Jerry Seinfeld
Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He is best known for playing a semi-fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom "Seinfeld", which he created and wrote with Larry David. The show aired on NBC from 1989 until 1998, becoming one of the most acclaimed and popular American sitcoms of all time. As a stand-up comedian, Seinfeld specializes in observational comedy. In 2004, Comedy Central named him as the 12th-greatest stand-up comedian of all time. Seinfeld produced, co-wrote, and starred in the 2007  film "Bee Movie", which was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. In 2010, he premiered a reality series called "The Marriage Ref", which aired for two seasons on NBC. Seinfeld is the creator and host of the web series "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" (2012–2019). He is married to author and philanthropist Jessica Seinfeld, with whom he has three children. Seinfeld has received twenty Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his work on "Seinfeld" and "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" as well as four Grammy Award nominations for his comedy albums. Early life. Seinfeld was born  in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City. His father, Kálmán Seinfeld (1918–1985), was of Hungarian-Jewish descent and collected jokes that he heard while serving in World War II. His mother, Betty (née Hosni; 1915–2014), and her parents, Selim and Salha Hosni, were Jews from Aleppo, Syria. Their nationality was stated as Turkish when they immigrated in 1917, as Syria was under the Ottoman Empire. Seinfeld has an older sister, Carolyn. Salha’s mother Garez Dayan, Seinfeld's great-grandmother, was a member of the Dayan rabbinic family, who trace their paternal ancestry back to the Medieval Exilarchs, and  from the Exilarchs back to the Biblical King David. Seinfeld's second cousin is musician and actor Evan Seinfeld. Seinfeld grew up in Massapequa, New York, and attended Massapequa High School on Long Island. At the age of 16, he spent time volunteering in Kibbutz Sa'ar in Israel. He attended State University of New York at Oswego, and transferred after his second year to Queens College, City University of New York, whence he graduated with a degree in communications and theater. Career. Early career. Seinfeld developed an interest in stand-up comedy after brief stints in college productions. He appeared  on open-mic nights at Budd Friedman's Improv Club while attending Queens College. After graduation in 1976, he tried out at an open-mic night at New York City's Catch a Rising Star, which led to an appearance in a Rodney Dangerfield HBO special. In 1980, he had a small recurring role on the sitcom "Benson", playing Frankie, a mail-delivery boy who had comedy routines that no one wanted to hear. Seinfeld was abruptly fired from the show due to creative differences. Seinfeld has said that he was not told he had been fired until he turned  up for the read-through session for an episode and found that there was no script for him. In May 1981, Seinfeld made a successful appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson", impressing Carson and the audience, leading to frequent appearances on that show and others, including "Late Night with David Letterman". On September 5, 1987, his first one-hour special "Stand-Up Confidential" aired live on HBO. Section::::"Seinfeld". Seinfeld created "The Seinfeld Chronicles" with Larry David in 1988 for NBC. The show was later renamed "Seinfeld" to avoid confusion with the short-lived teen sitcom "The Marshall Chronicles . By its third season, it had become the most watched sitcom on American television. The final episode aired in 1998, and the show has been a popular syndicated re-run. Along with Seinfeld, the show starred Saturday Night Live" veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfus and experienced actors Michael Richards and Jason Alexander. Alexander played George, a caricature of Larry David. Seinfeld is the only actor to appear in every episode of the show. Seinfeld has said that his show was influenced by the 1950s sitcom "The Abbott and Costello Show". In the "Seinfeld Season 6" DVD set, commenting on the episode  The Gymnast, Seinfeld cited Jean Shepherd as an influence, saying, "He really formed my entire comedic sensibility—I learned how to do comedy from Jean Shepherd." From 2004 to 2007, the former "Seinfeld" cast and crew recorded audio commentaries for episodes of the DVD releases of the show. Post-"Seinfeld". After he ended his sitcom, Seinfeld returned to New York City to make a comeback with his stand-up comedy rather than stay in Los Angeles and continue his acting career. In 1998, he went on tour and recorded a comedy special, titled "I'm Telling You for the Last Time . The process of developing and performing new material at clubs around the world was chronicled in a 2002 documentary, Comedian", which also featured fellow comic Orny Adams and was directed by Christian Charles. Seinfeld has written several books, mostly archives of past routines. In the late 