Martin Starr Biography

Martin Starr (born Martin James Pflieger Schienle; July 30, 1982) is an American actor and comedian, known for his television roles as Bill Haverchuck on the short-lived comedy-drama Freaks and Geeks, Roman DeBeers on the comedy series Party Down, and Bertram Gilfoyle in the HBO series Silicon Valley, as well as for his film roles in Knocked Up, Adventureland and Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead.

Personal life

Starr was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of Jean St. James (ne Pflieger), an actress, and Jim Schienle, an instructor at Pasco-Hernando Community College. His father is from Wisconsin and his mother is from Kansas. His ancestry includes German, English, Scots-Irish (Northern Irish), Bohemian (Czech), Polish, Austrian, and Hungarian. He is a Buddhist.

Career

Starr was cast as Bill Haverchuck in the NBC sitcom Freaks and Geeks. The series received positive reviews from critics, but it suffered from low ratings and was canceled after only one season. After cancellation, the series gained a strong cult following.

After Freaks and Geeks, Starr had a number of guest appearances and one-time roles on shows such as Ed, Mysterious Ways, Providence, King of the Hill, and Normal, Ohio. He had a small recurring role during the third season of Roswell as the character Monk. In 2002, Starr appeared in the films Stealing Harvard and Cheats. He also reunited with both Freaks and Geeks producer Judd Apatow and Freaks and Geeks co-star Seth Rogen when he made a guest appearance on Apatow's situational comedy Undeclared in the episode "The Perfect Date". In 2005, he appeared in the miniseries Revelations and the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.

Starr co-starred in the 2007 comedy film Knocked Up, which was directed by Judd Apatow. The same year, he had small appearances in Superbad and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, both of which were produced by Apatow. Knocked Up was critically praised and was a smash at the box office. The success of Knocked Up led to Starr having larger roles in films, such as Good Dick and Adventureland. Starr also appears in many well received short films that premiere at film festivals, such as the Sundance Film Festival.

From 2009 to 2010, Starr was a series regular on the Starz sitcom, Party Down, portraying Roman DeBeers. The series was cancelled after two seasons and there was discussions of adapting the series into film, but it never came to fruition. Since 2011, he has co-starred on the Adult Swim television series NTSF:SD:SUV::, in which he plays Sam Stern. In 2011, Starr had a major role in the film A Good Old Fashioned Orgy and also had guest appearances on television series such as Mad Love, Community and Childrens Hospital. In the latter he reprised his role of Roman DeBeers from Party Down.

Starr reunited with Freaks and Geeks and Party Down cast member Lizzy Caplan in the 2012 film Save the Date, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The same year he had a supporting role in the thriller film Deep Dark Canyon, as well as guest starring on sitcoms Parks and Recreation and New Girl. In 2013, he had a small role playing himself in This Is the End, which was directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and had a starring role in the Kristen Bell film The Lifeguard, later working with her again (alongside Party Down star Ryan Hansen and creator Rob Thomas) in the film Veronica Mars. He also guest starred in The Aquabats! Super Show!, Franklin & Bash, and Drunk History. In 2014 he was casted to play Bertram Gilfoyle in the HBO comedy Silicon Valley. The show has since received widespread critical acclaim and has garnered several Emmy award nominations for its first two seasons. As of spring 2016, Starr is reprising his role as Gilfoyle in the third season of the show.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992	Hero	Allen in Coma	Credited as Martin Schienle
2001	Eyeball Eddie	Eddie Malick	Short film
2002	Stealing Harvard	Liquor Store Clerk
2002	Cheats	Applebee
2003	Band Camp	Shane	Short film
2004	Who's Your Daddy?	Scooter	Direct-to-video
2004	Fish Burglars	Marty	Short film
2005	The Toast	No Friend of the Groom
2005	Kicking & Screaming	Beantown Customer
2006	American Storage	Charlie	Short film
2006	A Midsummer Night's Rewrite	John	Short film
2007	Knocked Up	Martin
2007	Superbad	James Masselin
2007	Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story	Schmendrick
2008	Good Dick	Simon
2008	The Incredible Hulk	Amadeus Cho	Cameo
2009	Big Breaks	Barista	Short film
2009	Adventureland	Joel
2009	Oh Joy	Best Friend	Short film
2009	The Invention of Lying	Waiter #1	Cameo
2009	The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu	Clarence
2009	1-900-Drinking-Buddy	Young Jock	Short film
2009	Paper Heart	Himself
2010	Church & State	Jesus	Short film
2010	Lovepocalypse	Ernie	Short film
2011	A Good Old Fashioned Orgy	Doug Duquez
2011	Fight For Your Right: Revisited	Police	Short film
2011	6 Month Rule	Alan
2012	Save the Date	Andrew
2012	Angel of Death	Victim 3	Short film
2012	Deep Dark Canyon	Lloyd Cavanaugh
2013	This Is the End	Himself
2013	The Sidekick	Blood Diamond	Short film
2013	The Lifeguard	Todd
2013	The Apocalypse	Kyle	Short film
2013	Seasick Sailor	Bookbinder	Short film
2014	Dead Snow: Red vs. Dead	Daniel
2014	Veronica Mars	Stu "Cobb" Cobbler
2014	Leonard in Slow Motion	Leonard	Short film
2014	Amira & Sam	Sam
2014	Playing It Cool	Lyle
2015	I'll See You in My Dreams	Lloyd
2015	Intruders (Shut In)	Perry Cuttner
2016	Operator	Joe Larsen
2017	Spider-Man: Homecoming	TBA	Filming

