Larry Charles
Larry Charles is an American comedian, screenwriter, director, actor, and producer. He was a staff writer for the sitcom Seinfeld for its first five seasons, contributing some of the show's darkest and most absurd storylines. He has also directed the documentary film Religulous and the mockumentary comedy films Borat, Brüno, and The Dictator. His Netflix documentary series Larry Charles' Dangerous World of Comedy premiered in 2019.
Early life
Charles was born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York to a Jewish family. He was raised in Trump Village, located between Brighton Beach and Coney Island in Brooklyn.After graduating from John Dewey High School, he attended college at Rutgers University in New Jersey, but he left school to perform comedy routines.
Career
Early career
Charles performed stand-up comedy during the 1970s until he was hired to write for the short-lived sketch comedy show Fridays, where he worked with Larry David. This began Charles's career in television writing that included The Arsenio Hall Show and eventually Seinfeld. David gave him the job as a writer on Seinfeld and his directorial debut on Curb Your Enthusiasm.''Seinfeld''
Although series co-creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld wrote the bulk of the show's episodes during the first five seasons, Charles was their second in command during this period. Charles had met Seinfeld co-creator David when he was part of the writing staff of the ABC sketch show Fridays, on which David and Michael Richards were also part of the show's ensemble cast. Charles had been unable to write for the show's first season, as he had been writing for The Arsenio Hall Show.Charles is noted for contributing some of the show's darker storylines and scenes. In the season two episode "The Baby Shower" Charles wrote a dream sequence in which the title character, Jerry Seinfeld, was killed. Charles's episodes also covered such controversial topics as Nazis, a psychotic stalker and a hospital patient committing suicide. A season two episode he wrote, "The Bet", concerning Elaine buying a handgun to protect herself, was never filmed because NBC, some of the cast, and the show's director felt the gun content was too provocative. Charles claimed that his writing on Seinfeld was heavily influenced by Dragnet, Superman and Abbott and Costello.
Charles said he was instrumental in the development of Cosmo Kramer; he felt that "Jerry and George were so well-defined through Larry David and Jerry, that there was less room for me to, sort of, expand on those personas. But Kramer was very unformed at the beginning of the show and it gave me an area of creativity to, sort of, expand upon. So I spent a lot of time with Kramer because he was a character that I could have an impact on in the future of the show". It was Charles who imbued in Kramer a distrust of authority, and who created the character of Kramer's notorious unseen friend Bob Sacamano, after his real-life friend of the same name.
Film
Charles's feature debut was Masked and Anonymous which he directed, and co-wrote with Bob Dylan. The film received a mixed reaction from audiences and critics alike; it did poorly at the box office. Charles maintains it takes many viewings to get true enjoyment from the film: "I want the movie to be like a great Bob Dylan song that is listened to over and over and for people to back and see it again and get a lot more things, or totally different things."His second feature film as director, the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy mockumentary Borat!, was much more successful; it "set new records in terms of profitability; on a budget of 18 million dollars, it grossed in excess of 261 million dollars." In an interview, Charles discussed how, because of the nature of the mockumentary process, he had to act as well, even if none of his performance made it to the screen: "We all, especially me, had to play a character as well. I wasn't Larry Charles when we were on the road. We all had to be in character, and we had to balance that with our aesthetic and logistical needs to produce the movie properly The director also had to act." The film was nominated for Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes.
, 2008
Charles's third film was Religulous'' — a documentary about Bill Maher's take on the state of contemporary religion — which was released in October 2008.