1990s, Apple Computer came up with the advertising slogan "Think different" and produced a 60-second commercial to promote the slogan. This commercial showed people who were able to "think differently," such as Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and many others. It was later cut short to 30 seconds and altered  such that Seinfeld was included at the end, although he had not been in the original cut. This shorter version of the commercial aired only once, during the series finale of "Seinfeld". In 2004, Seinfeld appeared in two commercial webisodes promoting American Express, titled "The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman". In these, Seinfeld appeared with a cartoon rendering of Superman, to whom reference was made in numerous episodes of "Seinfeld" as Seinfeld's hero, voiced by Patrick Warburton (character David Puddy on "Seinfeld"). The webisodes were directed by Barry Levinson and aired briefly on television. Seinfeld and "Superman" were also interviewed  by Matt Lauer in a specially recorded interview for the "Today" show. On November 18, 2004, Seinfeld appeared at the National Museum of American History to donate the "puffy shirt" he wore in the "Seinfeld" episode of the same name. He also gave a speech when presenting the "puffy shirt," saying humorously that "This is the most embarrassing moment of my life." On May 13, 2006, Seinfeld had a cameo appearance on "Saturday Night Live" as host Julia Louis-Dreyfus' assassin. Louis-Dreyfus in her opening monolog mentioned the "Seinfeld curse." While talking about how ridiculous the "curse" was, a  stage light suddenly fell next to her. The camera moved to a catwalk above the stage where Seinfeld was standing, holding a large pair of bolt cutters. He angrily muttered, "Damn it!" upset that it did not hit her. Louis-Dreyfus continued to say that she is indeed not cursed. On February 25, 2007, Seinfeld appeared at the 79th Academy Awards as the presenter for "Best Documentary." Before announcing the nominations, he did a short stand-up comedy routine about the unspoken agreement between movie theater owners and movie patrons. On October 4, 2007, Seinfeld made a guest appearance as  himself in the "30 Rock" episode "SeinfeldVision." On February 24, 2008, at the 80th Academy Awards, Seinfeld appeared as the voice of his "Bee Movie" animated character Barry, presenting Best Animated Short Film. Before announcing the nominees, he showed a montage of film clips featuring bees, saying that they were some of his early work (as Barry). On June 2, 2008, amidst his spring 2008 tour, Seinfeld performed in his hometown of New York City for a one-night-only show at the Hammerstein Ballroom to benefit "Stand Up for a Cure", a charity aiding lung cancer research at Memorial  Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. In August 2008, the Associated Press reported that Jerry Seinfeld would be the pitchman for Windows Vista, as part of a $300-million advertising campaign by Microsoft. The ads, which were intended to create buzz for Windows in support of the subsequent "I'm a PC" advertisements, began airing in mid-September 2008. They were cut from television after three installments; Microsoft opted to continue with the "I'm a PC" advertisements and run the Seinfeld ads on the Microsoft website as a series of longer advertisements. In March 2009, it was announced that Seinfeld  and the entire cast of "Seinfeld" would be appearing for a reunion in Larry David's HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm". The fictional reunion took place in the seventh season's finale and starred most of the original cast, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, Michael Richards, in a multiple-episode arc. Seinfeld appeared on an episode of the Starz original series "Head Case". As was the case in many of his previous guest appearances on sitcoms, he played himself. In Australia, Seinfeld appeared on a series of advertisements for the Greater Building Society, a building society based in New  South Wales and southeastern Queensland. His appearance in these ads was highly publicized and considered a coup for the society, being the third time Seinfeld had appeared in a television commercial. The advertisements were filmed in Cedarhurst, Long Island, with the street designed to emulate Beaumont Street in Hamilton, where the Greater's head offices are located. Seinfeld also wrote the scripts for the 15 advertisements that were filmed. The ads largely aired in the Northern New South Wales television market, where the society has most of its branches. Seinfeld was the first guest on Jay Leno's talk show  The Jay Leno Show, which premiered on September 14, 2009. Seinfeld was featured on "Saturday Night Live"s Weekend Update sketch to do the "Really!?!" segment with Seth Meyers. He executive produced and occasionally starred as a panelist in "The Marriage Ref". On August 30, 2010, Seinfeld made a surprise guest appearance on "The Howard Stern Show", mending the feud the two had in the early '90s. Seinfeld toured the U.S. in 2011 and made his first stand-up