Zach Galifianakis Biography

Zachary Knight "Zach" Galifianakis ( ; born October 1, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and pianist known for his numerous film and television appearances including his own Comedy Central Presents special. He garnered attention for his role as Alan Garner in The Hangover trilogy, directed by Todd Phillips and in the road trip comedy Due Date (2010).

Early life

Galifianakis was born in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. His mother, Mary Frances (née Cashion), ran a community center for the arts, and his father, Harry Galifianakis, was a heating oil vendor. Galifianakis' paternal grandparents emigrated from Crete, Greece, and Galifianakis was baptized in his father's Greek Orthodox faith. His mother has English, Ulster-Scots, Scottish, Welsh, French, and Irish ancestry. He has two siblings: a younger sister, Merritt, and an older brother, Greg. His cousin is Washington Post cartoonist Nick Galifianakis. His uncle, Nick Galifianakis, was a congressman from North Carolina between 1967 and 1973. He attended Wilkes Central High School, and subsequently attended but did not graduate from North Carolina State University, where he was a communications major.

Early career

Galifianakis' career began on television, when he played the recurring role of a stoner named Deuce in the short-lived sitcom Boston Common. Then he joined Saturday Night Live as a writer but lasted only two weeks. Galifianakis co-starred in the film Out Cold and had small roles in Corky Romano, Below, Bubble Boy, Heartbreakers, Into the Wild, Super High Me, Little Fish Strange Pond, and Largo.

He had his own episode of Comedy Central Presents, which first aired in September 2001. It included a stand-up routine and a segment with a piano, and concluded with an a cappella group (The Night Owls, introduced as his "12 ex-girlfriends") singing "Eternal Flame" by The Bangles while he made jokes. In 2002, he was the host of his own VH1 talk show called Late World with Zach. It featured many of his friends and regular performers from the LA comedy and music venue Largo where he appeared frequently during this time period. One episode featured Largo regulars Jon Brion and Rhett Miller as musical guests. His next television role was as a coroner named Davis in the Fox drama Tru Calling, which lasted from 2003 to 2005. He has also appeared many times on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and has made three appearances on Reno 911! as "Frisbee".

Galifianakis starred as Alan Finger on the Comedy Central show Dog Bites Man, a fake news program that caught people during candid moments thinking they were being interviewed by a real news crew. In addition, he was on an episode of the Comedy Central show The Sarah Silverman Program as Fred the Homeless Guy. He also had a recurring guest role as a doctor on the animated Adult Swim show Tom Goes to the Mayor and appeared in several episodes of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! in a recurring role as Tairy Greene. In 2006, Galifianakis was featured in Fiona Apple's music video for the song "Not About Love" where he is seen lip-synching the lyrics to the song. A year later Kanye West employed Galifianakis and indie rock musician Will Oldham for similar purposes in the second version of the video for his song "Can't Tell Me Nothing". In June 2006 Galifianakis released the single "Come On and Get It (Up in 'Dem Guts)", a comedic rap/hip-hop/dance song which features Apple's vocals.

Galifianakis was, together with Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, and Maria Bamford, one of the four Comedians of Comedy, a periodic packaged comedy tour in the style of The Original Kings of Comedy and the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. They chose to perform at live rock clubs as opposed to comedy clubs to try to reach a different audience. Much of the tour was taped, and has been featured in both a short-lived TV series on Comedy Central and a full length movie that has appeared at SXSW and on Showtime. On February 22, 2008, he made an appearance on the Jackassworld.com: 24 Hour Takeover. He interviewed various members of the Jackass cast. Galifianakis starred in the independent film Visioneers which played in select cities in 2008. This was Galifianakis's first starring role in a film and was given a direct-to-DVD release. That same year, Galifianakis appeared in a web video series of advertisements for Absolut vodka, along with Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, creating a parody of the Golden Girls in which one has a deep anger issue, breaking the fourth wall in exasperation and outright violence on the set. He also completed the pilot Speed Freaks for Comedy Central.

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis

See Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis for more information Galifianakis has a series of videos on the Funny or Die website titled Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis where he conducts interviews with popular celebrities between two potted ferns. He has interviewed Jimmy Kimmel, Michael Cera, Jon Hamm, Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, Bradley Cooper (with a brief appearance by Carrot Top), Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter (with a brief appearance by Andy Dick), Ben Stiller, Steve Carell, Sean Penn, Bruce Willis, Tila Tequila, Jennifer Aniston, Will Ferrell, and Justin Bieber. His interview style consists of typical interview questions, bizarre non sequiturs, and sometimes inappropriate sexual questions and comments.

