone because he was "undercover at a paper company in Scranton", an allusion to his stint on The Office. In February 2007, NBC announced that Helms had been promoted to series regular, and in February 2010 Helms was added to the show's opening credits. Helms quickly became a solidifying part of the cast, and eventually came to be one of the show's producers. In June 2009, on a radio interview with National Public Radio, Helms said that like his character, Andy Bernard, he is obsessed with a capella music.

Helms has also appeared on such television shows as The Mindy Project, Wilfred, NTSF:SD:SUV,Tanner on Tanner, Childrens Hospital, Arrested Development and Cheap Seats, and in various Comedy Central specials. He was the celebrity guest on the August 3, 2015 survival skills reality show Running Wild with Bear Grylls, coming to grips with his fear of heights on the Colorado Mountains. He has done commercial voiceover work in campaigns for Burger King, Doritos, Hotels.com, Sharp Aquos and Advair asthma medication, and he voices Angel, a character on Cartoon Network's Weighty Decisions series. Helms plays guitar, banjo (which was shown in the commercial bumpers and on a What Up With That? sketch when he hosted Saturday Night Live in 2011), piano, and all three, as well as a sitar, in some of his entertainment performances.

In August 2014, it was announced that Helms will to star in Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu's new Starz television drama series The One Percent, with Hilary Swank and Ed Harris, though he was later replaced by Greg Kinnear. Helms will also serve as an executive producer on the upcoming TV series adaptation of the web series Jake and Amir.

Film

Helms starred in the 2011 film Cedar Rapids and co-starred in the blockbuster The Hangover film trilogy as Stuart Price. He had minor roles, including Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, Meet Dave, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, I'll Believe You, Evan Almighty, Semi-Pro and, with Office co-star Jenna Fischer, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. In 2009, Helms appeared in The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, directed by Neal Brennan and starring Jeremy Piven, and in 2012, he voiced the Once-ler in The Lorax. He played the lead role, Rusty Griswold, in the 2015 film Vacation, a sequel/spin-off of the National Lampoon's Vacation series. The movie began shooting in September 2014 in Helms' native Atlanta, with Christina Applegate playing Rusty's wife Debbie Griswold.

Helms was cast to play the title role in the forthcoming Dreamworks animated film Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie and is also slated to star in the Paramount Pictures Naked Gun reboot in development as of December 2013.

Other work

Helms is also in a bluegrass band called The Lonesome Trio with his friends Ian Riggs and Jacob Tilove. They formed the band when they were at Oberlin College, and still get together to play a few shows every year. They recorded an as-yet-untitled album in summer 2013, shortly after appearing on the Bluegrass Situation stage at the Bonnaroo festival, which Helms curated. Helms is a self-confessed "bluegrass nerd" and founded the annual LA Bluegrass Situation festival. Helms plays banjo, guitar and piano.

Helms features in the video for Mumford and Sons' song "Hopeless Wanderer". In 2015, he had a cameo appearance in the band's music video for the song "The Wolf". Helms launched his own production company, Pacific Electric Picture Company, in 2013. The company has a two-year development deal with Universal Television.

In 2013, Helms co-wrote, produced and starred in the Yahoo! Screen web series Tiny Commando, about a former Navy SEAL who is accidentally shrunken in a military experiment to four inches in height, and is then deployed in places that his size allows him to infiltrate.

