# Jason Segel

Jason Jordan Segel (/ˈsiːɡəl/ SEE-gəl; born January 18, 1980) is an American actor and writer. He is best known for his role as Marshall Eriksen in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother from 2005 to 2014. He began his career with director and producer Judd Apatow on the television series Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000) and Undeclared (2001–2002) before gaining prominence for his leading roles in various successful comedy films in which he has starred, written, and produced.
Segel's comedic films include Knocked Up (2007), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), I Love You, Man (2009), Bad Teacher (2011), The Five-Year Engagement (2012), This Is 40 (2012), and Sex Tape (2014), as well as family films such as Despicable Me (2010), and The Muppets (2011). For his role as David Foster Wallace in The End of the Tour (2015) he received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead. He also starred in the dramas Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011), The Discovery (2017), Our Friend (2019), and Windfall (2022). From 2022 to 2023, he played the role of Paul Westhead in the HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.
In 2023, he began starring as a therapist in the Apple TV+ series Shrinking, which he also co-created alongside Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein. For his performance, he was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.

## Early life

Segel was born on January 18, 1980, in Santa Monica, California, to Jillian (née Jordan; born 1952) and Alvin Segel, a lawyer. He grew up in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. He has an older brother, Adam, and a younger sister, Alison.
Segel's father is Jewish, whereas his mother is of English, Scottish, Irish, and French descent. He has stated that he was raised Jewish, as well as "a little bit of everything". Segel went to Hebrew school and had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony, and also attended St. Matthew's Parish School, a private Episcopal school.
Following elementary school and middle school, Segel completed his high school studies at Harvard-Westlake School, where his 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) frame helped him as an active member of the 1996 and 1997 CIF state champion boys' basketball team. He won a slam dunk contest in high school and he was nicknamed "Dr. Dunk." He was a backup to the team's star center, Jason Collins, who went on to play in the NBA.

## Career

Segel's first major role was as stoner "freak" Nick Andopolis on the critically acclaimed but short-lived 1999 NBC comedy-drama series Freaks and Geeks. The series revolved around a group of suburban Detroit high school students circa 1980. Segel personally composed a song for his character, Nick, to sing to the lead female character, Lindsay (Linda Cardellini).
Segel had recurring roles on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Neil Jansen and on Undeclared as Eric. He played Marshall Eriksen on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother; he had previously stated he would move on to other projects in 2013 when his contract expired, but was convinced to finish the series after its ninth season in 2014.
Segel made his film debut with Can't Hardly Wait in 1998. His other early feature film appearances include Slackers, SLC Punk!, The Good Humor Man, and Dead Man on Campus. In 2007, he appeared in Knocked Up, directed by Freaks and Geeks producer Judd Apatow. Segel starred in the lead role of 2008's Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a film he wrote and Apatow produced with Shauna Robertson for Universal Pictures. He also starred in I Love You, Man, which was released on March 20, 2009, by DreamWorks.
In Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Segel's character writes a "Dracula" musical performed by puppets. He also appeared in the most prominent scene containing full frontal nudity in the film. In an interview, he stated that the Dracula musical with puppets, as well as being broken up with while naked, were real experiences he wrote into the movie. Those cloth creatures were custom-made by the Jim Henson Company, and the experience emboldened Segel to pitch his concept for a Muppets movie. Segel performed a song from the film, "Dracula's Lament", on the 1,000th episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.
For the 2010 comedy Get Him to the Greek, Segel co-wrote most of the soundtrack's music which was performed by the fictional celebrity singer, Aldous Snow, including Infant Sorrow. He also appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and sang an original song entitled "Wonky Eyed Girl".
In 2010, he voiced Gru's arch-rival Vector in Universal's CGI animated film Despicable Me and appeared as "Horatio" in a fantasy comedy film Gulliver's Travels directed by Rob Letterman and very loosely based on Part One of the 18th-century novel of the same name by Jonathan Swift. Segel appeared in Bad Teacher, starring Cameron Diaz, which opened in June 2011. He played gym teacher and thwarted suitor Russell Gettis. Along with Nicholas Stoller, Segel approached Disney in 2007 to write the latest Muppets film. Disney was unsure on how to take the request, as Segel had just appeared nude in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but after realizing that he was a fan, the project was approved. Segel stated that he wanted to do the film because the last film in the series to be released in theaters was Muppets from Space in 1999, and he felt that the younger generation was missing out on enjoying one of his childhood favorites.
Segel decided not to star in the sequel to The Muppets, Muppets Most Wanted. He filmed The Five-Year Engagement with Emily Blunt in the spring of 2011 in Michigan, and the film was released on April 27, 2012.
In 2013, Segel revealed he was working on a series of young adult novels, based on a story he conceived when he was 21. In the fall of 2014, the first novel of the series Nightmares!, co-written with Kirsten Miller, was released with the follow-up coming out the following year.
In 2015, Segel received praise for his portrayal of the late author David Foster Wallace in the independent biographical drama film The End of the Tour. For his performance, he earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead.
In 2017, Segel and Miller released a new book, Otherworld , the first of a new young adult series. A second book in the series, OtherEarth, was released in 2018, and a third novel, OtherLife, in 2019. Segel created and starred in the American drama television series Dispatches from Elsewhere, which premiered on March 1, 2020, on AMC.
In 2019, Segel starred in Our Friend based on Matthew Teague's 2015 essay "The Friend".

