The actor whose popularity increased after the lead role in the movie "Ant-Man": Who is Paul Rudd?

His full name is Paul Stephen Rudd, he was born on April 6, 1969, in Passaic, New Jersey. Born into a British Jewish family, Rudd's father, Michael Rudd, was a historical tour guide and former vice president of TWA. His mother, Gloria Irene Granville, was a sales manager at KSMO-TV. He has a sister named Julie. Both of Rudd's parents were from London. Rudd's paternal family's original surname was Rudnitsky, but was changed to Rudd by his grandfather. Growing up, he liked to read the British comics The Beano and The Dandy, which his uncle sent him.

The family moved to Johnson County, Kansas when Rudd was ten after spending three years in Anaheim, California, also due to his father's job. Rudd attended Broadmoor Middle School there and successfully graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School in 1987. He then became a member of the Nu Chapter of the Sigma Nu fraternity while studying law at the University of Kansas. He studied and graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Art in Dramatic Art with his fellow actor Matthew Lillard. Later, Rudd spent three months studying Jacobean drama at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford. Rudd, who worked as a DJ at bar mitzvahs while attending acting school, took up various odd jobs after graduating.

Rudd got his acting debut in 1991 in a "Super Nintendo" commercial. In 1992, he appeared as Kirby Quimby Philby in the family drama television series "Sisters". He appeared in six episodes in the 1994 television sitcom "Wild Oats".

He left his previous project in 1995 to star in the teen comedy "Clueless" with Alicia Silverstone, directed by Amy Heckerling. He also appeared in the sequel "Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers" (1995), "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet" (1996) directed by Baz Luhrmann, and the drama film "The Locusts" (1997). Rudd first appeared in Broadway plays, including "The Last Night of Ballyhoo" in 1997 as Joe Farkas. He then acted in the romantic comedy "Twelfth Night" (1998) with Kyra Sedgwick and Max Wright at the Lincoln Center Theatre.

The following year, he appeared in the romantic comedy movie "Overnight Delivery"(1998), the romantic comedy-drama movie "The Object of My Affection"(1998) and the American comedy movie "200 Cigarettes"(1999). Appearing in the 1999 drama film "The Cider House Rules," Rudd earned a SAG nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Motion Picture.

He appeared as FBI Agent Ian Curtis in Benny Chan's 2000 Hong Kong sci-fi action movie "Gen-Y Cops." In 2002, he took on the role of Mike Hannigan in the sitcom television series "Friends." In 2006, the comedy television series "Reno 911!" He also appeared as "Guy Gerricault" in several episodes of "Reno 911!: Miami". 

In 2004, he appeared in the satirical comedy "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" directed by Judd Apatow, in which he co-starred with Steve Carell, David Koechner and Will Ferrell. The following year, he began working on the romantic comedy film "The 40 Year Old Virgin" directed by Judd Apatow. In 2006, he starred with Bradley Cooper and Julia Roberts in Richard Greenberg's play "Three Days of Rain".

He then appeared with Apatow in the 2007 romantic comedy "Knocked Up" alongside Jason Segel, Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel, portraying the character of Pete. He also became the narrator of the 2007 edition of the long-running sports documentary television series "Hard Knocks."

Rudd starred with Jason Segel and Jonah Hill in the comedy "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" and in Nicholas Stoller's "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (2008), which Apatow produced. Rudd also had unnamed small roles in "Year One" (2009) and "Bridesmaids" (2011).

In 2012, he produced and starred with Judd Apatow in the comedy film "Wanderlust", in which he co-starred with Jennifer Aniston. He appeared in the comedy film "This Is 40", in which he co-starred with Leslie Mann, a sort of sequel to Knocked Up, directed and produced by Apatow. He reprized his role in 2013's sequel comedy "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues".

In 2007, he appeared in the comedy "The Oh in Ohio" and the anthology comedy "The Ten", which reunited him with David Wain and Michael Showalter. He then starred in the romantic comedy "Over Her Dead Body" with Eva Longoria the following year. He co-starred with co-star Seann William Scott in Rudd's next comedy, "Role Models."

