Claim: Seth Rogen was cast as the lead in Funny People.

Seth Aaron Rogen -LRB- -LSB- ˈroʊɡən -RSB- born April 15 , 1982 -RRB- is a Canadian-American actor , filmmaker , and comedian . He began his career performing stand-up comedy during his teenage years , winning the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest in 1998 . While still living in his native Vancouver , he landed a supporting role in the series Freaks and Geeks . Shortly after he moved to Portland , Oregon for his role , Freaks and Geeks was officially cancelled after one season due to low viewership . Rogen later got a part on sitcom Undeclared , which also hired him as a staff writer .   After landing his job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show , for which he and the other writers received an Emmy Award nomination , he was guided by Judd Apatow toward a film career . Rogen made his first movie appearance in Donnie Darko with a minor role as a rebellious student in Donnie 's high school classes in 2001 . Rogen was cast in a major supporting role and credited as a co-producer in Apatow 's directorial debut , The 40-Year-Old Virgin . After Rogen received critical praise for his performance , Universal Pictures agreed to cast him as the lead in Apatow 's films Knocked Up and Funny People . Rogen co-starred as Steve Wozniak in Universal 's Steve Jobs biopic in 2015 . In 2016 , he developed the AMC television series Preacher with his writing partner Evan Goldberg and Sam Catlin . He also serves as a writer and executive producer , and directed the first two episodes of the series with Goldberg .   Rogen and Goldberg co-wrote the films Superbad , Pineapple Express , The Green Hornet , This Is the End , and directed both This Is the End and The Interview ; all of which Rogen starred in . He has also done voice work for the films Horton Hears a Who ! , the Kung Fu Panda film series , The Spiderwick Chronicles , Monsters vs. Aliens , Paul , and Sausage Party .