Adam McKay
 |
Adam McKay | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Writer, film director |
| Nationality | American |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Notable works | Saturday Night Live Anchorman Talladega Nights Step Brothers |
| Spouse | Shira Piven (1996-) |
| Children | 2 |
Adam McKay (born 1968) is an American writer and film director.
Biography
Early life
McKay was born in Colorado, graduated from Great Valley High School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, in 1986, and attended Penn State and Temple universities. He is one of the founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade improv comedy group and a former performer at Chicago's ImprovOlympic theater and Child's Play Touring Theatre. While a member of the mainstage cast at Second City, he wrote and performed in that company's landmark revue, Pinata Full of Bees. In several politically charged sketches, McKay played characters like Noam Chomsky as a substitute kindergarten teacher, and a hapless personnel manager trying to inform a corporate vice president (Scott Adsit) of some disastrous IQ test results without losing his own job. The latter performance was excerpted in Second City's 40th anniversary compilation.
Career
McKay auditioned for Saturday Night Live to be an on-camera performer, but did not make the cut. The scripts he submitted to the show earned him a job as writer from 1995 to 2001, including three years as head writer. He also directed several popular short films for the show, including the original SNL Digital Shorts. McKay encouraged former Second City castmate Tina Fey to submit some of her scripts to Saturday Night Live, and she later succeeded him as head writer for that show. Even though McKay was not chosen as an SNL castmember, he did have a recurring role as an obnoxious audience member during the celebrity hosts' monologues during the time that he was a head writer on the show.
After leaving Saturday Night Live, he teamed with comedian Will Ferrell to write the feature films Anchorman (2004), Talladega Nights (2006), and Step Brothers (2008).
Since May 2005, he has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.
In April 2007 he launched, with Will Ferrell, the user submitted comedy video site Funny or Die. A video on the site, titled "The Landlord"[1] features both him and his young daughter Pearl. Though he has received criticism for having his daughter use profanity, he stated that his daughter does not swear in reality because she is still young. Pearl also starred in a second video titled Good Cop, Baby Cop which at the end states that the video was Pearl's last and she would go into "baby retirement".
McKay recently announced that he and Will Ferrell would be interested in making Anchorman 2, a sequel to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. There has been no official word however.
McKay has co-produced (with Will Ferrell) a HBO show starring Danny McBride called Eastbound & Down.[2]
He directed and co-wrote with Ferrell the Broadway show, You're Welcome America, A Final Night with George W. Bush.
McKay is writing and scheduled to direct The Other Guys, a 2010 action-comedy starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg.
Personal life
He has been married to actress and director Shira Piven (the sister of actor Jeremy Piven) since 1996. They have two children.
References
External links
- Adam McKay at IMDb
- The official Upright Citizens Brigade Theater website
- The Landlord at Funny or Die
- The Landlord Outtakes at Funny or Die
- Good Cop, Baby Cop at Funny or Die