Seth Rogen
Seth Aaron Rogen is a Canadian actor, comedian, and filmmaker. Known primarily for his comedic leading man roles in films and on television, he has often collaborated with his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, and filmmaker and producer Judd Apatow. Rogen has received various accolades including four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for three Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Producers Guild of America Awards, and one Directors Guild of America Award.
Rogen started his career acting in Freaks and Geeks, before writing for the final season of Da Ali G Show, earning a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. After his film debut in Donnie Darko, he solidified himself as a comedy star with The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Funny People. He also acted in Superbad, Pineapple Express, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, The Green Hornet, This Is the End, The Interview, Neighbors, its 2016 sequel, The Disaster Artist, and Long Shot. He has played dramatic roles in 50/50, Take This Waltz, Steve Jobs and The Fabelmans.
Rogen has co-developed the AMC television series Preacher, on which he also served as writer, executive producer and director. He has also executive produced the Amazon Prime Video superhero series The Boys from 2019, and Invincible from 2021. He also starred in the Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy for which he received Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor nominations. He is currently starring in the critically acclaimed Apple TV+ satirical comedy series The Studio, which he created, wrote, and directed alongside Goldberg, for which he earned four Primetime Emmy Awards for acting, producing, directing, and writing.
Rogen is also known for his voice roles in the animated films Shrek the Third, Horton Hears a Who!, the Kung Fu Panda series, The Spiderwick Chronicles, Monsters vs. Aliens, Sausage Party, The Lion King, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Mufasa: The Lion King.
Early life
Seth Aaron Rogen was born on April 15, 1982, in Vancouver, British Columbia, into a Jewish family of Ukrainian and Russian origin. His mother, Sandy Belogus, is a social worker, and his American father, Mark Rogen, worked for non-profit organizations and as an assistant director of the Workmen's Circle Jewish fraternal organization. Rogen is a dual citizen of Canada and the United States who once said "I definitely associate with being Canadian much more than being American" due to his upbringing in the former. He has described his parents, who met on kibbutz Beit Alfa in Israel, as "radical Jewish socialists". Rogen has an older sister named Danya. He attended Vancouver Talmud Torah Elementary School and Point Grey Secondary School, incorporating many of his classmates into his writing, and took up kyokushin karate for 10 years. He was also known for the stand-up comedy he performed at Camp Miriam, a Habonim Dror camp.As a child, Rogen did not want to pursue any career other than comedy, stating, "As soon as I realized you could be funny as a job, that was the job I wanted." He got his start in show business at age 12 after enrolling in a comedy workshop taught by Mark Pooley. His early comedy routines involved jokes about his bar mitzvah, his grandparents and his camp counsellors. As a teenager, he would perform stand-up comedy routines at places like bar mitzvahs and small parties, later shifting to bars. A mohel paid him to write jokes. At the age of 13, he co-wrote a rough draft of Superbad with childhood friend Evan Goldberg, whom he had met at bar mitzvah classes. Based on their teenage experiences, Rogen and Goldberg spent the rest of their time in high school polishing the script. They initially worried that American Pie had beaten them to the idea for the movie, but they decided that the film "'managed to totally avoid all honest interaction between characters,' which is what we're going for."
His mother was supportive of his comic endeavours and would often drive him to stand-up gigs at the comedy club Yuk Yuk's. With his deadpan humour, he placed second in the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest at 16 years old. Also when Rogen was 16, his father lost his job and his mother quit hers, forcing them to put their house up for sale and relocate to a significantly smaller apartment. Around this time, he landed a role on Judd Apatow's television show Freaks and Geeks after attending a local casting call. Rogen dropped out of high school, began working for Apatow and relocated with his family to Los Angeles. Rogen paid the bills and had become the main wage earner at just 16.
Career
1999–2006: Early work and friendship with Judd Apatow
Rogen's acting debut was as Ken Miller, a cynical, acerbic "freak" in Freaks and Geeks, an eventual cult hit series first released in 1999. Revolving around a group of teenagers' lives, Freaks and Geeks first aired in 1999 and was well reviewed. The show was NBC's lowest-viewed program and was cancelled after one season due to poor ratings. Impressed with Rogen's improvisational skills, Apatow then chose him as the lead in another of his shows, Undeclared. Rogen was originally set to play a fairly popular college freshman, but the network did not think he was leading man material. Apatow opted not to go along with the show. Rogen also served as a staff writer to the short-lived production.Following the show's cancellation in 2002, Rogen did not get many auditions, which was not upsetting to him, as he always thought he would achieve better success as a writer. He was soon part of Apatow's "frat pack", a close-knit group that included Steve Carell and Paul Rudd. Of the awkwardness of a grown man spending so much time with a teenaged Rogen, Apatow said, "I'm such a comedy fan that, even though he's 16, I know I'm hanging out with one of the guys who's going to be one of the great comics." To stimulate their creativity, Apatow gave Rogen and Goldberg unusual writing tasks, such as turning an idea of his into a movie in 10 days, and coming up with 100 one-page film ideas. Regarding Apatow's professional effect on him, Rogen said in 2009, "Obviously, I can't stress how important Judd's been to my career."
