Please Rewind Talent Wall

Bill Hader

Bill Hader has built a screen career around an unusually flexible presence: he can be broad, restrained, anxious or quietly threatening, sometimes within the same performance. Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 7, 1978, Hader grew up watching movies and making short films with friends. His original ambition was filmmaking, and he moved to Los Angeles in 1999, working long hours as a production assistant and later as an assistant editor before comedy offered another route into the business. After taking classes at Second City, Hader performed with the sketch group Animals From The Future. A recommendation from Megan Mullally led to an audition for Saturday Night Live, where a spontaneous impression helped secure his place in the cast. From 2005 to 2013, he became a versatile utility player known for numerous impressions and recurring characters, most notably Stefon, the excitable Weekend Update correspondent with an alarming knowledge of New York nightlife. His work earned a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Film roles arrived alongside SNL. Hader made his movie debut in You, Me and Dupree before appearing in Superbad, Knocked Up, Hot Rod, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Tropic Thunder and Adventureland. His voice work has been just as varied, including Flint Lockwood in the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films and Fear in Inside Out. The Skeleton Twins gave him a substantial dramatic role opposite Kristen Wiig, while Trainwreck marked his first leading-man part in a romantic comedy. He later played Richie Tozier in It Chapter Two. Hader’s interest in storytelling beyond performance came fully into view with Barry, the HBO dark comedy he co-created with Alec Berg. As actor, writer, director and producer, he helped shape a series able to move between absurd comedy, violence and emotional discomfort. He won consecutive Primetime Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2018 and 2019. That combination of comic precision and filmmaking ambition has become central to Hader’s career: he is not simply looking for the joke, but for the stranger, darker story surrounding it.