Jason Sudeikis
Daniel Jason Sudeikis is an American actor, comedian, and screenwriter. In the 1990s, he began his career in improv comedy and performed with ComedySportz and The Second City. In 2003, Sudeikis was hired as a writer for Saturday Night Live and starred as a cast member from 2005 to 2013.
He is also known for his roles in the films Horrible Bosses, Hall Pass, We're the Millers, Horrible Bosses 2, Colossal and Mother's Day. He has also provided voice-work for Epic, The Angry Birds Movie , Next Gen and The Angry Birds Movie 2.
Early life
Daniel Jason Sudeikis was born on September 18, 1975, in Fairfax, Virginia, to Dan and Kathryn Sudeikis, a travel agent at Brennco and President of the American Society of Travel Agents. His father is of Irish and Lithuanian descent, while his mother has German and Irish ancestry. His maternal uncle is actor George Wendt, known for his role as Norm Peterson on Cheers, and his maternal great-grandfather was photographer Tom Howard.Sudeikis was born with anosmia, leaving him with no sense of smell.
He has two sisters, Lindsay and Kristen. As a child, Sudeikis moved with his family to Overland Park, Kansas, which he has described as his hometown. He graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School and attended Fort Scott Community College on a basketball scholarship, but left before finishing.
Career
Career beginnings
In the 1990s, Sudeikis began his career in improv comedy. He began performing at ComedySportz in Kansas City, Missouri. He moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he studied at the Annoyance Theatre and IO Theater and was one of the founding members of the long form team, J.T.S. Brown. He also performed with Boom Chicago in Amsterdam, Netherlands.Sudeikis was later cast in The Second City Touring Company. In the early 2000s, he became a founding member of The Second City Las Vegas, where he performed at the Flamingo.
''Saturday Night Live''
In 2003, while a regular performer at The Second City Las Vegas, Sudeikis was hired as a sketch writer for Saturday Night Live, and would occasionally make bit appearances as audience members or extras. In May 2005, he became a featured player on the show, and was upgraded to repertory status at the beginning of the show's 32nd season on September 30, 2006. In July 2013, Sudeikis announced that he was leaving SNL. In 2015, 2016, and 2019 he made occasional appearances on the show.Recurring characters
- George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States.
- Joe Biden, 47th Vice President of the United States.
- Mitt Romney, 70th Governor of Massachusetts and 2012 Republican Party nominee for President of the United States.
- Male A-hole of the Two A-Holes with actress Kristen Wiig.
- Ocean Billy, a parody of the 1980s singer Billy Ocean and his hit "Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car".
- One half of the Bon Jovi "opposite band" Jon Bovi, appearing on Weekend Update.
- Gil, a news anchor who treats his field correspondent Michelle Dison's misfortunes as amusement.
- One of the guys from the "Song Memories" sketches who is the first to tell strange stories about where he was when he first heard a song.
- Ed Mahoney, a brash man who often makes a fool of himself in public.
- Officer Sikorsky, a police officer who brings in convict Lorenzo McIntosh in an attempt to "scare straight" the three delinquent teens that he often arrests. In the earlier sketches, Officer Sikorsky's last name was Matthews.
- Dancer on What Up with That, an overzealous background dancer often dressed in a red and white Adidas tracksuit with a 1980s man perm. The Ed Helms/Paul Simon episode reveals that his real name is Vance.
- DJ Supersoak. Spoof on DJ Clay. Emcee for Kickspit Underground Music with Lil' Blaster and MC George Castanza. He has appeared in the "Underground Rock Minute", the "Crunkmas Karnival", the "Kickspit Underground Easter Festival", the "Columbus Day Assblast" and the "Donkey Punch the Ballot" sketches.
- Pete Twinkle, ESPN Classic host of obscure women's sports with dim-witted Greg Stink as his co-host
- Jeff, a disgruntled film and theatre technician who starts unprovoked arguments with the star of the piece.
- The Devil, who often comes on Weekend Update to point out religious and moral hypocrisy on Earth. On the Emma Stone/Coldplay episode, the Devil gets so upset over the Penn State child sex abuse scandal that he quits his job as The Prince of Darkness and returns to his old job as a customer service representative for Time Warner Cable.
- Jack Rizzoli, an anchor at WXPD News who always tells veteran reporter Herb Welch to do his job.
- Tommy, a strip club M.C. for Bongo's Clown Room.
- Sensei Mark Hoffman, the faculty adviser and Japanese Studies teacher to Jonathan Cavanaugh-san and Rebecca Stern-Markowitz-san, hosts of "J-Pop America Fun Time Now". Considers Jonathan and Rebecca to be the worst students in his Japanese studies class due to their stereotypical perceptions of Japanese culture and is only on the show because university policy states that one of the teachers have to be present if students are using the campus studio.
- Marshall T. Boudreaux: The host of the courtroom reality show, Maine Justice. Originally, the character was an archetypical Southern gentleman known as Mr. Aymong who appeared on a one-shot sketch on the season 35 episode hosted by Blake Lively in which a Southern man ruins his chances of being hired to NASA by eating his interviewer's potato chip.
