Jerry Seinfeld

(1954 - )

Jerry Seinfeld is a Jewish American comedian, actor, writer and television and film producer best-know for his role on the hit show Seinfeld, which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry David.

Jerome “Jerry” Seinfeld was born on April 29, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York. His father, Kalman Seinfeld, was of Austrian Jewish background and was a sign maker; his mother, Betty, is of Sephardi Mizrahi Syrian Jewish descent. Her family was registered as Turkish.

In 1976, after his graduation from Queens College, Seinfeld tried out at an open mic night at New York’s Catch a Rising Star. Soon after, he began appearing in a Rodney Dangerfield HBO special. In 1979, he had a small recurring role as Frankie on the sitcom Benson. In May of 1981, he made a highly successful appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Seinfeld then became a regular on similar shows, including Late Night with David Letterman and The Merv Griffin Show.

In 1989, Seinfeld co-created The Seinfeld Chronicles with Larry David for NBC. The show was later renamed Seinfeld and, by its fourth season, became the most popular and successful sitcom on American television. On the show, Seinfeld played a fictional caricature of himself. The show left the air in 1998. Seinfeld is also a bestselling author, most notably for his book Seinlanguage, released in 1993. The book went onto become a number one New York Times bestseller.

In 1998, Seinfeld returned to stand-up comedy and went on tour and recorded a comedy special entitled I’m Telling You for the Last Time.

In 2007, Seinfeld co-wrote and produced the film Bee Movie, also voicing the lead role. In February 2010, he premiered a short-lived reality TV series called "The Marriage Ref."

In 2012, Seinfeld started a web series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, in which he would pick up a fellow comedian in a different car each episode and take him or her out for coffee and conversation. In 2013, Seinfeld was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for the series.

Seinfeld married Jessica Sklar on December 25, 1999. They have one daughter and two sons and live in New York City.

Sources: "Jerry Seinfeld (1954 - )," American Jewish Historical Society, American Jewish Desk Reference, (NY: Random House, 1999), pg. 482-3; Internet Movie Database; Wikipedia; Photo: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. Author: David Shankbone.