Jeff Garlin

actor, director, Curb Your Enthusiasm

Comedian, actor, writer, and director Jeff Garlin enjoyed the best of both worlds Emmy nominations and the universal respect of his peers, as well as a niche level of fame that left him largely unrecognized by passersby. Garlin did not hit anything close to the mainstream radar until his co-starring role in Larry David's landmark HBO hit *Curb Your Enthusiasm*. A concurrent role on Fox's revered oddity *Arrested Development* further endeared him to fans of alternative comedy, though Garlin had cultivated the admiration of his peers since his days at Second City in the 1980s. He was widely considered one of the best improvisers in Hollywood, a necessity for the notoriously scriptless Curb production, and hailed as the comic's comic for his effortless, story-telling based act that was liberal with the self-deprecation about his weight and often surprisingly personal with revelations about his inner life. Garlin wrote and directed a feature based on one of his one-man-shows, *I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With* (2007), which received positive reviews on the festival circuit in 2007. The amiable comic also found popularity in family films, appearing opposite Eddie Murphy in *Daddy Daycare* (2003) and voicing the ship's captain in the Disney/Pixar hit *Wall-E* (2008).