Ed Helms

American actor, comedian, and singerTemplate:SHORTDESC:American actor, comedian, and singer[[Category:**Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Pagetype/config' not found.**s with short description]]

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**Edward Parker Helms** (born January 24, 1974) is an American actor, comedian, and singer. He is known for his work as a correspondent on *The Daily Show* as well as playing Andy Bernard in the NBC sitcom *The Office,* and Stuart Price in *The Hangover* trilogy. He also provided the voice of The Once-ler in Illumination’s *The Lorax* and Captain Underpants in DreamWorks Animation's *Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie*.

## Early and personal life

Helms was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Helms had open-heart surgery at age 13 to correct a severe congenital heart defect, which he described as supravalvular aortic and pulmonic stenosis. According to Helms, his surgery lasted nine hours and he was kept in an intensive care unit for one week after.

He attended Interlochen Center for the Arts as a youth, and graduated from The Westminster Schools one year after *The Office* castmate Brian Baumgartner in 1992. Helms entered Oberlin College as a geology major, but ended up graduating in 1996 with his B.A. in film theory and technology. He spent a semester as an exchange student at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Helms is the recipient of an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Knox College, where he delivered the 2013 Commencement Address. In May 2014, Helms gave the convocation speech at Cornell University, alma mater of Andy Bernard, the character he portrayed for seven seasons on *The Office*. In May 2015, Helms gave the valedictory speech at the University of Virginia.

## Career

### Early work

After graduating from Oberlin, Helms began his comedy and acting career as a writer and performer with New York City sketch comedy bands, and studied improvisation with the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe. Helms concurrently worked as a trainee film editor at Crew Cuts, a post-production facility in New York City. While doing so, he recorded some rough voiceover scratch tracks that eventually led to paying voiceover work, which in turn led to finding a talent agent.

### Television

Helms was performing comedy in New York City when, as he recalled in a 2005 interview, "*The Daily Show* had a sort of open audition with a casting company that I had dealt with. I read for the part, and got it". In his April 2002 to mid-2006 tenure on the satirical news program, Helms contributed "field reports" in addition to hosting various segments of the show, such as "Digital Watch", "Ad Nauseam", and "Mark Your Calendar". He has also contributed to the "This Week in God" segment. His 2005 segment "Battle of the Bulge", which focused on the wearing of Speedo bathing suits on the beaches of Cape May, New Jersey, and his "Mass. Hysteria" segment, in which he reported criticism of Massachusetts when it became the first state to legalize gay marriage, are regarded by *TV Guide* as his signature segments on the program.

Helms left the show in 2006, but has occasionally returned for brief appearances. On July 21, 2008 he returned for Obama Quest – a segment covering Senator Barack Obama's trip to Iraq. He occasionally narrates the Prescott Group educational films on sister series *The Colbert Report*. In late July 2006, NBC announced that Helms was added to the cast of the mockumentary *The Office*, alongside fellow *The Daily Show* correspondent Steve Carell, in a recurring role as Andy Bernard, a nostalgic Cornell graduate who is obsessed with a cappella music. Helms was a series regular starting with the 3rd season. "He had so much in common with this character we wanted to create," recalled Paul Lieberstein, a writer for the show who also plays Toby Flenderson, the human resources representative at the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin. "I can't remember when they started merging." Helms returned to *The Daily Show* on December 5, 2006, stating he had been gone because he was "undercover at a paper company in Scranton", an allusion to his stint on *The Office*. In February 2007, NBC announced that Helms had been promoted to series regular, and in February 2010 Helms was added to the show's opening credits. Helms quickly became a solidifying part of the cast, and eventually came to be one of the show's producers. In June 2009, on a radio interview with National Public Radio, Helms said that like his character, Andy Bernard, he is obsessed with a cappella music.

Helms has also appeared on such television shows as *The Mindy Project*, *Wilfred*, *NTSF:SD:SUV*, *Tanner on Tanner*, *Childrens Hospital*, *Arrested Development* and *Cheap Seats*, and in various Comedy Central specials. He was the celebrity guest on the August 3, 2015 survival skills reality show *Running Wild with Bear Grylls*, coming to grips with his fear of heights on the Colorado Mountains. He has done commercial voiceover work in campaigns for Burger King, Doritos, Hotels.com, Sharp Aquos and Advair asthma medication, and he voices Neil the Angel, a character on Cartoon Network's *Weighty Decisions* series. Helms plays guitar, banjo (which was shown in the commercial bumpers and on a *What Up With That?* sketch when he hosted *Saturday Night Live* in 2011), piano, and all three, as well as a sitar, in some of his entertainment performances.

In August 2014, it was announced that Helms will star in Alejandro González Iñárritu's new Starz television drama series *The One Percent*, with Hilary Swank and Ed Harris, though he was later replaced by Greg Kinnear. Helms was also slated to serve as an executive producer on the upcoming TV series adaptation of the web series *Jake and Amir*, whose pilot was later rejected by TBS.

