Will Ferrell – Biography of Will Ferrell

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Place of birth: Irvine, California (USA)

Biography:

Raised in the town of Irvine, located in the state of California, he studied at the University of Southern California, specializing in sports journalism. After graduating, he began working as a sports commentator on a program that aired weekly on a local cable channel.
Shortly after, he began taking acting classes, attending various stand-up comedy workshops in his neighborhood. After having studied for only one year, he was summoned to participate in the famous comic improvisation group “The Groundlings”. He was lucky enough that a producer on the even more famous show “Saturday Night Live” saw him performing in that group and brought him on the television show.

This is how he participated in the show, which later became his home. He had seven seasons on the NBC late-night show, standing out in 2002, with his astonishing impression of President George W. Bush, in the sketch called “Indecision 2000.”

Thanks to his outstanding performances, he was nominated twice for the Emmy Awards, for Best Individual Performance in a Musical or Variety Program, and for Best Script of a Musical, Variety or Comedy Program, in 2001.

Regarding the cinema, Ferrell reaped great success for DreamWorks Pictures, when he worked in “Old school”, under the direction of Todd Phillips, and sharing the filming with Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson. The film tells the story of three men dissatisfied with their adult lives, who try to return to their college holidays, and move into a house on their old campus. To his surprise, the house becomes the center of all the revelries throughout the university.

His first relevant leading role, without a doubt, was “Elf, El duende” the film that remained at the top of the charts for two weeks in a row. And it was crowned as the seventh highest grossing film of the year 2003, a fact more than meritorious for a film of its characteristics, grossing more than 218 million dollars around the world.

A year later, Will stars in “The Reporter: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” a comedy produced by DreamWorks, with a script co-written by Ferrell with Adam McKay, the writer of “Saturday Night Live.” On this occasion, Ferrell plays the protagonist of the film, Ron Burgundy, an egocentric host from the ’70s, who sees his career threatened when another ambitious presenter appears on the show, and who, like Burgundy, stands out in the journalistic work. The film managed to amass a figure of more than 85 million dollars in the USA alone.

In March 2005 he has an appearance in a feature film directed by Woody Allen, “Melinda and Melinda”. He was later seen in the Universal sitcom “A Great Trainer” that same year, and he also starred in the most popular film of the summer in “Bewitched,” with Nicole Kidman, starring in the re-make of the hit ’60s series.
Another of his titles was “Winter Passing” with Ed Harris, Zooey Deschanel and Amelia Warner. The latter was a drama that recounts the adventures of a young woman who returns to the place where her father once lived and, to her amazement, realizes that it is inhabited by very strange characters.

Two comedies stand out in his filmography: “Zoolander”, a hilarious film that takes the world of “fashion” as a context; in it he shares the ring with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, playing Mugatu, the delusional and frustrated fashion designer. The other comedy is “Jay and Silent Bob – Strike Back” from Dimensions Films, directed by Kevin Smith. Farrell played an ambitious vigilante.

But without a doubt, his most important productions were: the Paramount Pictures comedy “A Night at the Roxbury,” a film that made his face known to Hollywood stars; and we cannot fail to mention “Austin Powers: Mysterious International Agent”, which meant for Will, his consecration as an accomplished actor in North America and the world.

Filmography:

  • Step Brothers (2008)
  • Blades of Glory (2007)
  • Stranger Than Fiction (2006)
  • Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
  • Curious George (2006)
  • The Producers (2005)
  • Winter Passing (2005)
  • Wedding Crashers (2005) (uncredited)
  • Bewitched (2005)
  • Kicking & Screaming (2005)
  • The Wendell Baker Story (2005)
  • Melinda and Melinda (2004)
  • Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
  • Starsky & Hutch (2004)
  • Elf (2003)
  • Old School (2003)
  • Boat Trip (2002)
  • Zoolander (2001)
  • Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
  • The Ladies Man (2000)
  • Drowning Mona (2000)
  • Superstar (1999)
  • Dick (1999)
  • Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
  • The Suburbans (1999)
  • A Night at the Roxbury (1998)
  • The Thin Pink Line (1998)
  • Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
  • Men Seeking Women (1997)