Live performances
Charles rarely performs live, but has appeared at Un-Cabaret and can be heard on several of its podcasts.Filmography
Film
Television
''Seinfeld''
Charles also has a cameo in the episode titled "The Parking Garage," which was written by David.''Mad About You''
In 1995, Charles left the writing staff of Seinfeld to join that of another hugely successful mid-1990s sitcom: Paul Reiser's Mad About You.| Season | Episode | Info |
| 4 | "Fertility" | |
| 4 | "The Procedure" | |
| 4 | "The Weed" | Co-written with Billy Grundfest |
| 4 | "The Award" | Co-written with Seth Kurland and Ron Darian |
| 4 | "The Finale " | Co-written with Billy Grundfest and Victor Levin |
| 4 | "The Finale " | Co-written with Billy Grundfest, Victor Levin, and Paul Reiser |
| 4 | "The Finale " | Co-written with Billy Grundfest, Victor Levin, and Paul Reiser |
| 5 | "Dr. Wonderful" | Co-written with Victor Levin |
| 5 | "The Grant" | Co-written with Richard Day, Victor Levin and Jenji Kohan |
| 5 | "Burt's Building" | Co-written with Victor Levin and Ron Darian |
| 5 | "The Gym" | Co-written with Richard Day and Victor Levin |
| 5 | "Chicken Man" | Co-written with Ron Darian and Jonathan Leigh Solomon |
| 5 | "Astrology" | Co-written with Jenji Kohan |
| 5 | "The Penis" | Co-written with Richard Day and Maria Semple |
| 5 | "On The Road" | Co-written with Richard Day and Paul Reiser |
| 5 | "The Dry Run" | Co-written with David Guarascio and Moses Port |
| 5 | "The Birth " | |
| 5 | "The Birth " |
''The Tick'', ''Dilbert''
Charles served as executive producer on two short-lived programs, The Tick, and the Dilbert animated series, which he co-developed with Scott Adams and co-wrote the following episodes:| Season | Title | Notes |
| 1 | "The Name" | Co-written with Scott Adams |
| 1 | "The Takeover" | Co-written with Scott Adams and Ned Goldreyer |
| 1 | "Little People" | Co-written with David Silverman, Stephen Sustarsic, and Scott Adams |
| 1 | "The Knack" | Co-written with Ned Goldreyer and Scott Adams |
| 1 | "Y2k" | Co-written with Andrew Borakove, Rachel Powell, and Scott Adams |
| 1 | "Charity" | Co-written with Stephen Sustarsic, David Silverman, and Scott Adams |
| 1 | "Holiday" | Co-written with Ned Goldreyer, Stephen Sustarsic, David Silverman, and Scott Adams |
| 1 | "The Infomercial" | Co-written with Ned Goldreyer and Scott Adams |
| 2 | "Art" | Co-written with Ned Goldreyer and Scott Adams |
| 2 | "The Dupey" | Co-written with Scott Adams |
| 2 | "The Merger" | Co-written with Scott Adams |
| 2 | "Hunger" | Co-written with Scott Adams |
| 2 | "The Assistant" | Co-written with Mark Steen, Ron Nelson, and Scott Adams |
| 2 | "The Return" | Co-written with Ned Goldreyer and Scott Adams |
| 2 | "The Virtual Employee" | Co-written with Ned Goldreyer and Scott Adams |
| 2 | "Pregnancy" | Co-written with Scott Adams |
| 2 | "The Delivery" | Co-written with Scott Adams |
| 2 | "The Fact" | Co-written with Ron Nelson, Mark Steen, and Scott Adams |
| 2 | "Ethics" | Co-written with Scott Adams |
''Curb Your Enthusiasm''
In 2000, Charles began his first job as a director on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David's follow-up series to Seinfeld. Charles directed 18 episodes of the hit HBO show.| Season | Episode | Notes |
| 1 | "The Wire" | |
| 2 | "Trick Or Treat" | |
| 3 | "The Benadryl Brownie" | |
| 3 | "The Nanny From Hell" | Charles was nominated in the 'Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series' categories at both the Directors Guild of America and Emmy Award ceremonies for this episode. |
| 4 | "Mel's Offer" | |
| 4 | "The Blind Date" | |
| 4 | "The Surrogate" | |
| 4 | "The Survivor" | Charles received his second Emmy nomination in the category of 'Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series' for this episode. |
| 5 | "The Bowtie" | |
| 5 | "The Ski Lift" | |
| 5 | "The End" | Charles received his second Directors Guild of America nomination for 'Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series' for this episode. |
| 6 | "Meet the Blacks" | |
| 6 | "The Bat Mitzvah" | |
| 7 | "Funkhouser's Crazy Sister" | |
| 7 | "The Bare Midriff" | |
| 8 | "Mister Softee" | |
| 9 | "Thank You for Your Service" |
''Entourage''
Charles served as an executive producer and writer on the HBO show Entourage for the first two seasons. The episodes that he wrote were:| Season | Episode | Info |
| 1 | "Talk Show" | |
| 1 | "Busey and the Beach" | co-written with Doug Ellin |
| 1 | "New York" | co-written with Doug Ellin |
| 2 | "Chinatown" | co-written with Brian Burns |