Jason Segel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jason Segel
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Segel in 2017
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Jason Jordan Segel
January 18, 1980 Santa Monica, California, U.S.
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| Years active | 1998–present |
Jason Jordan Segel, born on January 18, 1980, is a well-known American actor and writer. You might know him best as Marshall Eriksen from the popular TV show How I Met Your Mother. This show aired from 2005 to 2014.
Jason started his career working with director Judd Apatow on TV series like Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. He then became famous for starring in, writing, and even producing many successful comedy movies.
Some of his funny films include Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and I Love You, Man. He also appeared in family movies like Despicable Me and The Muppets. Jason also takes on serious roles, like playing David Foster Wallace in The End of the Tour, which earned him an award nomination.
More recently, from 2022 to 2023, he played Paul Westhead in the HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty. In 2023, he started starring in the Apple TV+ series Shrinking. He also helped create this show! For his work on Shrinking, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
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Jason Segel: Early Life and School Days
Jason Segel was born in Los Angeles on January 18, 1980. His mother is Jillian and his father is Alvin, who is a lawyer. He grew up in a neighborhood called Pacific Palisades. Jason has an older brother named Adam and a younger sister named Alison.
His father is Jewish, and his mother has English, Scottish, Irish, and French family roots. Jason has said he was raised Jewish and also "a little bit of everything." He went to Hebrew school and had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony. He also attended St. Matthew's Parish School, which is a private Episcopal school.
After elementary and middle school, Jason went to Harvard-Westlake School for high school. He was very tall, standing at 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 meters). This helped him a lot on the school's basketball team. He was part of the team that won state championships in 1996 and 1997. He even won a slam dunk contest in high school and was nicknamed "Dr. Dunk." He was a backup player to Jason Collins, who later played in the NBA.
Starting His Acting Journey
Jason Segel's first big acting job was playing Nick Andopolis in the TV show Freaks and Geeks in 1999. This show was about high school students in Detroit around 1980. Even though it didn't last long, it was highly praised. Jason even wrote a song for his character, Nick, to sing to another character, Lindsay.
He also had roles in other TV shows like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Undeclared. From 2005 to 2014, he played Marshall Eriksen on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. He originally thought about leaving the show in 2013, but he decided to stay and finish the series after its ninth season in 2014.
Jason's first movie was Can't Hardly Wait in 1998. He also appeared in early films like Slackers and SLC Punk!. In 2007, he was in Knocked Up, directed by Judd Apatow, who also worked on Freaks and Geeks.
Famous Roles and Movies
Jason Segel starred in Forgetting Sarah Marshall in 2008. He also wrote this movie, and Judd Apatow helped produce it. In this film, Jason's character writes a "Dracula" musical that puppets perform. Jason even sang a song from the movie, "Dracula's Lament," on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
He also starred in I Love You, Man, which came out in 2009. For the 2010 comedy Get Him to the Greek, Jason helped write most of the music for the soundtrack. This music was performed by a fictional singer named Aldous Snow.
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In 2010, Jason lent his voice to the character Vector in the animated movie Despicable Me. He also appeared as Horatio in the fantasy comedy film Gulliver's Travels. In 2011, he was in Bad Teacher with Cameron Diaz, where he played a gym teacher.
Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller went to Disney in 2007 with an idea for a new Muppets movie. The project was approved, and the movie came out in 2011. Jason said he wanted to make the film because he felt younger kids were missing out on the Muppets, which he loved as a child. He decided not to be in the sequel, Muppets Most Wanted.
In 2011, he filmed The Five-Year Engagement with Emily Blunt, which was released in 2012.
Beyond Acting: Writing and Producing
In 2013, Jason shared that he was working on a series of young adult novels. He came up with the idea for the story when he was 21 years old. The first book in the series, Nightmares!, was released in 2014. He wrote it with Kirsten Miller. A second book followed the next year.
In 2015, Jason received great reviews for his role as the author David Foster Wallace in the movie The End of the Tour. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for his performance.
In 2017, Jason and Kirsten Miller released a new young adult book series called Otherworld. The second book, OtherEarth, came out in 2018, and the third, OtherLife, in 2019. Jason also created and starred in the TV drama series Dispatches from Elsewhere, which started in 2020 on AMC. In 2019, he starred in the movie Our Friend.
His Personal Life
Jason Segel is an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church. This means he can perform wedding ceremonies. He even performed a wedding on The Tonight Show in 2010 for a couple who asked him to.
Jason has dated some of his co-stars and other famous people. He dated Linda Cardellini from Freaks and Geeks for several years. He also dated actress Michelle Williams from 2012 to 2013. From 2013 to 2021, he dated photographer Alexis Mixter. Since 2023, he has been dating Kayla Radomski, who used to be a Taylor Swift backup dancer.
Selected Filmography
Jason Segel has been in many movies and TV shows throughout his career. Here are some of his notable roles:
- Movies:
- Can't Hardly Wait (1998)
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) - He also wrote this film.
- I Love You, Man (2009)
- Despicable Me (2010) - Voice of Vector
- The Muppets (2011) - He also wrote and produced this film.
- The Five-Year Engagement (2012) - He also wrote and produced this film.
- The End of the Tour (2015)
- Windfall (2022) - He also wrote the story and produced this film.
- Television:
- Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000) - Nick Andopolis
- How I Met Your Mother (2005–2014) - Marshall Eriksen
- Dispatches from Elsewhere (2020) - Peter (also creator, writer, director, and executive producer)
- Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (2022–2023) - Paul Westhead
- Shrinking (2023–present) - Jimmy Laird (also creator, writer, and executive producer)
Awards and Nominations
Jason Segel has been recognized for his work in both movies and television.
- In 2011, he won the Critics Choice Award for Best Song for The Muppets.
- In 2015, he was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead for his role in The End of the Tour.
- More recently, in 2024, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy for his role in Shrinking. He was also nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for the same show.
Images for kids
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Segel, Neil Patrick Harris and Joss Whedon in 2011
