Will Ferrell

John William Ferrell was born on July 16, 1967, in Irvine, California, to Betty Kay Ferrell, a teacher at Old Mill School elementary school and Santa Ana College, and Roy Lee Ferrell Jr., a saxophonist and keyboardist for the Righteous Brothers. Both parents were originally from Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, and relocated to California in 1964. Ferrell has a younger brother, Patrick, and his ancestry includes English, German, and Irish roots. As an infant, he underwent a pyloromyotomy to correct pyloric stenosis.

Ferrell attended Culverdale Elementary and Rancho San Joaquin Middle School before enrolling at University High School, all in Irvine. At University High, he was a kicker on the varsity football team, played soccer, captained the basketball team, and served on the student council. He and a friend performed comedy skits over the school's intercom system with the principal's cooperation, and he also appeared in school talent shows. He was voted Best Personality by his classmates. After high school, he enrolled at the University of Southern California, where he studied sports broadcasting, joined the Delta Tau Delta fraternity, and earned a B.A. in sports information in 1990.

Following graduation, Ferrell worked briefly as a hotel valet and a bank teller before his mother encouraged him to pursue his interests. In 1991 he moved to Los Angeles and auditioned for the comedy group The Groundlings, where he developed his improvisational skills and began creating original characters. By 1994 he had become a full member of the group. Alongside fellow Groundling Chris Kattan, he developed the Butabi Brothers characters. A producer who attended a Groundlings performance invited Ferrell, Kattan, and Cheri Oteri to audition for Saturday Night Live's producer Lorne Michaels, and Ferrell joined the SNL cast in 1995.

Ferrell performed on Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2002, a seven-year tenure during which he became known for impersonations including President George W. Bush, Harry Caray, Robert Goulet, Neil Diamond, James Lipton, Ted Kennedy, Janet Reno, Al Gore, and Alex Trebek, among others. He has since hosted the program five times, making him a member of the show's Five Timers Club.

His film career spans comedy and dramatic work across several decades. Comedy credits include A Night at the Roxbury (1998), Elf (2003), Anchorman (2004), Kicking and Screaming (2005), Talladega Nights (2006), Blades of Glory (2007), Step Brothers (2008), The Other Guys (2010), Get Hard (2015), and Barbie (2023). Dramatic roles include Stranger than Fiction (2006), Everything Must Go (2010), and Downhill (2020). Following his work in the 2003 film Old School, Ferrell became associated with the group of Hollywood comic actors referred to as the Frat Pack, which also included Jack Black, Ben Stiller, Steve Carell, Vince Vaughn, Paul Rudd, and Owen and Luke Wilson. He has also provided voice performances in Curious George (2006), Megamind (2010), The Lego Movie franchise (2014–2019), and Despicable Me 4 (2024), and starred in and produced the documentary Will and Harper (2024) with writer Harper Steele.

As a television producer, Ferrell received four Primetime Emmy Awards for his work on the drama series Succession (2018–2023) and the specials Live in Front of a Studio Audience (2019–2022), contributing to a total of six Primetime Emmy Awards and a British Academy Television Award. He also produced the series I'm Sorry (2017–2019), Dead to Me (2019–2022), and Drunk History (2013–2019). In 2007, he co-founded the comedy website Funny or Die with his former writing partner Adam McKay.

On Broadway, Ferrell appeared in and wrote the book for You're Welcome America in 2009, a production in which he portrayed President George W. Bush in a satirical context. The show earned him a Tony Award nomination for Best Special Theatrical Event that same year. Additional accolades in his career include two Golden Globe Award nominations, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2011, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2015, and recognition as the year's best comedian by British GQ in 2015.