Zach Galifianakis facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Zach Galifianakis
Galifianakis in 2012
Born	Zachary Knight Galifianakis (1969-10-01) October 1, 1969 (age 55) North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, U.S.
Education	Wilkes Community College North Carolina State University
Occupation	Actor comedian
Years active	1996–present
Spouse(s)	Quinn Lundberg ​ (m. 2012)​
Children	2
Relatives	Nick Galifianakis (uncle) Nick Galifianakis (cousin)

Zachary Knight Galifianakis (/ˌɡælɪfəˈnækɪs/; born October 1, 1969) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his role as Alan in The Hangover trilogy (2009–2013). On television, he starred in the FX series Baskets (2016–2019), which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2017. He also hosted the Funny or Die talk show Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis (2008–2018).

Galifianakis's other films include Due Date (2010), It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010), The Campaign (2012) and Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014). He has also voiced characters in animated films such as Puss in Boots (2011), The Lego Batman Movie (2017), Missing Link (2019), Ron's Gone Wrong (2021) and The Bob's Burgers Movie (2022).

Early life

Zachary Knight Galifianakis was born in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on October 1, 1969, to community arts center director Mary Frances (née Cashion) and heating oil vendor Harry Galifianakis. His mother is of Scots-Irish descent, while his paternal grandparents were Greek immigrants from Crete. He was baptized in his father's Greek Orthodox faith.

He has a younger sister, Merritt, and an older brother, Greg. Their cousin is Washington Post cartoonist Nick Galifianakis, while their uncle, also named Nick Galifianakis, was a Durham attorney and politician.

He attended Wilkes Central High School, Wilkes Community College and subsequently attended North Carolina State University, where he majored in communications. While in college, Galifianakis worked at a public access station. He taught a waltz class in 1991 and crossed paths with Mary J. Blige there.

Career

Early work

After his television debut on Boston Common, Galifianakis joined Saturday Night Live for two weeks. He has stated "I worked on Saturday Night Live for two weeks, and Britney Spears was the host one week when I was doing it. Wrote a sketch, Will Ferrell was going to play a bodyguard to her belly-button, and we were going to shrink Will down to fit into a belly-button. ...she just stared at me after I explained it to her. And then, she finally goes 'Yeah, that's funny.'" Galifianakis co-starred in the film Out Cold, and had small roles in Corky Romano, Below, Bubble Boy, Heartbreakers, Into the Wild, Super High Me, Little Fish Strange Pond and Largo.

Galifianakis on Inside Joke in New York City in 2008.

In September 2001, he appeared in an episode of Comedy Central Presents. It included a stand-up routine, a segment with a piano, and a cappella group The Night Owls (introduced as his "12 ex-girlfriends") singing "Eternal Flame" by The Bangles while he made jokes. In 2002, he hosted his own VH1 talk show called Late World with Zach. It featured many of his friends and regular performers from the Los Angeles comedy and music venue Largo where he appeared frequently during this time period. He played Davis in the Fox drama series Tru Calling. He appeared many times on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and played Frisbee in Reno 911!

Galifianakis played Alan Finger on the Comedy Central show Dog Bites Man, a fake news program that caught people during candid moments thinking they were being interviewed by a real news crew. He also guest-starred in the episode of the Comedy Central show The Sarah Silverman Program as Fred the Homeless Guy. He also had a recurring guest role as a doctor on the animated Adult Swim show Tom Goes to the Mayor and appeared in several episodes of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! in a recurring role as Tairy Greene.

In 2006, Galifianakis appeared in Fiona Apple's music video for the song "Not About Love", where he is seen lip-syncing the lyrics to the song. A year later, Kanye West employed Galifianakis and indie rock musician Will Oldham for similar purposes in the second version of the video for his song "Can't Tell Me Nothing". In June 2006, Galifianakis released the single "Come On and Get It (Up in 'Dem Guts)", a comedic hip-hop dance song which features Apple's vocals.

Galifianakis, Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn and Maria Bamford, are the four Comedians of Comedy, a periodic packaged comedy tour in the style of The Original Kings of Comedy and the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. They chose to perform at live rock clubs as opposed to comedy clubs to try to reach a different audience. Much of the tour was taped and has been featured in both a short-lived TV series on Comedy Central and a full-length film that has appeared at SXSW and on Showtime. On February 22, 2008, he made an appearance on the Jackassworld.com: 24 Hour Takeover. He interviewed various members of the Jackass cast. Galifianakis starred in first leading role in the independent film Visioneers which premiered in 2008. The film was released on direct-to-DVD.

His 2006 stand-up concert film Zach Galifianakis Live at the Purple Onion was one of the first original programs from Netflix.

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis

Zach Galifianakis interviewing Barack Obama for Between Two Ferns.

