Jerry Seinfeld
Seinfeld Series
Jerry Seinfeld Club
Jerome “Jerry” Seinfeld was born on April 29th, 1954 in New York, USA.
He is often described as an observational comedian. He was best known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself, Jerry Seinfeld in the long-running sitcom Seinfeld (1989 - 1998), which he co-created, helped write and executive produced in the show's final two seasons.
Seinfeld was born in New York City. His father, Kálmán, was of Hungarian Jewish background and his mother, Betty, was of Syrian Jews background.
He grew up in Massapequa, New York. His first store bought Halloween costume was a superman costume that did not fit. His mother made him wear his winter coat over it (he does this bit in the opening stand-up act of one of the Seinfeld episodes).
He attended Birch Lane Elementary School and Massapequa High School. In 1971, while aged 17, he spent a short period of time volunteering in Kibbutz Sa'ar in Israel. He went to State University of New York at Oswego but transferred and graduated from Queens College, City University of New York. During his time in college, he was an amateur wrestler who called himself "The Jewish Terror".
Jerry Seinfeld started his career as a comedian right after graduation. During his talk with David Steinberg, he mentions that his career choice was a surprise for his family. Before starting his career he was never ever funny around his family, he felt that is was embarassing. So when he told his family that he wants to become a stand-up comedian, his parents were sceptical but supportive.
He developed interest in stand-up comedy after brief stints in college productions.Right after graduation from Queens College, City University of New York, he tried out at an open mic night at New York City's Catch a Rising Star in 1976. Soon after, he appeared in a Rodney Dangerfield HBO special. When he first started doing stand-up comedy, his mother and sister said he would never be as funny as his father.
Seinfeld had a small recurring role as "Frankie", a mail delivery boy who had comedy routines that no one wanted to hear, on the Benson sitcom in 1979 but he was abruptly fired from the show (talks about this during Sit Down Comedy With David Steinberg - 21/02/2007).
In May 1981, Seinfeld made a highly successful appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He then became a regular on similar shows, including Late Night with David Letterman and The Merv Griffin Show. He was known for his incredibly dedicated and devoted work ethic, it is said that he traveled in an intense snow storm to a comedy club just to find it empty. He was ranked #12 in Comedy Central's list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time.
Seinfeld could retire today as one of the most successful comedic entertainers of all-time. He was a phenom as a stand-up with schtick that was a far cry from the foul and profane humor of his peers. While other comics resorted to crass sexual and racial jokes to induce laughter, Seinfeld struck gold with a more understated approach.
Seinfeld has been in multiple highly publicized relationships. At one time while in his 30s, during his time on his sitcom, he was engaged for a brief time to 17 years old high school student Shoshanna Lonstein Gruss. He later began dating Jessica Sklar after they met at the Reebok Sports Club, even though she had just married Eric Nederlander, a scion of the Broadway theater-owning family. They married on December 25, 1999. George Wallace was the best man at his wedding. He bought Billy Joel's house in Amagansett village for the price of $32 million in March 2000. They have three children, 1 daughter and 2 sons. Their daughter Sascha was born on November 7, 2000, son Julian Kal was born on March 1, 2003 and Shepherd Kellen was born on August 22, 2005. His son Julian's middle name, Kal, is the first name of Jerry's father, Kal, as well as the first name of Seinfeld's hero Kal-El, AKA "Superman".