Film, television and other work
Early work
Sudeikis had a recurring role on the NBC series, 30 Rock, appearing in a total of twelve episodes. He played Floyd DeBarber, a love interest of Tina Fey's character Liz Lemon. Sudeikis last appeared in four episodes towards the end of the show's 4th season in 2010.He began his film career with supporting roles in Watching the Detectives, The Ten, Meet Bill, What Happens in Vegas and The Rocker. He did voice work for the videogame Grand Theft Auto IV, playing the role of right-wing radio host, Richard Bastion.
In July 2008, Sudeikis co-starred with Bill Hader and Joe Lo Truglio in the Lorne Michaels-produced web series The Line on Crackle.
He had supporting roles in the films, The Bounty Hunter and Going the Distance. On August 16, 2010, Sudeikis co-hosted WWE Raw with Going the Distance co-stars Charlie Day and Justin Long at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Sudeikis was a voice actor on the FOX animated-comedy series, The Cleveland Show. He provided the voices for Holt Richter, Cleveland's wannabe hipster neighbor, and, Terry Kimple, Cleveland's hard-partying high school buddy, who now works with Cleveland at the cable company. After previously being credited as a recurring guest in season one, Sudeikis was bumped up to a series regular beginning in season two.
and Jason Bateman at the 2011 premiere of Horrible Bosses.
Film breakthrough
In May 2010, Sudeikis joined the cast of the Seth Gordon comedy film Horrible Bosses, which also starred Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, Charlie Day, and Jason Bateman. Sudeikis also played his first lead film role, alongside Owen Wilson, in the Farrelly brothers comedy Hall Pass. He had worked with Day when he played the role of Schmitty on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and reprised the role on that show's 7th-season finale.He hosted the 2011 MTV Movie Awards on June 5, 2011, at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, California.
Sudeikis became the voice for a line of advertisements of the Applebee's casual dining chain that began running in 2012. Sudeikis made appearances in six episodes on the HBO series Eastbound & Down, playing Shane battery mate on the Myrtle Beach Mermen, and Shane's twin brother, Cole. He starred as David Clark, a drug dealer, in We're the Millers, alongside Jennifer Aniston, Emma Roberts and Will Poulter.
Sudeikis has portrayed Ted Lasso, a hapless American football coach brought to England to coach the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, as part of two promotional videos for NBC Sports in 2013 and 2014 for their coverage of the Premier League. He reprised his role of Kurt Buckman in Horrible Bosses 2.
2015–present
Sudeikis starred as Jake in the romantic-comedy film, Sleeping with Other People, alongside Alison Brie. He starred alongside Rebecca Hall in the romantic-drama film Tumbledown, playing the character of Andrew McCabe, a writer from New York.Sudeikis voices the character of Red in the animated-comedy film, The Angry Birds Movie, based on the video game series of the same name. He starred alongside Anne Hathaway in Colossal. He starred in Masterminds, alongside Kristen Wiig, Owen Wilson, and Zach Galifianakis. He portrayed Larry Snyder in the biographical sports drama film, Race, Henry in the drama film, The Book of Love and Bradley in the film, Mother's Day.
From November to December 2016, Sudeikis played the lead role of John Keating in the Classic Stage Company Off-Broadway production of Dead Poets Society, the stage adaptation of the film by the same name.
In 2017, Sudeikis executive produced for comedy television series, Detroiters. He also appeared in two episodes.
Sudeikis starred in the Netflix film, Kodachrome, alongside Ed Harris and Elizabeth Olsen. He made appearances as Glenn in Permission and as Dave Johnson in Downsizing.
Sudeikis starred as a side-role/reference in the Derren Brown shows, Derren Brown: Secret and Derren Brown Underground, where he performed on a screen during the credits, and his name was used as a reference during the show, in 2017 and 2018.
Sudeikis starred in the thriller Driven, that had a limited release in 2019. Sudeikis voices the character of Justin Pin in the animated action comedy film Next Gen. He also plays Red again in the 2019 animated-comedy The Angry Birds Movie 2.
In 2019, Sudeikis appeared on the Star Wars series The Mandalorian as a Speeder Bike trooper.
In late 2019, Apple TV+ gave the greenlight for Sudeikis to co-write and star in Ted Lasso about an American football coach that gets hired to coach an English football club. He will also act as one of the executive producers.
Personal life
In June 2004, he married American screenwriter Kay Cannon after five years together. They separated in 2008 and divorced in February 2010.In 2011, Sudeikis began dating American actress Olivia Wilde. They became engaged in January 2013. They have a son named Otis born in April 2014, and a daughter named Daisy born in October 2016.
He played on basketball teams at the 2011 and 2016 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. He and other Kansas City celebrities have hosted the Big Slick for ten years. The event raises money for the Cancer Center at Children's Mercy Hospital. So far, the event has raised more than $6 million for the cause.
He hosted the benefit concert Thundergong! at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City on November 3, 2018 for the charity foundation Steps of Faith which helps provide prosthetic legs and arms.