Andy Samberg biography

NAME: David Andrew Samberg

OCCUPATION: Film Actor, Theater Actor, Television Actor, Comedian, Rapper, Writer

BIRTH DATE: August 18, 1978 (Age: 33)

EDUCATION: Berkeley High School, Berkeley, California, University of California, Santa Cruz, New York University

PLACE OF BIRTH: Mill Valley, California

Comedian, actor, singer. Born August 18, 1978, in Berkeley, California. Andy Samberg grew up in a middle-class Jewish household with his father, photographer Joe Samberg, and his mother, elementary school teacher Margi Samberg. Andy Samberg attended Willard Junior High School in Berkeley, where he met his two best friends, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer. Together they invented and performed off-the-wall comedy sketches to entertain their friends and classmates. According to Schaffer, there was a practical motive behind their middle school antics. "There was some value in being funny," he says. "It's good for not getting beat up."

The trio continued on to Berkeley High School, but upon graduating in 1996 they went their separate ways for college. Samberg initially followed Schaffer to the University of California at Santa Cruz, but after one year he transferred to New York University to study film. The laid-back northern California native says he initially found life in the Big Apple rather shocking. Samberg lived with three friends in a cramped, rodent-infested two-bedroom apartment. "There were rats and mice everywhere," he recalls. "I grew up in the Bay Area, so Im fairly 'at one' with nature, but this was different. California nature is lovely. New York nature is disgusting. At first, I was really grossed out by it." Nevertheless, Samberg stuck it out in Manhattan, graduating from NYU with a BFA in film in 2000.

A native of Berkeley, California, Samberg is one of three Los Angeles, California-based writer-performer-filmmakers--all childhood friends--dubbed the Lonely Island, whose short films were showcased on the popular untelevised television network show and Web site Channel 101.com. Some of their popular shorts included "The O.C." (2003) parody "The 'Bu" and their full-length pilot, "Awesometown." They met Jimmy Fallon while writing for MTV Video Music Awards 2004 (2004) (TV), who then suggested that they audition for "Saturday Night Live". Andy was then cast as a featured performer, and Samberg's Lonely Island cohorts Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer were hired as writers for the show. Near the end of his first season of "SNL," Andy was cast as the lead role in the film Hot Rod (2007), the first major motion picture by the Lonely Island team, with the production support of Lorne Michaels.