The Life of Steve Carell
By: Christian Pecoraro
Biography
Steven John Carell is an American actor born on August 16th, 1962. He was born in Concord, Massachusetts, and was the youngest or four brothers. His father, Edwin, was an electrical engineer, and his mother, Harriet, was a psychiatric nurse. Steve Carell is of Italian, German, and Polish descent. While in high school, Steve participated in ice hockey and lacrosse. He worked as a mail man before later becoming an actor.
Work and Awards
He is an American actor, comedian, director, producer and writer. After a five–year stint on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Carell found greater fame for playing Michael Scott on the American version of The Office, on which he also worked as an occasional writer and director. He has also starred in lead roles in the films The Forty Year Old Virgin (2005), Get Smart (2008), Crazy Stupid Love (2011), The Incredible Burt Wonderstone and The Way Way Back (both 2013). Carell has also voiced characters in the animated films Over the Hedge, Horton Hears a Who!, Despicable Me and Despicable Me 2. Carell was nominated as "America's funniest man" in Life magazine, and received a Golden Globe Award Best Actor in a Television Series for his works on The Office.
Steve Carell Winning Golden Globe
Steve Carell in The Office
Steve Carell in Get Smart
Training and Education
Steve attended The Fenn School for his elementary years. Following elementary, he attended Middle Sex school in Concord, Massachusetts. After attending Middle Sex school, he went to Denison University in Granville, Ohio. He trained to become an actor at Denison university.
Interesting Facts
- As a teenager, Carell worked at the Massachusetts convenient shop "Store 24." He later incorporated the store's nutty personalities into his comedy bit
- After graduating from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, he moved to Chicago where he taught an improvisational comedy class and performed with The Second City troupe, alongside Stephen Colbert.
- Steve Carell also applied for a position at SNL but he didn't make it an instead lost the spot to Will Ferrell.
- He was in three failed sitcoms before he starred in NBC's version of The Office.
Steve Carell's early influences
Quote
"I don't want to be pretentious about, 'yes, I need to move i to the more dramatic roles and express myself and prove to everyone that I'm capable of doing it,' it really isn't that, I think that's a bad reason to choose roles. It's more like, who would I be working with and would they be fun to do and entertaining to watch, is it an interesting story or character."