appearance in the UK in 11 years. In July 2011, he was a surprise guest on "The Daily Show", helping Jon Stewart  to suppress his urge to tell "cheap" "Michele Bachmann's husband acts gay" jokes. Seinfeld also launched a personal archives website at JerrySeinfeld.com and appeared in the HBO special "Talking Funny" with fellow comedians Chris Rock, Louis C.K., and Ricky Gervais in the same year. Section::::"Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee". In 2012, Seinfeld started a web series titled "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee", in which he would pick up a fellow comedian in a different car each episode and take them out for coffee and conversation. The show originally aired on the Crackle streaming service and then was bought by  Netflix. The initial series consisted of ten episodes lasting from 7 to 25 minutes each. The show has continued to get high-profile guests such as Tina Fey, Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K., Eddie Murphy, Steve Martin, David Letterman, Chris Rock, John Mulaney, Mel Brooks, Don Rickles, Ellen DeGeneres, Howard Stern, and Jerry Lewis. The show has also hosted "Seinfeld" alums Larry David, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, and Michael Richards. Season seven featured its most high-profile guest, then-President Barack Obama. In a farewell tribute video for the Obamas before the President left office, Seinfeld stated, "That knocking on  the Oval Office window. That probably was the peak of my entire existence." Seinfeld signed a comedy deal with Netflix in January 2017. As part of the deal, all episodes of "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" would be made available on the streaming service, in addition to a new twenty-four-episode season. Other appearances. In June 2013, he appeared on rapper Wale's album "The Gifted", on the song "Outro About Nothing." Seinfeld received coverage for his speech at the 2014 Clio Awards ceremony, where he received an honorary award, as media reporters said that he "mocked" and "ripped  apart" the advertising industry; his statement of "I love advertising because I love lying" received particular attention. In 2014, Jerry Seinfeld hosted the special "Don Rickles: One Night Only" at the Apollo Theatre. The event celebrated Don Rickles and his career, but also served as a roast among friends. Those who participated in the event included Jon Stewart, David Letterman, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Nathan Lane, Regis Philbin, Robert De Niro, and Martin Scorsese. On February 15, 2015, Seinfeld made a guest appearance on the "Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special", where he hosted the "Questions from the Audience" segment , which included cameos from Michael Douglas, John Goodman, James Franco, Larry David, Ellen Cleghorne, Dakota Johnson, Tim Meadows, Bob Odenkirk, and Sarah Palin (who Seinfeld initially mistook for Tina Fey). On May 20, 2015, Seinfeld made a guest appearance on David Letterman's final "Late Show" episode. Seinfeld joined other friends of the show to pay tribute to Letterman. The other guests included Alec Baldwin, Barbara Walters, Steve Martin, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Peyton Manning, Tina Fey, and Bill Murray who all participated in The Top Ten List segment, "Things I've Always Wanted to Say to  Dave." In January 2017, Seinfeld went on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" and joined Dave Chappelle, and Jimmy Fallon in honoring outgoing First Lady Michelle Obama, and played a game of "Catchphrase", which Mrs. Obama and Fallon won to Seinfeld's dismay. In October 2020, Seinfeld joined Steve Martin in a discussion about comedy at "The New Yorker Festival". They discussed subjects ranging from the creative process, Netflix, and The Oscars, to their comedy backgrounds, and the future of comedy during the COVID-19 pandemic. Netflix deal. Seinfeld made a deal with the streaming service "Netflix" that included "Seinfeld" and  Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on their streaming service as well as two new Seinfeld stand-up specials and the development of scripted and non-scripted comedy programming for Netflix. On September 19, 2017, Netflix released the stand-up comedy special "Jerry Before Seinfeld". The special follows the comedian as he returns for a stand-up routine at the New York City comedy club, Comic Strip Live, which started his career. The special is intercut with documentary clips and his stand-up special. The special was later released as an LP, CD and download album, and was nominated for a  2018 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album. In 2020, it was announced that Netflix would be releasing Seinfeld's first original stand-up special in 22 years, "23 Hours to Kill". The special premiered on the streaming service May 5. Books. Seinfeld wrote the book "SeinLanguage", released in 1993. Written as his television show was first rising in popularity, it is primarily an adaptation of his stand-up material. The title comes from an article in "Entertainment Weekly" listing the numerous catchphrases for which the show was responsible. In 2002, he wrote the children's book "Halloween". The book was  illustrated by James Bennett. Seinfeld wrote the forewords to Ted L. Nancy's "Letters from a Nut" series of books and Ed Broth's "Stories from a Moron". Seinfeld also wrote the foreword to the "Peanut Butter & Co. Cookbook". In October 2020, Seinfeld released his new book "Is This Anything?". The book chronicles Seinfeld's 45 years working in comedy and contains many of his best bits that span from various decades. Influences. Seinfeld has stated, "On the Mount Rushmore of stand-up comedy, there are four faces, in my opinion: Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Cosby and Don Rickles ." Seinfeld has also cited as his influences the humorist Jean Shepherd, "Mad Magazine", Jonathan Winters, Jerry Lewis, Robert Klein, and Abbott and Costello. In the Netflix comedy special, "Jerry Before Seinfeld", he displayed his personal comedy albums collection from when he was a teenager. These albums included: In an interview with "Entertainment Weekly", Seinfeld stated his five favorite films are "The Heartbreak Kid" (1972), "The Graduate" (1967), "The In-Laws" (1979), "A Night at the Opera" (1935), and "Glengarry Glen Ross" (1992). Those influenced by Seinfeld include John Mulaney, Jim Gaffigan, Judd Apatow, Ellen DeGeneres, and Issa Rae. Personal life . Seinfeld is a fan of the New York Mets, and periodically calls Steve Somers' show on WFAN-AM, a sports talk radio station, as "Jerry from Queens." Seinfeld called four innings of a Mets game on SportsNet New York on June 23, 2010, reuniting with analyst Keith Hernandez, who appeared in the "Seinfeld" two-part episode entitled "The Boyfriend." In a 2014 interview with NBC News, Seinfeld made statements suggesting that he believed he was on the autism spectrum. However, following criticism for his alleged self-diagnosis, he later clarified that he is not autistic and had been commenting on  a play about the condition that he "related to [...] on some level." Seinfeld has made several political contributions, including to George W. Bush's and Al Gore's presidential campaigns in 2000, and subsequently to four Democratic Party primary candidates in 2000 and 2004. Early relationships and marriage. Years before "Seinfeld" was created, Seinfeld dated Carol Leifer. She was a fellow comedian, and one of the inspirations for the "Seinfeld" character Elaine Benes. On national television with sex therapist and talk show host Dr. Ruth Westheimer, he explained how, in 1984, he was engaged but called it off. When he  was 39 years old, Seinfeld started a romantic relationship with Shoshanna Lonstein, who was much younger, 18 years of age, when they began dating. Early in their relationship, "Spy Magazine" referred to her as "a legal voter", mocking her young age. They dated for approximately four years, from 1993 to 1997, before the relationship ended. She transferred from GW to UCLA, in part to be with Seinfeld, and cited missing New York City and constant press coverage as reasons for the relationship ending. In August 1998 while at a Reebok Sports Club, Seinfeld met Jessica Sklar, a public relations executive  for Tommy Hilfiger who had just returned from a three-week honeymoon in Italy with then husband Eric Nederlander, a theatrical producer and scion of a theater-owning family. Unaware of Sklar's marital status, Seinfeld invited her out. When Sklar eventually told Seinfeld about her relationship situation, she said, “I told him I didn’t think this was the right time for me to be involved with anybody..." Two months later Sklar filed for divorce and continued dating Seinfeld. The pair married on December 25, 1999. Comedian George Wallace was the best man at the wedding. After the nuptials , Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld bought Billy Joel's house in Amagansett, Long Island, for US$32 million after news of the couple's interest in the property became public in 2000. The Seinfelds have one daughter and two sons. Religion. Seinfeld was raised in Judaism by his Jewish parents. Although for the most part he seems to practice the religion in private, he has discreetly mentioned aspects of the culture in his material and interviews and is known to have dated Jewish women only. Seinfeld stated that he took a Scientology course when he was in his 20s; he said  that he found it interesting but that he didn't pursue it any further. Transcendental Meditation. In December 2012, Seinfeld said that he had been practicing Transcendental Meditation (TM) for 40 years. He promoted the use of the technique in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder with Bob Roth of the David Lynch Foundation in December 2012 on "Good Morning America", and also appeared at a 2009 David Lynch Foundation benefit for TM, at which Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr appeared. On November 5, 2015, the David Lynch Foundation organized a benefit concert at New York City's Carnegie  Hall called "Change Begins Within" to promote