Rogen had roles in Donnie Darko and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. A big career point for him was becoming a staff writer for Sacha Baron Cohen's last season of Da Ali G Show in 2004. Along with the show's other writers, Rogen received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. He became familiar to audiences as one of the main character's co-workers in Apatow's well-reviewed buddy comedy directorial debut feature The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which Rogen also co-produced, and in which he improvised all his dialogue. " hadn't done any screen work that indicated he could carry as memorable and convincing a performance as he does with the character Cal," MTV's John Constantine wrote. The Boston Globe reviewer Wesley Morris wrote that Rogen, along with co-stars Rudd and Romany Malco, were each hilarious in their own right. The Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore believed that Rogen "had his moments" in the film, whereas Moira Macdonald of The Seattle Times said the actor was "droopily deadpan". Rogen followed this with a small role in You, Me and Dupree, a critically panned comedy featuring Matt Dillon, Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson.
2007–2009: Breakthrough as a leading man
Rogen's breakthrough came when Universal Studios green-lit him for the lead in yet another Apatow production, Knocked Up, a romantic comedy that follows the repercussions of a drunken one-night stand between his slacker character and Katherine Heigl's just-promoted media personality that results in an unintended pregnancy. On completing The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Apatow had approached Rogen about potential starring roles, but the actor suggested many high-concept science fiction ideas. After Apatow insisted that he would work better in real-life situations, the two agreed on the accidental pregnancy concept of this production. Rogen called shooting sex scenes with Heigl "nerve-wracking" and was grateful for the supporting cast for shifting some of the film's focus away from him. Made on a $30 million budget and released on June 1, Knocked Up was a critical and commercial hit, garnering an approval rating of 90% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and grossing $219 million. Rogen also received favourable reviews. Later that year, he played a supporting part as an irresponsible police officer in Superbad, which he wrote with his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, and was co-produced by Apatow. Michael Cera and Jonah Hill originate the main roles, two teenage best friends whose party plans go wrong, based on them. Critics outsiders the film and its writing, finding it very authentic, and it topped the U.S. box office for two weeks. Rogen then made a vocal cameo appearance in the animated film Shrek the Third, also released in 2007, and hosted Saturday Night Live in October 2007.Rogen's projects in 2008 included Jimmy Hayward's Horton Hears a Who!, an animated film based on the Dr. Seuss book, where Rogen voiced Morton the Mouse, and the fantasy film The Spiderwick Chronicles, where he voiced a hobgoblin. He additionally co-wrote Drillbit Taylor, also produced by Apatow and starring Owen Wilson as the homeless titular character. He based the screenplay on a 70-page scriptment done by John Hughes. The movie was panned by critics who thought its plot—a grown man becoming three kids' bodyguard and beating up their bullies—had no focus and was too drawn-out. "If Superbad were remade as a gimmicky Nickelodeon movie, it would probably look something like Drillbit Taylor," Josh Bell wrote in the Las Vegas Weekly. Rogen voiced another animated movie, Kung Fu Panda, with Jack Black and Angelina Jolie. It did exceptionally well in theatres, making more than $630 million. He made a cameo appearance in the comedy Step Brothers, released in July. Rogen, Goldberg and Apatow were behind the stoner action comedy Pineapple Express directed by David Gordon Green at Columbia Pictures. Apatow produced it while Rogen and Goldberg wrote the script. Rogen was chosen to play the film's protagonist, a 25-year-old who accidentally witnesses a murder while delivering a subpoena. James Franco was cast as his hippie pot dealer with whom he becomes a fugitive. When asked about its inspiration, Rogen said "I write what I know". Pineapple Express was released to theatres in August and made $101 million against its $27 million production budget. Critics lauded it, appreciating the performances and humor.
In April 2008, Empire reported Rogen and Goldberg would write an episode for the animated television series The Simpsons. He also voiced a character in the episode, titled "Homer the Whopper", which opened the 21st season. Kevin Smith's romantic comedy Zack and Miri Make a Porno rounded out 2008 for the actor. He and Elizabeth Banks portrayed the title roles of two Pennsylvania roommates who try to make some extra cash by making an adult film together. After having difficulty trying to secure an R rating, Rogen commented to MTV, "It's a really filthy movie," but complained, "It's really crazy to me that Hostel is fine, with people gouging their eyes out and shit like that... but you can't show two people having sex – that's too much." The picture was distributed on Halloween by The Weinstein Company and disappointed at the box office. Along with Reese Witherspoon, he voiced a character in the animated science fiction Monsters vs. Aliens, which did well commercially, with a total of $381.5 million. He then starred in the Jody Hill–directed mall cop comedy Observe and Report, in which he portrayed bipolar mall security guard Ronnie Barnhart. The film opened in theatres on April 10. Critics noted a departure in Rogen's acting style from playing laid-back roles to playing a more sadistic character; Wesley Morris from The Boston Globe opined that "Often with Rogen, his vulnerability makes his coarseness safe... Ronnie is something altogether new for Rogen. Vulnerability never arrives. He's shameless." Later in 2009, Rogen starred in Apatow's third directorial feature, Funny People, with Adam Sandler. Rogen played a young, inexperienced comic while Sandler played a mentor of sorts to his character; the film had more dramatic elements in it than Apatow's previous efforts. Funny People was a commercial failure, coming up short of earning back its $75 million budget. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with a consensus that it had "considerable emotional depth." Rogen hosted Saturday Night Live again in 2009, where the music video for the Lonely Island song "Like a Boss", in which he starred, premiered.