### Film

Helms starred in the 2011 film *Cedar Rapids* and co-starred in the blockbuster *The Hangover* film trilogy as Stuart Price. He had minor roles, including *Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian*, *Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story*, *Meet Dave*, *Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay*, *I'll Believe You*, *Evan Almighty*, *Semi-Pro* and, with *Office* co-star Jenna Fischer, *Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story*. In 2009, Helms appeared in *The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard*, directed by Neal Brennan and starring Jeremy Piven, and in 2012, he voiced the Once-ler in *The Lorax*. He played the lead role, Rusty Griswold, in the 2015 film *Vacation*, a sequel/spin-off of the *National Lampoon's Vacation* series. The movie began shooting in September 2014 in Helms' native Atlanta, with Christina Applegate playing Rusty's wife Debbie Griswold. In 2015, Helms starred in Jessie Nelson's movie, *Love the Coopers*. 2017 he stars in The Clapper (film), as Eddie Krumble who works as a paid audience member for infomercials and experiences a whirlwind of unwanted overnight fame, after a late-night talk show host publicizes his frequent infomercial appearances.

Helms voiced the title role in the DreamWorks animated film *Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie* (2017). He is slated to star in the Paramount Pictures *Naked Gun* reboot in development as of December 2013. Helms played Joe Gargan in the 2018 film *Chappaquiddick*.

### Other work

Helms is also in a bluegrass band called The Lonesome Trio with his friends Ian Riggs and Jacob Tilove. They formed the band when they were at Oberlin College, and still get together to play a few shows every year. They recorded an eponymous album in summer 2013, shortly after appearing on the Bluegrass Situation stage at the Bonnaroo festival, which Helms curated. Helms is a self-confessed "bluegrass nerd" and founded the annual LA Bluegrass Situation festival. Helms plays banjo, guitar and piano.

Helms features in the video for Mumford and Sons' song "Hopeless Wanderer". In 2015, he had a cameo appearance in the band's music video for the song "The Wolf". Helms launched his own production company, Pacific Electric Picture Company, in 2013. The company has a two-year development deal with Universal Television.

In 2013, Helms co-wrote, produced and starred in the Yahoo! Screen web series *Tiny Commando*, about a former Navy SEAL who is accidentally shrunken in a military experiment to four inches in height, and is then deployed in places that his size allows him to infiltrate.