In 2009, Rudd reprized with Jason Segel in the romantic comedy "I Love You Man." Here he and Segel played two friends who bond over their shared love for the rock band Rush. Moreover, both Rudd and Segel were fans of the group. Also in 2009, Rudd starred in the television series "Party Down" with John Embom, Rob Thomas and Dan Etheridge. He voiced the DreamWorks computer-animated monster comedy movie "Monsters Vs Aliens."

In 2010, Rudd co-starred with Steve Carell in the comedy movie "Dinner for Schmucks" directed by Jay Roach. He appeared in the 2011 comedy-drama film "Our Idiot Brother" with Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel and Emily Mortimer. The movie marked Rudd's fifth film with Elizabeth Banks. In 2012, he won the 'San Diego Film Critics Association Award' in the 'Best Ensemble Performance' category with a supporting role in the drama film "The Perks of Being a Wallflower".

In 2012, Rudd appeared in four episodes of the NBC television comedy series "Parks and Recreation," for which she won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Actor. He also sang the audio recordings of John Hodgman's books "The Areas of My Expertise" (2005) and "More Information Than You Require" (2008). That same year, Rudd starred with award-winning celebrities such as Michael Shannon, Kate Arrington and Ed Asner in Craig Wright's Broadway production of "Grace" at the Cort Theatre.

On December 19, 2013, it was announced that he would be playing the lead character, Scott Lang/Ant-Man, in the 2015 Marvel superhero movie "Ant-Man," and Rudd contributed to the script for the film. The film was both commercially and critically successful. He won the 'Male Star of the Year' award at the CinemaCon Awards for his performance.

Rudd then reprized his role in "Captain America: Civil War" (2016) and Ant-Man's 2018 sequel, "Ant-Man and the Wasp." And for his role in the first film, he was nominated for the 'Best Actor' award at the Saturn Awards. Later, Rudd returned with Evangeline Lilly in "Avengers: Endgame" (2019), which was critically acclaimed and remains the highest-grossing film of all time. He reprized his role with its sequel "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" in 2023.

Rudd reprized his role Netflix's prequel Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, with a cast including Bradley Cooper, Amy Poehler, and Elizabeth Banks. Rudd, who starred with Selena Gomez in the comedy-drama film "The Fundamentals of Caring" in 2016, also voiced in the animated films "The Little Prince" (2015) and "Sausage Party" (2016).

Rudd also starred in the war movie "The Catcher Was a Spy" (2018), directed by Ben Lewin. In the movie, he played Moe Berg, a hunter during World War II. In August 2018, Rudd co-starred with Aisling Bea in Netflix's fiction comedy-drama television series "Living with Yourself." He was also the executive producer of the series. Rudd appeared in "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" (2021), the fourth supernatural comedy in the Ghostbusters franchise. The film featured Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhar, and Mckenna Grace, along with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and Sigourney Weaver. The film received generally positive reviews and was a successful worldwide financial success.

Personal life

Rudd, who married Julie Yaeger in 2003, whom he met at the office of the advertiser he worked for, lives in Rhinebeck, New York, with his son, born in 2006, and daughter, born in 2010. His wife Yaeger has been working as a screenwriter and producer ever since. The famous actor said that he does cardio every day and lifts weights three days a week. Also, stating that he started the day with coffee and cardio on an empty stomach, Rudd said that he ate eggs every day and kept salmon on his table.

Rudd was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on July 1, 2015. Rudd said that as a child he walked down this boulevard, reading names and trying to guess what millions of other people were thinking. Since 2014, Rudd and friend Jeffrey Dean Morgan have been partners of 'Samuel's Sweet Shop', a candy store in Rhinebeck, New York. In addition, he was named 2021's Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine.

Rudd is a supporter of the 'Young Stuttering Association', a non-profit organization that works to help young people who stutter. He also expressed this in an interview with Vanity Fair magazine that he was an advocate for stuttering awareness after playing a character who stuttered in a play. He is also the founder of the charity 'The Big Slick', a famous sporting event in Kansas City every June to support Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. Additionally, he became a part of Seth Rogen's Hilarity for Charity program to raise awareness and increase investment in Alzheimer's research.