Overview (3)

Mini Bio (1)

Spouse (1)

Trade Mark (3)

Often plays characters who derive humor from awkward situations



Often plays characters who are oblivious or have a lack of self awareness.



Trivia (30)

Attended and graduated from Denison University in Granville, Ohio (1984).



Has two children: Elisabeth Anne Carell (b. May 2001) and John Carell (b. June 2004).





Married to actress/writer Nancy Carell , whom he met while both were writer/performers with the famed Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, Illinois.



When he attended the premiere for Bruce Allmächtig (2003), he came to the screening with the impression that his scenes were left on the cutting-room floor. However, his scenes were in the film, and he was pleasantly surprised.

His paternal grandfather, Ernest Caroselli, was an Italian emigrant, from Bari, Italy, and his paternal grandmother, Marie G. Egle, was of German ancestry. Steve's maternal grandparents Zigmund Koch and Frances Victoria Tolosky were of Polish origin. Steve's father was born under the surname "Caroselli", which he changed to "Carell" before Steve was born.





Was once a reporter for The Daily Show (1996).



Provides the voice of Gary on "The Ambiguously Gay Duo" cartoons on Saturday Night Live (1975).

Originally wanted to be a lawyer, but he reached a question on an application form that said, "Why do you want to be a lawyer?". He could not think of anything.





Has the rare distinction of being in two movies that opened on the same day in the United States - Der Anchorman (2004) and Plötzlich verliebt (2004) (July 9, 2004).



Was on three failed sitcoms before he starred on NBC's version of the sitcom Das Büro (2005).

Worked the overnight shift in a Store 24 in Maynard, Massachusetts, and takes many of his characters from this experience.



Grew up in Newton, Massachusetts.



Editor-in-Chief of his high school newspaper, Newton South's "The Lion's Roar".



Attended Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts.





The scene in Jungfrau (40), männlich, sucht... (2005), where Andy has his chest hair removed, required five cameras set up for the shot. It was Carell's real chest hair which was ripped out in the scene. Carell told director Judd Apatow just before shooting the scene: "It has to be real. It won't be as funny if it's mocked up or if it's special effect. You have to see that this is really happening." The scene had to be done in one shot.

Was a member of Burpee's Seedy Theatrical Company, Denison University's improv-comedy group and the oldest collegiate improv group in the country.



Is one of 115 people invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in 2007.





He and Jim Carrey were both ice hockey goalies in their childhood.

Worked for a brief period at a post office in Massachusetts where he delivered mail using his own car since the post office did not have mail carrier vehicles. When he resigned from the position to move to Chicago, for months afterward he continued to find undelivered mail under his car seats.





He was nominated for a 1993 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Revue for "Truth, Justice, or the American Way", at the Second City Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.



He was nominated for a 1994 Joseph Jefferson Award for Actor in a Revue for "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been Mellow?", at the Second City Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

Owns and operates the Marshfield Hills General Store in Marshfield, Massachusetts, where he has a summer home.



Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6708 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on January 6, 2016.





First rock concert he ever attended featured Jethro Tull

Steve Carell references the same quote by Abraham Lincoln in two films. In Dinner for Schmucks "Our countries are not enemies, they are friends" from Lincoln's "We are not enemies, but friends," and in Irresistible "...and appeal to our better angels" which he attributes to Lincoln yet misquotes from Lincoln's "by the better angels of our nature.".



Personal Quotes (15)

I have no idea where my pathetic nature comes from. If I thought about it too long, it would depress me.



I think a character in a comedy should not know they're in a comedy.



I don't think of myself as funny - I don't fill up a room with my humor... I would fail miserably as a stand-up comedian.



You can't seem to have any sort of inhibition. Or shame. Or absolute horror at your own physical presence. I know I'm not a woman's fantasy man; I don't have to uphold this image of male beauty, so that's kind of a relief in a way.





When they approached me about who I would want writing Get Smart (2008), I suggested B.J. The episodes that he's written walk the line between intensely funny and slightly offensive. But they always fall on the side of being funny. I also suggested him because I think he's going to be someone I'll be working for someday, and I want to get on his good side now - on his Das Büro (2005) co-star and co-writer B.J. Novak



[on life since Jungfrau (40), männlich, sucht... (2005) made his a movie star.] I have a helluva lot more money than I used to! That's the only perceivable difference. I will definitely be able to send my kids to college now, which was a question before. (2007)



[on playing Maxwell Smart in the upcoming Get Smart (2008)] I am sort of billing it as a comedic "Bourne Identity". [referring to Die Bourne Identität (2002)] (2007)

[on being a father] I'm already seeing my daughter's cynical sense of humor and she's six! I bought these shoes, and I'm thinking I'm a cool dad, I'm going to show her my new half-boot shoes. So I said, "What do you think of these?" And she's like, "Mmm no, not liking them." (2007)



(2005, on a pre-acting job) I worked the third shift at a convenience store for a few months. At four in the morning most people are looking for cigarettes, porn or one of those shriveled, angry-looking hot dogs from the rotating grill. One night, though, a woman came in during the wee hours. She looked a bit distraught as she paid at the counter. She paused for a moment, looked up at me and asked, "Do you think I'm pretty?" As it turned out, she had just walked in on her boyfriend with another woman. We proceeded to have a lengthy conversation about a person's self-worth, fidelity, trust and relationships. And then I treated her to a slushy blue frozen drink.



(2005, on originally wanting to be a lawyer) Being a lawyer just sounded good to me. Kind of like how being a doctor or being an astrophysicist or a microbiologist sounds good. But it took a complete turn when I was filling out my law-school application. I couldn't answer the essay question, which was, Why do you want to be an attorney? I had absolutely no idea. Uh, to make a lot of money and sue people? To be hated based solely on my job title? I couldn't come up with one good reason. That ended my law career rather quickly.



(2005, on performing announcing duties for the video games, Outlaw Golf and Outlaw Volleyball) Who wouldn't want to get paid for spending a couple of hours in a sound booth? I went in thinking, Yeah, free money! But it was so much harder than I thought it'd be. There are thousands of possible scenarios in a video game, and you have to do lines for all of them. It was pretty taxing. Then again, it's not like I was chopping down trees or anything. That sounds pretty whiny, doesn't it? "I had to say so many words. It was haaaard! Waaaah!"





[on his character from The Daily Show (1996)] In my mind, he was a guy who had done national news reporting but had fallen from grace somehow and was now relegated to this terrible cable news show and was very bitter about it and thought he was better, but he wasn't.

[on whether he feared being typecast in comedy roles] I've done big commercial movies and little independent movies, and I've played jerks and suicidal Proust scholars, and I feel like I've been really lucky to play all the different types of characters. So, no, I don't worry about that. If I do get pigeonholed, it's nothing I can really control.





[on his surprise at hearing so much laughter in Foxcatcher (2014)] The way Bennett [Miller] describes the humor is that it's funny until it's not anymore, and if this story didn't have the outcome that it does, it could just be an absurd, ridiculous story. But the fact it ends up where it does, and that there's this pall that hangs over the entire narrative, changes everything. But some of it so absurd you can't help but laugh because it seems too strange to be true.



[on male bonding in Foxcatcher (2014)] It's about offering up yourself to vulnerability. I think Bennett presents all this things in a very open way and allows the viewer to draw their own conclusion. He was finding it, as we were finding it, and I think that's an extremely exciting aspect of working like this.

Salary (8)