Paul Stephen Rudd (born April 6, 1969) is an American actor. Rudd studied theatre at the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before making his acting debut in 1991. He was included on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2019, and was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 2021. The accolades he has received include a Critics' Choice Television Award, alongside nominations for two Actor Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
Born to British parents in New Jersey, Rudd appeared in the films Clueless (1995), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007), I Love You, Man (2009), and This Is 40 (2012). He has played the superhero Scott Lang / Ant-Man in five Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films, from Ant-Man (2015) to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023). He played Gary Grooberson in the Ghostbusters films Afterlife (2021) and Frozen Empire (2024).
Rudd has also appeared in numerous television shows, including the sitcom Friends (2002–2004) as Mike Hannigan, and has featured as a guest host of Saturday Night Live multiple times. He had a dual role in the comedy series Living with Yourself (2019), which earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy. He starred in the miniseries The Shrink Next Door (2021), and featured in the Hulu comedy series Only Murders in the Building (2023–2025), which earned him a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
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Early life and education
Paul Stephen Rudd was born on April 6, 1969, in Passaic, New Jersey, to English Jewish parents. His father, Michael Rudd (1943–2008), was a historical tour guide and worked for Trans World Airlines (TWA). His mother, Gloria Irene Granville, was a sales manager at the television station KSMO-TV in Kansas City, Missouri. His father was from Edgware and his mother from Surbiton, both in London. Both were descended from Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants who moved to England from Belarus, Poland, and Russia. His parents were second cousins. Rudd had a bar mitzvah service in Ontario, Canada. Growing up, he loved reading the Scottish comics The Beano and The Dandy, which his uncle sent him from the United Kingdom.
When Rudd was 10 years old, his family moved to Lenexa in Johnson County, Kansas. Because of his father's occupation, they also spent three years in Anaheim, California. In Kansas, Rudd attended Broadmoor Junior High and graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School in 1987. He placed fifth in Humorous Interpretation at the 1987 National Forensics League National Tournament. He attended the University of Kansas, where he majored in theater and belonged to the Sigma Nu fraternity's Nu chapter. He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts with fellow actor Matthew Lillard. He also spent three months studying Jacobean drama at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford. While at acting school, he worked as a disc jockey (DJ) at bar mitzvahs. After graduation, he had a variety of odd jobs, including glazing hams at the Holiday Ham Company in Overland Park, Kansas.
Career
Film and television
Rudd made his acting debut in 1991 when he starred in a commercial promoting the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (which he later referenced in a 2025 commercial for the Nintendo Switch 2). Starting in 1992, he had a recurring role on the television drama Sisters as Kirby Quimby Philby. In 1994, he appeared in Wild Oats for six episodes. In 1995, he left Sisters for one season to appear in the comedy film Clueless. Rudd followed Clueless with supporting roles in films such as Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers as Tommy Doyle, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, The Locusts, Overnight Delivery, The Object of My Affection, and 200 Cigarettes. He was in the cast of the 1999 film The Cider House Rules that received a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
He played FBI Agent Ian Curtis in the 2000 Hong Kong action film Gen-Y Cops. In 2002, he was cast on the sitcom Friends as Mike Hannigan, who dates and marries Phoebe Buffay. In 2006, he appeared in several episodes of Reno 911! as Guy Gerricault (pronounced "jericho"), the coach of a lamaze class; then portrayed a drug lord in the film Reno 911!: Miami. He guest-starred as a has-been 1990s rock star, Desmond Fellows, on the television series Veronica Mars, in the 2007 episode "Debasement Tapes."
The year 2004 marked the start of Rudd's work with director/producer Judd Apatow, first on the film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy with Steve Carell, produced by Apatow; and again in 2005 in The 40-Year-Old Virgin with Carell, directed by Apatow. He subsequently appeared in 2007's Knocked Up which was written, produced and directed by Apatow. He narrated the 2007 edition of the long-running sports documentary series Hard Knocks, which featured the Kansas City Chiefs, whom he continues to support. It was the only season not to feature the series' regular narrator, Liev Schreiber.
In 2006, Rudd served as a narrator for the television documentary film The Armenian Genocide, broadcast by PBS to spread awareness of the killing of one million Armenians during World War I.
Rudd appeared as John Lennon in the comedy film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story in 2007 and as a drug-addled surf instructor in Forgetting Sarah Marshall in 2008, both of which Apatow produced. Rudd had uncredited cameos in Year One (2009) and Bridesmaids (2011). In 2012, he starred in and co-produced with Apatow Wanderlust. He starred in the Knocked Up spinoff This Is 40, directed and produced by Apatow, and reprised his role of Brian Fantana in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013).
Theatre
In 1997, Rudd performed in the Broadway play The Last Night of Ballyhoo. The next year he appeared in Twelfth Night at the Lincoln Center Theatre. In 2006, he appeared in the Broadway production of Three Days of Rain at the Bernard Jacobs Theater. In 2012, Rudd appeared in the Broadway production of Craig Wright's Grace at the Cort Theatre, with Academy Award nominee Michael Shannon and seven-time Emmy Award winner Ed Asner.
In 2000–2001, Rudd was in a production of Long Day's Journey Into Night at the Lyric Theatre, London. In 2001, he starred as Adam in the original London production of The Shape of Things, and again Off-Broadway for three months starting in October 2001. Two years later, a film version was made with the same cast.
Personal life
In 2003, Rudd married Julie Yaeger, whom he met in his publicist's office, where she worked. She has since become a screenwriter and producer. They live in Rhinebeck, New York, with their two children: a son born in 2006 and a daughter born in 2010.
Rudd is a fan of Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals, the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs, for whom he narrated the 2007 season of HBO's Hard Knocks, and the University of Kansas' sports teams, the Jayhawks. Rudd has also narrated the Chiefs' annual Super Bowl recap episodes of America's Game: The Super Bowl Champions in 2020, 2023, and 2024.
Rudd received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 1, 2015, unveiling the 2,554th star on Hollywood Boulevard. He said, "I remember being a kid and walking this boulevard and reading the names and thinking about what so many other millions of people thought about, which is, you know, 'Who's that?'"
Since 2014, Rudd and fellow actors Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilarie Burton have been co-owners of Samuel's Sweet Shop, a candy store in Rhinebeck, New York, that they saved from closing when the previous owner, a friend of theirs, died unexpectedly.
Rudd's seemingly ageless appearance has been subject to numerous jokes and memes; it was referenced in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) where Deadpool and Wolverine stumble upon Giant-Man's corpse, prompting the former to say "Paul Rudd finally aged!" Responding to the jokes, Rudd has explained that eight hours of sleep, along with cardio, exercise with weights, and healthy meals, make it possible for him to age well.
Rudd is Jewish, although he has added that he is not "particularly religious". While promoting the film Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the actor said that if he could talk with anyone throughout history, he would want to speak with Jesus.
Philanthropy and advocacy
Rudd is a supporter of the Stuttering Association for the Young (SAY), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping young people who stutter. He hosted its 6th Annual All-Star Bowling Benefit in January 2018. He told Vanity Fair that he became an advocate for stuttering awareness after portraying a character who stuttered in a play. Also, he is a founder of The Big Slick, a celebrity charity sports event held in Kansas City each June that supports Kansas City's Children's Mercy Hospital.
Rudd was part of Seth Rogen's Hilarity for Charity, to increase awareness and investment in Alzheimer's research.
