David Schwimmer Biography

NAME: David Schwimmer

OCCUPATION: Film Actor, Television Actor

BIRTH DATE: November 02, 1966 (Age: 45)

EDUCATION: Beverly Hills High School, Northwestern University

PLACE OF BIRTH: Queens, New York

Family

Daughter: Cleo Buckman Schwimmer. Born May 8, 2011; mother, Zoe Buckman

Father: Arthur Schwimmer. Appellate lawyer; married Schwimmer s mother in 1964

Mother: Arlene Coleman-Schwimmer. Handled the celebrity divorces of Roseanne, Julianne Phillips and Elizabeth Taylor; married Schwimmer s father in 1964

Sister: Ellie Schwimmer. Born c. 1965

Born in the New York City borough of Queens on Nov. 2, 1966, Schwimmer was raised by his parents--both prominent attorneys--in Los Angeles. He said that he could have used help fitting in at Beverly Hills High School, where he was a self-proclaimed "fat, ugly geek." By the time he entered the theatre department of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., in 1984, he was a 1.9-m, 79-kg (6-ft 2-in, 175-lb) heartthrob, and he found inspiration and success on the Chicago stage. In his junior year he mounted an off-campus production of Alice in Wonderland that eventually led to the launching of the Lookingglass Theater Company, which Schwimmer cofounded with seven other Northwestern alumni following graduation in 1988. After commuting between Chicago and Los Angeles for a time, Schwimmer decided to concentrate on achieving success in Hollywood. He landed several small parts on television shows such as "The Wonder Years," "Monty," and "NYPD Blue" before being successfully cast in "Friends." He found friendship in the cast of "Friends" as well, all of whom considered Schwimmer to be the one they would go to in a crisis because "he's real easy to talk to. He cares." It seemed that despite the stereotype that most generation-Xers led a disconnected existence, Schwimmer was one who had found his niche. Sara Brant.

Schwimmer subsequently appeared opposite Woody Allen and Sharon Stone in Alfonso Arou's straight-to-cable comedic misfire "Picking Up the Pieces"(2000), had a terrific uncredited cameo in the underrated indie "Love & Sex" (2000), and took smaller roles in the ensembles of "The Thin Pink Line" (1998), "All the Rage" (1999) and Mike Figgis' "Hotel" (2001). He fared better on the small screen with roles as an Army captain in Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' acclaimed HBO miniseries, "Band of Brothers" (2001), and as a Jew in the Warsaw ghetto in the cable network's powerful film, "Uprising" (2001). Also on HBO, he had a fine recurring stint playing an uptight version of himself during the 2004 season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (2001- ), where he was cast opposite Larry David in a stage version of Mel Brooks' "The Producers" and soon engaged in a caustic rivalry with his badgering co-star. Then after 10 highly-rated seasons, "Friends" finally came to close in 2004, with Ross' long-running relationship with Rachel ending with their reunion after what appeared to be their inevitable and permanent split.

With the show firmly in the past, Schwimmer set his sights on the future, directing episodes of the show's spin-off "Joey" (NBC, 2004- ) starring "Friends" co-star Matt LeBlanc. In 2005, he made his London stage debut at the Gielgud Theater in "Some Girls" opposite Lesley Manville and Saffron Burrows. He also voiced Melman the Giraffe in "Madagascar" (2005), Disney's animated adventure about four zoo animals who escape and inadvertently find themselves in Africa where the city slickers struggle to survive in the wild. After making his Broadway debut in a revival of Herman Wouk's "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial" (2006), Schwimmer made his feature debut as a director with "Run Fatboy, Run" (2007), which starred Simon Pegg as an overweight man who tries to win back the fiancée (Thandie Newton) he left five years before by running a marathon. Following a guest episode of "30 Rock" (NBC, 2006- ) as an out-of-control environment mascot, he revived the voice of Melman for "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" (2008) and the Christmas special "Merry Madagascar" (NBC, 2009). Though taking time off from acting to direct the independent movie "Trust," Schwimmer was back in the news following his engagement to photographer Zoe Buckman, which the couple announced in March 2010.