## References

1. ↑ Hangover Part III Set Visit : Ed Helms – Moviehole Template:Webarchive. Moviehole.net. Retrieved on February 10, 2014.
2. ↑ 5 Facts About Me: Ed Helms – Ed Helms. People.com. Retrieved on February 10, 2014.
3. ↑ Goldman, Andrew. (May 27, 2011) Hangover 2 Star Ed Helms Interview. ELLE. Retrieved on February 10, 2014.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1  Ed Helms on YouTube Published on May 16, 2017 Jimmy Kimmel Live!
5. ↑ http://www.interlochen.org/high-performing-alumni
6. ↑ Phipps, Keith (June 3, 2009). "Ed Helms", The A.V. Club. Retrieved on June 11, 2009.
7. ↑ "Ed Helms: Biography". TVGuide.com. https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/ed-helms/bio/198481. Retrieved January 16, 2011.
8. ↑ "Knox College Announces 2013 Honorary Degrees". Knox.edu. Archived from the original on June 17, 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130617144812/http://www.knox.edu/news-and-events/news-archive/knox-college-announces-2013-honorary-degrees.html. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
9. ↑ Kingkade, Tyler (May 27, 2014) "Ed Helms Tells Cornell Graduates To 'Keep Creating Good Old Days'". *The Huffington Post*.
10. ↑ "2014 Senior Convocation featuring Ed Helms, TV's 'Andy Bernard'". Cornell University. May 24, 2014.
11. ↑ Prakash, Neha (May 17, 2015). "Ed Helms eviscerates 'Rolling Stone' in UVA commencement address". *Mashable*. http://mashable.com/2015/05/17/ed-helms-uva-commencement/. Retrieved July 22, 2017.
12. ↑ "*The Office* Cast Biographies – Ed Helms". *NBC.com*. Archived from the original on March 29, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110329170504/http://www.nbc.com/The\_Office/bios/ed\_helms.shtml. Retrieved October 11, 2010.
13. ↑ Sternbergh, Adam (September 14, 2008). "The Jerk: *Daily Show* alum and *The Office* star Ed Helms on the highs (and lows) of being obnoxious". https://nymag.com/arts/tv/profiles/50226. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
14. ↑ "Ed Helms on Politics, The Media and The Daily Show". *TheComical.com*. 2005. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080724070121/http://www.thecomical.com/features/ed\_helms\_interview.html.
15. ↑ Rudolph, Ileane (July 27, 2015). "Alumni Association: A roundup of *The Daily Show*'s coolest Graduates". *TV Guide*. pp 21-22.
16. ↑ Snierson, Dan (June 28, 2006). "Ed Helms joins the cast of *The Office*". *Entertainment Weekly*. http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2006/07/ed\_helms\_joins\_.html. Retrieved October 28, 2009.
17. ↑ Itzkoff, Dave (March 11, 2012). "Ambitious, but in a Polite Sort of Way". Retrieved on March 17, 2012.
18. ↑ Elizabeth, Stormy. "Running Wild with Bear Grylls Recap 8/3/15: Season 2 Episode 4 "Ed Helms"". Celeb Dirty Laundry. http://www.celebdirtylaundry.com/2015/running-wild-with-bear-grylls-recap-8315-season-2-episode-4-ed-helms/. Retrieved August 4, 2015.
19. ↑ Littleton, Cynthia (August 12, 2014). "Starz Orders Drama ‘One Percent’ to Star Ed Helms, Hilary Swank". *Variety*.
20. ↑ "Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu and Emmanuel Lubezki’s 10-Episode Television Series Dropped By Starz", *Indiewire* (March 3, 2017). Retrieved on March 6, 2017.
21. ↑ Andreeva, Nellie (December 18, 2013). "'Jake & Amir' Web Series Heading To TBS With Ed Helms Producing". *Deadline Hollywood*.
22. ↑ "Ed Helms to Play Rusty Griswold in New Vacation". ComingSoon. https://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=92434.
23. ↑ Brett, Jennifer (September 19, 2014). "Photos from the Atlanta set of 'Vacation' starring Ed Helms and Christina Applegate". AJC.com.
24. ↑ Template:Citation
25. ↑ Abramovitch, Seth (January 21, 2014). "Ed Helms, Kevin Hart Slip Into DreamWorks Animation's 'Captain Underpants'". *The Hollywood Reporter*.
26. ↑ McNary, Dave (December 13, 2013). "Ed Helms Firing Up ‘The Naked Gun’ Reboot for Paramount". *Variety*.
27. ↑ Ed Helms' Bluegrass Situation Superjam with special guests. lineup.bonnaroo.com
28. ↑ The Lonesome Trio. Facebook (April 21, 2013). Retrieved on February 10, 2014.
29. ↑ Bluegrass Situation festival: Banjo, comedy unite Steve Martin, Ed Helms – Los Angeles Times. Articles.latimes.com (April 26, 2011). Retrieved on February 10, 2014.
30. ↑ Bienstock, Richard (2013-04-22). "Better Off Ed: Ed Helms of ‘The Hangover’ and ‘The Office’ Talks Guitars, Banjos and Bluegrass". http://www.guitaraficionado.com/better-off-ed-ed-helms-of-the-hangover-and-the-office-talks-guitars-banjos-and-bluegrass.html.
31. ↑ "Mumford and Sons release hilarious Hopeless Wanderer video". Music Blogged. August 4, 2013. http://www.musicblogged.com/mumford-and-sons-release-hilarious-hopeless-wanderer-video/. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
32. ↑ "Watch Mumford & Sons Take Over Bonnaroo in 'The Wolf' Video". Rolling Stone. July 30, 2015. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/watch-mumford-sons-take-over-bonnaroo-in-the-wolf-video-20150630. Retrieved August 22, 2015.
33. ↑ Goldberg, Lesley (September 16, 2013) "Ed Helms Launches Production Company, Inks Overall Deal With Universal TV". *The Hollywood Reporter*.
34. ↑ Rothman, Lily (September 17, 2013). "Ed Helms’ Three Favorite Web Series". *Time*.
35. ↑ Kylie Hemmert (February 26, 2019). "Penguins: Ed Helms to Narrate Disneynature’s Feature Film". https://www.comingsoon.net/movies/trailers/1044103-penguins-ed-helms-to-narrate-disneynatures-feature-film. Retrieved February 26, 2019.
36. ↑ Schneider, Michael (December 8, 2017). "Ed Helms Returns to Comedy Central With a Mission: Making ‘Fake News’ Fake Again". Penske Media Corporation. https://www.indiewire.com/2017/12/ed-helms-comedy-central-daily-show-fake-news-turn-it-on-podcast-1201905360/.
37. ↑ "Official Lisa Loeb Channel" (in en). https://www.youtube.com/user/lisaloebofficial/videos.

## External links

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* Ken P., May 5, 2006 Helms Deep: Ken P. goes in-depth with Daily Show correspondent Ed Helms. at [IGN.com]. Retrieved 2009-10-28
* Plum TV Telluride video of Ed Helms, Rob Corddry and Aziz Ansari at Comedy Fest 2008
* Ed Helms in "Zombie American" short

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