Mainstream performances: 2009"present

Galifianakis co-starred as Alan Garner in the hit comedy The Hangover and earned the MTV Movie Award for the Best Comedic Performance. Following The Hangover's release, Galifianakis was prominently advertised in subsequent films that featured him in supporting roles. These included G-Force, Youth in Revolt, and the Oscar-nominated film Up in the Air.

Galifianakis also played a supporting role in the HBO series Bored to Death. He hosted Saturday Night Live on March 6, 2010 during the show's 35th season, during which he shaved his beard mid-show for a sketch, and then closed the show wearing a fake beard. He hosted again on March 12, 2011 and shaved his head this time, in a Mr. T-like hairstyle, which was allegedly supposed to be used for a sketch that never aired due to time constraints. In 2010, he starred in several films, including Dinner for Schmucks, It's Kind of a Funny Story, and Due Date.

On October 29, 2010, while debating marijuana legalization on the show HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Galifianakis appeared to have smoked marijuana on live television; host Bill Maher denied that it was real marijuana in an interview with Wolf Blitzer during an episode of The Situation Room. In 2011, he returned as Alan Garner in the sequel, The Hangover Part II, which was set in Thailand and voiced Humpty Dumpty in DreamWorks Animation's Puss in Boots. Galifianakis starred alongside Will Ferrell in The Campaign, a political comedy directed by Jay Roach and released in 2012.

Personal life

On August 11, 2012, Galifianakis married Quinn Lundberg, co-founder of the Growing Voices charity, at the UBC Farm in Vancouver, British Columbia. Galifianakis and Lundberg are expecting their first child, due in September 2013.

He is a frequent user of chewing tobacco. For his character in the 2007 film Into the Wild, he was asked to put prunes in his mouth to appear as if he was using dipping tobacco; instead, he told them to get him the real stuff.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996"1997	Boston Common	Bobby	5 episodes
1997	Apartment 2F	Zach	5 episodes
1999	Flushed	Pathetic guy	Film debut
2001	Heartbreakers	Bill
	Bubble Boy	Bus stop man
	Corky Romano	Dexter
	Out Cold	Luke
2002	Late World with Zach	Host	29 episodes
	Below	Weird Wally
2003"2005	Tru Calling	Davis	26 episodes
2005	The Comedians of Comedy	Himself
2006	Dog Bites Man	Alan Finger	9 episodes
2007"2010	Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!	Tairy Greene	7 episodes
2006"2007	Zach Galifianakis Live at the Purple Onion	Himself / Seth Galifinakis	Writer and executive producer
2007	Into the Wild	Kevin Wallis
2008	What Happens in Vegas	Dave the bear
	Super High Me	Himself	Documentary
	Visioneers	George
2009"2010	American Dad!	Heavyset man / Norman / Juror	2 episodes (voice only)
2009"2011	Bored to Death	Ray	24 episodes
2009	The Ballad of G.I. Joe	Snow Job
	Gigantic	Homeless guy
	'	Alan Garner	(shared with Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms)
	G-Force	Ben Paredes
	Up in the Air	Steve Sewa
	Operation: Endgame	Hermit
	Little Fish, Strange Pond	Bucky
2010	Youth in Revolt	Jerry
	Dinner for Schmucks	Therman Murch	Comedy Award " Best Comedy Actor in Film
	It's Kind of a Funny Story	Bobby
	Due Date	Ethan Tremblay / Ethan Chase	Nominated " MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance Nominated " Teen Choice Awards for Choice Movie: Actor Comedy
2010"2013	Saturday Night Live	Himself	3 episodes Nominated " Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series (2011)
2011	'	Alan Garner	Nominated " MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance Nominated " Teen Choice Awards for Choice Movie: Actor Comedy Nominated " Teen Choice Awards for Choice Movie: Chemistry (shared with Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms)
	Puss in Boots	Humpty Dumpty	Voice only Nominated " Annie Award for Best Voice from an Animated Feature
	The Muppets	Hobo Joe
2012	Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie	Jim Joe Kelly
	The Campaign	Marty Huggins	Nominated - MTV Movie Award for Best On-Screen Duo (shared with Will Ferrell)
	Bob's Burgers	Chet
2013	The Hangover Part III	Alan Garner
	You Are Here	Ben	Completed
2014	Birdman		Filming

Other

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