Charles Peckham Day is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, comedian, director, and musician. He is best known for playing Charlie Kelly on the sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, for which he was nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award and a Satellite Award in 2011. In film, he is known for his role as Dale in the films Horrible Bosses and its 2014 sequel, as well as for his roles in Monsters University, Pacific Rim, The Lego Movie, Fist Fight, ', and '. From 2018 to 2019, Day was the executive producer on the Fox comedy The Cool Kids.
Early life
Day was born in The Bronx, in New York City, but spent most of his childhood in Middletown, Rhode Island. He is the younger child of two, with an older sister named Alice. His mother, Mary, was a piano teacher at The Pennfield School in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, and his father, Dr. Thomas Charles Day, is a retired professor of music history at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island. His family's original surname was "Del Giorno" and his father is of Irish and Italian descent., while his mother has English, Irish, and Welsh ancestry. Day attended Pennfield School and graduated from the Portsmouth Abbey School, both in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. He attended Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts, majoring in art history in 1998. In May 2014, Day gave the commencement speech for Merrimack College's graduating class and received an honorary Ph.D. After graduating, Day worked on small television roles and doing voiceovers for the Independent Film Channel, and supplemented his income by waiting tables and answering phones for a telethon. At Merrimack, he was active in the Onstagers, Merrimack's student theater organization. He was roommates with fellow actor Jimmi Simpson, who would later play the part of Liam McPoyle on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Career
During the summers of his college years, Day was active in the training programs at the Williamstown Theatre Festival and went on to play the lead role in Dead End, at the Huntington Theatre in Boston Besides playing Charlie Kelly on the hit FX television series It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, he is also one of the show's executive producers and one of its writers, along with Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton. He has also appeared on several other television shows such as Third Watch, Law & Order, and Reno 911!. He starred in New Line Cinema's Horrible Bosses in July 2011, with Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, and Jamie Foxx. He also had a role in the 2010 film Going the Distance, alongside Justin Long, Jason Sudeikis, and Drew Barrymore. In 2013, he voiced the character Art in the Pixaranimated filmMonsters University and appeared in Guillermo del Toro's film Pacific Rim. In 2017, Day starred in Fist Fight, with Ice Cube. In it, Day plays Andy Campbell, a high school English teacher challenged by his co-worker, history teacher Ronald Strickland, to a fight after getting him fired. In 2018, he reprised his role for the Pacific Rim sequel, and had a role in Drew Pearce's film Hotel Artemis, with Jodie Foster, Sterling K Brown, Brian Tyree Henry and Jenny Slate. Day has also been a producer for the television shows How to Be a Gentleman and Unsupervised. Day hosted the November 5, 2011 episode of Saturday Night Live with Maroon 5 as the musical guest. He was the second cast member from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia to host SNL. DeVito made a special appearance during Day's opening monologue. In September 2014, Day provided his voice for The Sims 4 TV spots. He is the creator and producer of Fox comedy The Cool Kids, starring Vicki Lawrence, Martin Mull, David Alan Grier and Leslie Jordan and set in a retirement community. On August 9, 2019, Mythic Quest, a new half-hour comedy series written and produced by Day and Rob McElhenney, was announced as one of the original productions for Apple's upcoming streaming service, Apple TV+. As a film director, Day is currently working on his debut on the upcoming comedy El Tonto, with Kate Beckinsale, Edie Falco and John Malkovich. Day writes, produces and stars as a silent man who becomes a celebrity and loses it all.
Personal life
A skilled musician, Day started to play the violin at the age of three. He can play the piano, accordion, trombone, guitar and harmonica, and has written and improvised some of the music featured in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In 2014, he received an honorary doctorate in performing arts from Merrimack College, where he also delivered that year's keynote address. Day has been married to actress Mary Elizabeth Ellis since March 4, 2006. They met in 2001 and were dating in 2004 when they co-starred as incestuous siblings on Reno 911!. Ellis has a recurring role on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia as The Waitress, the object of the unrequited love and obsession for Day's character. The couple had their first child, a son named Russell Wallace Day, in December 2011. They live in Los Angeles, California. Day has stated that he is an agnostic.
