Joel McHale

**Joel McHale** (born November 20, 1971) is an American actor. He portrays Sylvester Pemberton/Starman and Ultra-Humanite in a guest starring on *Stargirl*. He was promoted to a series regular for the show's third season, where he solely portrays Ultra-Humanite.

## Biography

Joel was born in Rome on November 20th, 1971, but was raised in various parts of Washington and later New Jersey. He received a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Washington in 1995, and was briefly in the Theta Chi fraternity but ultimately left. McHale was recruited to be on the University of Washington's rowing team, but later joined its football team. He began to act in plays and received an MFA from the Professional Actors Training Program at the University of Washington.

In 1996 he married Sarah Williams and had two sons. He revealed in 2018 that he and his two sons are dyslexic.

## Career Highlights

Joel went on to host several shows, including *The Soup*, a co-host of *Loveline*, and a judge on *Iron Chef America*. He was involved in the American version of the British TV show *The IT Crowd*. He also judged one episode of *RuPaul's Drag Race*.

He hosted the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards, the 2014 White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner, the 2015 ESPY awards, and was an occasional co-host in *Live With Kelly*. He eventually earned his own talk show on Netflix titled *The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale*. The series was canceled after nineteen episodes.

In 2020, he co-hosted *The Darkest Timeline* podcast with Ken Jeong in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Simultaneously, Joel became a breakout actor upon moving to the Los Angeles. He landed small roles in *CSI: Miami* and *Will & Grace*. He had a minor role in the film *Spider-Man 2*. His breakout role came in 2009 when he starred in the NBC-turned-Yahoo sitcom *Community*.

He has appeared in the films *Spy Kids: All the Time in the World* (2011) and *Ted* (2012). He also starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom *The Great Indoors* and in 2019, began hosting a reboot of *Card Sharks*.

## Notes and Trivia

* Joel was later offered the role of Sylvester Pemberton in *Stargirl* by Geoff Johns, with the pitch including Joel being a superhero in one scene that he would share with Luke Wilson.
* Joel has been credited three different ways in *Stargirl*. He was introduced as a guest star in "*Stargirl*" and his subsequent Season 2 appearances, held a "special appearance by" credit in "*Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. Part Two*", and had a starring role in Season 3.
* His teenaged children watch *Stargirl* and are fans of the show.
* McHale previously worked with Keith David in NBC-turned-Yahoo sitcom *Community*.
* Joel was given a Cosmic Staff prop after the wrap of the series.

## External Links

* Joel McHale on the Internet Movie Database
* Follow Joel McHale [@joelmchale] on Twitter
* Follow Joel McHale [@joelmchale] on Instagram
* Official website

## References

1. ↑ Swift, Andy (December 12, 2018).  "Joel McHale Joins DC Universe's *Stargirl* Series as Iconic Hero Starman". *TV Line*. **[ARCHIVED]**
2. ↑ **Reddit:** Shawn McBee reveals that Joel was given a cosmic staff prop.