Adam McKay (born 1968) is an Emmy-nominated American writer and film director.
McKay was born in Colorado, graduated from Great Valley High School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, in 1986, and attended Penn State and Temple universities. He is one of the founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade improv comedy group and a former performer at Chicago's ImprovOlympic theater. While a member of the mainstage cast at Second City, he wrote and performed in that company's landmark revue, Pinata Full of Bees. In several politically charged sketches, McKay played characters like Noam Chomsky as a substitute kindergarten teacher, and a hapless personnel manager trying to inform a corporate vice president (Scott Adsit) of some disastrous IQ test results without losing his own job. The latter performance was excerpted in Second City's 25th anniversary compilation.
McKay auditioned for Saturday Night Live to be an on-camera performer, but did not make the cut. The scripts he submitted to the show earned him a job as writer from 1995 to 2001, including three years as head writer. He also directed several popular short films for the show, including the original SNL Digital Shorts. McKay encouraged former Second City castmate Tina Fey to submit some of her scripts to Saturday Night Live, and she later succeeded him as head writer for that show. Even though McKay was not chosen as an SNL castmember, he did have a recurring role as an obnoxious audience member during the celebrity host's monologues during the time that he was a head writer on the show.
After leaving Saturday Night Live, he teamed with comedian Will Ferrell to write the feature films Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), both of which he also directed.
Since May 2005, he has been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.
He has been married to actress and director Shira Piven (the sister of actor Jeremy Piven) since 1996. They have two children.
In April 2007 he launched, with Will Ferrell, the user submitted comedy video site Funny or Die. A video on the site, titled "The Landlord" features both him and his young daughter Pearl. Though he has received criticism for having his daughter use profanity, he stated that his daughter does not swear in reality because she is still young.
McKay recently announced that he and Will Ferrell would be making Anchorman 2, a sequel to Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Steve Carell has agreed to reprise his role as Brick Tamland. McKay says that Anchorman 2 is a definite after he finishes his current project entitled Channel 3 Billion.
References
^ "Will Ferrell and Pearl in The Landlord".
External links
Adam McKay at the Internet Movie Database
The official Upright Citizens Brigade Theater website
The Landlord at Funny or Die
The Landlord Outtakes at Funny or Die
Good Cop, Baby Cop at Funny or Die
v • d • e
Mediocre American Man Trilogy
Films
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy • Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Direct-to-video
Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie
Cast and crew
Will Ferrell • Adam McKay • Judd Apatow • David Koechner
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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_McKay"
Categories: American comedians | American screenwriters | Living people | Second City alumniHidden categories: Cleanup from June 2008 | All pages needing cleanup
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