Claim: David Schwimmer did the voice of Melman the Giraffe in the opening scene of Madagascar.

David Lawrence Schwimmer -LRB- born November 2 , 1966 -RRB- is an American actor , director , and producer . He was born in Flushing , Queens , New York , and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was 2 . He began his acting career performing in school plays at Beverly Hills High School . In 1988 , he graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in theater and speech . After graduation , Schwimmer co-founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company . For much of the late 1980s , he lived in Los Angeles as a struggling , unemployed actor .   He starred in the television movie A Deadly Silence in 1989 and appeared in a number of television roles , including on L.A. Law , The Wonder Years , NYPD Blue , and Monty , in the early 1990s . Schwimmer later gained worldwide recognition for playing Ross Geller in the sitcom Friends , for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1995 . His first leading film role was in The Pallbearer -LRB- 1996 -RRB- , followed by roles in Kissing a Fool -LRB- 1998 -RRB- , Six Days , Seven Nights -LRB- 1998 -RRB- , Apt Pupil , and Picking Up the Pieces -LRB- 2000 -RRB- . He was then cast in the miniseries Band of Brothers -LRB- 2001 -RRB- as Herbert Sobel .   After the series finale of Friends in 2004 , Schwimmer was cast as the title character in the 2005 drama Duane Hopwood . Other film roles include the voice of Melman the Giraffe in the computer-animated Madagascar film franchise , the dark comedy Big Nothing -LRB- 2006 -RRB- , and the thriller Nothing But the Truth -LRB- 2008 -RRB- . Schwimmer made his West End stage debut in the leading role in Some Girl -LRB- s -RRB- in 2005 . In 2006 , he made his Broadway debut in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial . Schwimmer made his feature film directorial debut with the 2007 comedy Run Fatboy Run . The following year he made his Off-Broadway directorial debut in the 2008 production , Fault Lines .   In 2016 , he starred as lawyer Robert Kardashian in American Crime Story , for which he received his second Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie .