Paul Stephen Rudd (born April 6, 1969) is an American actor. He studied theater at the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, before making his acting debut in 1991. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in July 2015. He was included on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2019. In 2021, he was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive".
His films include Clueless (1995), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Romeo Juliet (1996), Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007), I Love You Man (2009), This Is 40 (2012), and Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021). He has played Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with Ant-Man (2015) and most recently appearing in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023).
In addition to his film career, Rudd has appeared in numerous television shows, including the NBC sitcom Friends as Mike Hannigan, along with guest roles on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, Reno 911! and Parks and Recreation, and has also hosted Saturday Night Live multiple times. He starred in a dual role in the Netflix comedy series Living with Yourself, which earned him a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy. He starred in the miniseries The Shrink Next Door (2021).
Early life and education
Paul Stephen Rudd was born on April 6, 1969, in Passaic, New Jersey, to English-born Jewish parents. His father, Michael Rudd (1943–2008), was a historical tour guide and former vice-president of TWA. His mother, Gloria Irene Granville, was a sales manager at television station KSMO-TV in Kansas City, Missouri. His parents were both from London, with his father hailing from Edgware and his mother from Surbiton, and both were descended from Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants who moved to England from Belarus, Poland, and Russia. Rudd's paternal family's original surname, Rudnitsky, was changed by his grandfather to Rudd, and his maternal family's surname was originally Goldstein; his parents were second cousins. Rudd had a Bar Mitzvah service in Ontario, Canada. Growing up, he loved reading the British comics The Beano and The Dandy, which his uncle in the United Kingdom sent him.
When Rudd was ten, his family moved to Lenexa within Johnson County, Kansas. Because of his father's occupation, the family also spent three years in Anaheim, California. In Johnson County, Rudd attended Broadmoor Junior High and graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School in 1987. He attended the University of Kansas, where he majored in theater and belonged to the Sigma Nu fraternity's Nu Chapter. He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts with fellow actor Matthew Lillard. He also spent three months studying Jacobean drama at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford. While attending acting school, he worked as a DJ at bar mitzvahs. After graduation, he worked a variety of odd jobs, including glazing hams at the Holiday Ham Company in Overland Park.