## Personal life

Segel is an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church. He performed a wedding ceremony on The Tonight Show on July 6, 2010, for a couple that solicited his services by placing pictures of him around his hometown and the bar he frequently visited.
Segel dated his Freaks and Geeks co-star Linda Cardellini for several years following the show's cancellation. He dated Michelle Williams from 2012 to 2013. From December 2013 to April 2021, Segel dated photographer Alexis Mixter. Since 2023, he has been dating former Taylor Swift backup dancer Kayla Radomski.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1998 | Can't Hardly Wait | Matt | |
| 1998 | Dead Man on Campus | Kyle | |
| 1998 | SLC Punk! | Mike | |
| 2002 | Slackers | Sam Schechter | |
| 2003 | 11:14 | Leon (Paramedic #1) | |
| 2003 | Certainly Not a Fairytale | Leo | |
| 2004 | LolliLove | Jason | |
| 2005 | The Good Humor Man | Smelly Bob | |
| 2006 | Bye Bye Benjamin | Theodore Everest | |
| 2006 | Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny | Frat Boy | Deleted scenes |
| 2007 | Knocked Up | Jason | |
| 2008 | Forgetting Sarah Marshall | Peter Bretter | Also writer |
| 2009 | I Love You, Man | Sydney Fife | |
| 2010 | Despicable Me | Victor "Vector" Perkins (voice) | |
| 2010 | Gulliver's Travels | Horatio | |
| 2011 | Bad Teacher | Russell Gettis | |
| 2011 | Friends with Benefits | Brice | Uncredited cameo |
| 2011 | Jeff, Who Lives at Home | Jeff Thompkins | |
| 2011 | The Muppets | Gary | Also writer and executive producer |
| 2012 | The Five-Year Engagement | Tom Solomon | Also writer and executive producer |
| 2012 | This Is 40 | Jason | |
| 2013 | This Is the End | Himself | Uncredited cameo |
| 2014 | Muppets Most Wanted | Gary | Uncredited cameo |
| 2014 | Sex Tape | Jay Hargrove | Also writer and executive producer |
| 2015 | The End of the Tour | David Foster Wallace | |
| 2017 | The Discovery | Will Harbor | |
| 2018 | Come Sunday | Henry | |
| 2019 | Our Friend | Dane Faucheux | |
| 2022 | The Sky Is Everywhere | Big Walker | |
| 2022 | Windfall | Nobody | Also story writer and producer |
| 2023 | Mooned | Victor "Vector" Perkins (voice) | Short film |
| 2024 | Despicable Me 4 | Victor "Vector" Perkins (voice) | Uncredited cameo |
| TBA | The Trip | TBA | Filming |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1999–2000 | Freaks and Geeks | Nick Andopolis | Main role; 18 episodes |
| 2001 | North Hollywood | | Unaired pilot |
| 2001–2002 | Undeclared | Eric | 7 episodes |
| 2004 | Harry Green and Eugene | Eugene Green | Unaired pilot |
| 2004–2005 | CSI: Crime Scene Investigation | Neil Jansen | 3 episodes |
| 2005 | Alias | Sam Hauser | Episode: "The Road Home" |
| 2005–2014 | How I Met Your Mother | Marshall Eriksen | Main role; 208 episodes |
| 2009 | Family Guy | Marshall Eriksen (voice) | Episode: "Peter's Progress" |
| 2011 | Saturday Night Live | Himself (host) | Episode: "Jason Segel/Florence and the Machine" |
| 2020 | Dispatches from Elsewhere | Peter | 10 episodes; also creator, writer, director, and executive producer |
| 2020 | Home Movie: The Princess Bride | Fezzik | Episode: "Chapter Two: The Shrieking Eels" |
| 2022–2023 | Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty | Paul Westhead | 12 episodes |
| 2023–present | Shrinking | Jimmy Laird | Main role; also creator, writer, and executive producer |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Title | Award | Category | Result |
| 2000 | 21st Young Artist Awards | Best Performance in a TV Series: Young Ensemble | Freaks and Geeks | Nominated |
| 2008 | MTV Movie Award | Best WTF Moment | Forgetting Sarah Marshall | Nominated |
| 2008 | Teen Choice Award | Choice Movie: Breakout Male | Forgetting Sarah Marshall | Nominated |
| 2011 | Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards | Critics Choice Award for Best Song | The Muppets | Won |
| 2011 | Georgia Film Critics Association Awards | Best Adapted Screenplay | The Muppets | Nominated |
| 2011 | 8th SLGFCA Awards | Best Adapted Screenplay (shared with Nicholas Stoller) | The Muppets | Nominated |
| 2015 | 35th Golden Raspberry Awards | Worst Screen Combo (share with Cameron Diaz) | Sex Tape | Nominated |
| 2015 | 35th Golden Raspberry Awards | Worst Screenplay (share with Kate Angelo, Nicholas Stoller) | Sex Tape | Nominated |
| 2015 | Seattle International Film Festival | Best Actor | The End of the Tour | 3rd Place |
| 2015 | Indiana Film Journalist Association Award | Best Actor | The End of the Tour | Runner-up |
| 2015 | Independent Spirit Awards | Best Male Lead | The End of the Tour | Nominated |
| 2015 | San Diego Film Critics Society Awards | Best Actor | The End of the Tour | Nominated |
| 2015 | Chicago Film Critics Association Awards | Best Actor | The End of the Tour | Nominated |
| 2024 | Primetime Emmy Award | Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series | Shrinking | Nominated |
| 2024 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy | Shrinking | Nominated |
| 2024 | Writers Guild of America Awards | Television: New Series | Shrinking | Nominated |
| 2024 | Screen Actors Guild Awards | Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series | Shrinking | Nominated |