In 2015, Helms played the character Mickey on the web series Jake and Amir after Tweeting his support for the series.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004	Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story	Bunker McLaughlin
2006	Everyone's Hero	Hobo Louie	Voice
2006	Night at the Museum	Dentist	Scene deleted
2007	Evan Almighty	Ark Reporter / Ed Carson
2007	I'll Believe You	Leon
2007	Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story	Stage Manager
2008	Semi-Pro	Turtleneck Reporter
2008	Confessions of a Shopaholic	Garret E. Barton	Uncredited
2008	Meet Dave	Number 2
2008	Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay	Interpreter
2008	Lower Learning	Maurice Bunting
2009	The Smell of Success	Chet Pigford
2009	The Hangover	Dr. Stuart Price
2009	Monsters vs. Aliens	News Reporter	Voice
2009	Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian	Larry Daley's Assistant	Uncredited
2009	The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard	Paxton Harding
2011	Cedar Rapids	Tim Lippe	Executive producer
2011	The Hangover Part II	Dr. Stuart Price
2011	Jeff, Who Lives at Home	Pat
2011	High Road	Barry	Uncredited
2012	The Lorax	The Once-ler	Voice
2013	We're the Millers	Brad Gurdlinger
2013	The Hangover Part III	Dr. Stuart Price
2014	Someone Marry Barry	Ben
2014	They Came Together	Eggbert
2014	Stretch	Karl-with-a-K
2015	Vacation	Russell "Rusty" Griswold
2015	Love the Coopers	Hank
2016	Kevin Hart: What Now?	Bartender
2017	The Clapper	Eddie Krumble
2017	Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie	Principal Benjamin Krupp / Captain Underpants	Voice; filming
2017	Bastards	Peter	Completed
2017	What's The Point?	Noah	In post-production
2017	Chappaquiddick	Joe Gargan	In post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002-09	The Daily Show	Correspondent	207 episodes
2004	Cheap Seats	Bradley Wallace	2 episodes
2004, 2013	Arrested Development	James Carr	3 episodes
2006	The Colbert Report	Narrator - The On Notice Board: A Wonder of the Modern Age	Episode: "Linda Hirshman"
2006	Samurai Love God	Samurai Love God (voice)	Miniseries
2006-13	The Office	Andy Bernard	Starring (season 3-5) Main cast (season 6-9): 163 episodes
2008	Upright Citizens Brigade	Guest Monologist	Uncredited
2008	American Dad!	Mr. Buckley (voice)	Episode: "Stanny Slickers II: The Legend of Ollie's Gold"
2008	Wainy Days	Doctor	Episode: "Angel"
2008-10	Childrens Hospital	Doctor / TV Announcer	5 episodes
2009	Family Guy	Al Gore (voice)	Episode: "FOX-y Lady"
2010	Funny or Die Presents	Cast (Holdup)	4 episodes
2011	Saturday Night Live	Himself (host)	Episode: "Ed Helms/Paul Simon"
2011	Wilfred	Daryl	Episode: "Acceptance"
2011	NTSF:SD:SUV::	Eddie	2 episodes
2012	The Mindy Project	Dennis	2 episodes
2012	Ugly Americans	Dennis	Episode: "Mark Loves Dick"
2012	Comedy Bang! Bang!	Himself	Episode: "Ed Helms Wears A Grey Shirt & Brown Boots"
2013	Kroll Show	Sex in the City Dude	Episode: "San Diego Diet"
2013	Saturday Night Live	Ted Pelms	Uncredited Episode: "Zach Galifianakis/Of Monsters and Men"
2014	Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Jack Danger	Episode: "USPIS"
2015	BoJack Horseman	Kyle (voice)	Episode: "Escape from L.A."
2015	Jake and Amir	Mickey	Episode: "The Auditions"
2015	The Muppets	Himself	Episode: "Pig Out"
2016	Drunk History	William McMasters	Episode: "Scoundrels"

Music videos

Year	Title	Artist
2013	"Hopeless Wanderer"	Mumford & Sons
2016	"Don't Wanna Know"	Maroon 5
2017	"Wanna Do Day"	Lisa Loeb

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2008	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	The Office
2009
	Teen Choice Award	Choice Movie: Rockstar Moment (shared with Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis and Mike Tyson)	The Hangover
	MTV Movie Award	Best Breakthrough Performance (shared with Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis)
2010	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	The Office
2011	Teen Choice Award	Choice Movie: Hissy Fit	The Hangover Part II
		Choice Movie Actor Comedy
		Choice Movie: Chemistry (shared with Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis)
2012	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series	The Office
2013