transcendental meditation for stress control. "It's been the greatest companion technique of living that I've ever come across, and I'm thrilled to be part of this movement that seems to have really been reinvigorated by Bob [Roth] and David Lynch," Seinfeld said. "I would do anything that I could to promote it in the world, because I think it's the greatest thing as a life tool, as a work tool and just making things make sense." Charity. In 1999, Seinfeld auctioned a Breitling Chronomat watch as part of the  Famous Faces, Watch Auction For Charity event in New York City. This watch sold for $11,000. In 2001, Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld created the charity organization The Good+Foundation after their first child was born. Good+Foundation grants donations of products and services to programs that have demonstrated a capacity to address family poverty in three focus areas: supporting new mothers, investing in early childhood, and engaging fathers. GOOD+ Foundation has donated over $42M worth of items through its partner network across the United States. Seinfeld has also participated in Jon Stewart's charity event, "Night of Too Many  Stars". Wealth. According to "Forbes" magazine, Seinfeld's cumulative earnings from "Seinfeld" as of 2004 was $267 million, placing him at the top of the celebrity earnings list that year. He turned down $5 million per episode, for 22 episodes, to continue the show for a 10th season. Seinfeld earned $100 million from syndication deals and stand-up performances in 2004, and $60 million in 2006. He also earned $10 million for appearing with Bill Gates in Microsoft's 2008 advertisements for Windows. Between June 2008 and June 2009, Seinfeld earned $85 million, making  him the world's highest-paid comedian during those 12 months. In 2013, "Forbes" documented Seinfeld's annual income as $32 million. In mid-2013, Seinfeld disputed "Forbes" claims regarding his income and net worth on "The Howard Stern Show". Seinfeld was ranked by "Forbes" the highest-paid comedian for 2015, the second-highest paid in 2016, and the highest-paid again in 2017. Seinfeld's income between June 2016 and June 2017 was $69 million. Automobiles. Seinfeld is an automobile enthusiast and collector, and he owns a collection of about 150 cars, including a large Porsche collection. He  rented a hangar at the Santa Monica Airport in Santa Monica, California, for an extended period during the 1990s for storage of some of the vehicles in the collection. In 2002, Seinfeld purchased property on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City where he built a $1.4 million two-story garage to store part of his Porsche collection on the East Coast. One tally has Seinfeld owning 43 Porsches. Paul Bannister has written that Seinfeld's collection includes Porsche 911s from various years, 10 Porsche Boxsters each painted a different color, and the 1955 Porsche 550  Spyder, the same model and pearl-grey color that actor James Dean was driving when he died after crashing the car. The Discovery Channel television show "Chasing Classic Cars" claimed that Seinfeld owns the first and last produced air-cooled Porsche 911s. The centerpiece is a $700,000 Porsche 959, one of only 337 built. He was originally not allowed to drive it, because the car was "not street legal." U.S. emissions and crash tests had not been performed for the model because Porsche refused to donate four Porsche 959s for destruction tests. Seinfeld imported the car "for exhibition purposes ," on the stipulation that it may never be driven on U.S. roads. The car was made U.S. street legal in 1999 under the "Show and Display" federal law. Seinfeld wrote an article for the February 2004 issue of "Automobile", reviewing the Porsche Carrera GT. In 2008, Seinfeld was involved in a car accident when the brakes on his 1967 Fiat 500 failed and, to avoid an intersection, he pulled the emergency brake while turning sharply, ultimately causing the car to flip onto its side. No one was hurt. Espresso machines. A coffee and espresso machine aficionado, Seinfeld owns multiple espresso  machines, including the $17,000 Elektra Belle Epoque and two machines manufactured by Slayer and Breville, respectively. Seinfeld described his single-group Slayer machine, which costs upwards of $8,500, as a "beautiful machine." When NPR asked him about the influence of coffee culture in the U.S., Seinfeld responded in 2013:I never liked [coffee] and I didn't understand it and I used to do a lot of stuff in my stand-up set in the '80s and '90s about how I don't 'get' coffee. And then something happened about five years ago. I started touring a lot , and we would have these great big, fun breakfasts in the hotel and [coffee] just seemed to go really well [with breakfast]. [Now], I've just started this espresso thing. Work. Television. Stand-up home video appearances References Discography. Comedy specials Bibliography. Writing credits for "Seinfeld" The list below only includes episodes mainly written by Seinfeld, as he (and Larry David in Seasons 1 through 7) rewrote the drafts for each episode.