Galifianakis has a series of videos on the Funny or Die website titled Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis where he conducts interviews with popular celebrities between two potted ferns. He has interviewed Jimmy Kimmel, Michael Cera, Jon Hamm, Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, Bradley Cooper, Carrot Top, Conan O'Brien, Andy Richter, Andy Dick, Ben Stiller, Steve Carell, Sean Penn, Bruce Willis, Tila Tequila, Jennifer Aniston, Will Ferrell, Samuel L. Jackson, Tobey Maguire, Arcade Fire, Justin Bieber, Brie Larson, David Letterman, former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Brad Pitt, and Keanu Reeves. His interview style consists of typical interview questions, bizarre non sequiturs, awkward product endorsements, and sometimes inappropriate questions and comments. Galifianakis won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Program as a producer of the show at the 66th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

Mainstream performances

Galifianakis played Alan Garner in the hit comedy The Hangover and earned the MTV Movie Award for the Best Comedic Performance. He was also prominently advertised in subsequent films that featured him in supporting roles, such as G-Force, Youth in Revolt, and Up in the Air.

Galifianakis starred in the HBO series Bored to Death and hosted Saturday Night Live on March 6, 2010 during the show's 35th season, during which he shaved his beard mid-show for a sketch, and closed the show wearing a fake one. He hosted again on March 12, 2011, and shaved his head this time, in a Mr. T-like hairstyle, which was allegedly supposed to be used for a sketch that never aired due to time constraints.

In 2010, he starred in several films, including Dinner for Schmucks, It's Kind of a Funny Story, and Due Date. In 2011, he reprised his role for The Hangover Part II, which was set in Thailand, and voiced Humpty Dumpty in Puss in Boots. Galifianakis starred alongside Will Ferrell in Jay Roach's 2012 political comedy The Campaign. He received critical praise for his performance in the 2014 film Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), in which he starred with Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, and Edward Norton. In 2017, Galifianakis voiced The Joker in The Lego Batman Movie. In February 2023, Galifianakis joined the live-action film adaptation of Lilo & Stitch as Jumba.

Charity work

Galifianakis befriended Marie "Mimi" Haist, a homeless woman in her 80s who was living in a Santa Monica laundromat for 18 years, and bought her an apartment across the street from the laundromat. The story was revealed in the 2015 documentary Queen Mimi.

Personal life

In August 2012, Zach Galifianakis married Canadian charity worker Quinn Lundberg at the UBC Farm in Vancouver. They have two sons together: one born on September 7, 2013 (Galifianakis skipped the premiere of his film Are You Here to attend the birth) and another born on November 7, 2016.

Galifianakis has a house in Venice, Los Angeles and previously lived in Brooklyn. Galifianakis owns a farm in Sparta, North Carolina, and splits his time between the farm and his work. He said, "My farm is a place that I get to think clearly and pretend to know what I am doing." He also resides on an Island in British Columbia, Canada.

Filmography

Key

Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Flushed	Pathetic Guy
2001	Heartbreakers	Bill
	Bubble Boy	Bus Stop Man
	Corky Romano	Dexter
	Out Cold	Luke
2002	Below	Weird Wally
	Stella shorts	Santa	Short films
2005	The Comedians of Comedy	Himself	Stand-up tour documentary
	Zach Galifianakis: Look Who It Isn't		Self-released stand-up DVD
2006	Zach Galifianakis Live at the Purple Onion		Stand-up special
2007	The Comedians of Comedy: Live at The Troubadour		Stand-up tour concert video
	Into the Wild	Kevin Wallis
2008	What Happens in Vegas	Dave the bear
	Visioneers	George
2009	The Ballad of G.I. Joe	Snow Job	Short film
	Gigantic	Homeless Guy
	The Hangover	Alan Garner
	G-Force	Ben Kendell	Also in the video game
	Up in the Air	Steve Sewa
	Operation: Endgame	Hermit
	Little Fish, Strange Pond	Bucky
	Youth in Revolt	Jerry
2010	Dinner for Schmucks	Therman Murch
	It's Kind of a Funny Story	Bobby
	Due Date	Ethan Tremblay/Ethan Chase/Stu
2011	The Hangover Part II	Alan Garner
	Puss in Boots	Humpty Dumpty	Voice
	The Muppets	Hobo Joe
2012	Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie	Jim Joe Kelly
	The Campaign	Marty Huggins	Also producer
2013	The Hangover Part III	Alan Garner
2014	Are You Here	Ben Baker
	Muppets Most Wanted	Hobo Joe	Cameo
	Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)	Jake
2016	Masterminds	David Ghantt
	Keeping Up with the Joneses	Jeff Gaffney
2017	The Lego Batman Movie	The Joker	Voice
	Batman is Just Not That Into You		Voice, short film
	Tulip Fever	Gerrit
2018	A Wrinkle in Time	The Happy Medium
2019	The Sunlit Night	Haldor
	Missing Link	Mr. Link/Susan	Voice
	Between Two Ferns: The Movie	Himself	Also writer and producer
2021	Ron's Gone Wrong	Ron	Voice
2022	The Bob's Burgers Movie	Felix Fischoeder	Voice
2023	The Beanie Bubble	Ty Warner
2024	Winner	Ron Winner
	Thelma the Unicorn	Crusty Trucker	Voice
2025	Lilo & Stitch	Jumba	Voice, post-production
TBA	The Gallerist		Filming

Television

Video games

Music videos

Awards and nominations

See also

In Spanish: Zach Galifianakis para niños