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	G vs. E		Episode: "Cougar Pines"
1999-2000	Freaks and Geeks	Bill Haverchuck	18 episodes
2000	Normal, Ohio	Howie the Electronics Store Manager	Episode: "Working Girl"
2001	Ed	Clark Salinger	Episode: "Exceptions"
2001	Mysterious Ways	Dwayne Banbury	Episode: "One of Us"
2001-2002	Roswell	Monk Pyle	3 episodes
2002	Undeclared	Theo	Episode: "The Perfect Date"
2002	Providence		Episode: "Truth and Consequences"
2003	King of the Hill	Andrew/Tommy (voice)	Episode: "I Never Promised You an Organic Garden"
2005	Revelations	Rubio	5 episodes
2005	How I Met Your Mother	Kevin	Episode: "The Duel"
2006	Clark and Michael	Burger Stand Employee	1 episode
2007	Wainy Days	Sketchy Laborer #1	Episode: "Tough Guy"
2009-2010	Party Down	Roman DeBeers	20 episodes
2010-2016	Hawaii Five-0	Adam 'Toast' Charles	4 episodes
2010	The League	Stu "Box of Frogs" Pompeu	Episode: "High School Reunion"
2011	Mad Love	Clyde	2 episodes
2011	Community	Professor Cligoris	Episode: "Geography of Global Conflict"
2011	Childrens Hospital	Roman DeBeers	Episode: "Party Down"
2011-2013	NTSF:SD:SUV::	Sam	31 episodes
2012	Parks and Recreation	Snow Globe Museum Attendant	Episode: "Operation Ann"
2012	New Girl	Dirk	Episode: "Fancyman: Part 2"
2012	Christine	Oz	2 episodes
2013	The Aquabats! Super Show!	Shred Center M.C.	Episode: "The AntiBats!"
2013	Franklin & Bash	Wendell Singletary	Episode: "By the Numbers"
2013	Burning Love	Leo	11 episodes
2013-2015	Drunk History	Art Thief / Abraham Lincoln / Alexander Graham Bell	3 episodes
2014	The Goldbergs	Andre	Episode: "The Other Smother"
2014-present	Silicon Valley	Bertram Gilfoyle	Main cast
2014	Newsreaders	Philip Baker	Episode: "America's Unknown President; Reporter on House Arrest"
2015	Married	Judah	Episode: "Murder!"
2015	Kirby Buckets	The Claude	Episode: "Failure to Launch"
2015-2016	Life in Pieces	Oscar	2 episodes