William Thomas "Bill" Hader Jr. (born June 7, 1978) is an American comedian, actor, voice artist, and writer. He is best known for his work on Saturday Night Live, his collaborations with Seth Rogen and Disney, being a writer on South Park, and his roles in films like The Skeleton Twins and Trainwreck.
Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he attended Scottsdale Community College and joined the cast of SNL in 2005. He fulfilled the role of "the impressions master" during eight seasons (making Hader one in a handful of male cast members who has a very high number of celebrity impressions, joining Fred Armisen, Dana Carvey, Darrell Hammond, Jason Sudeikis, and Kenan Thompson). Among his popular impressions are: Vincent Price, Alan Alda, Clint Eastwood, Anthony Scaramuccinote , John Malkovich, Keith Morrison (of Dateline fame) James Carville, Prince Philip, Eliot Spitzer, Mike Sorrentinonote , and Al Pacino (which was his first celebrity impression when he was hired on the show in 2005). Hader is also known for his memorable recurring characters as well: ornery and elderly field reporter, Herb Welch; Shell-Shocked Veteran and puppeteer student Anthony Peter Coleman; Hollywood news reporter Brady Trunk; Nitro, from Andy Samberg's low-budget Lazer Cats movies that Hader and Samberg try to pitch to Lorne Michaels; Devin, from the West Coast soap opera The Californians, Greg, a humanoid alien who somehow got a sports news anchor job; Vince Blight, the sadistic host of the equally-sadistic game show What's That Name?; Italian talk show host, Vinny Vedecci; and, probably Hader's most memorable recurring character ever: burnt-out club kid, Stefonnote , who was hired by Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update to report on New York City hotspots and ended up falling for and marrying Seth Meyers.
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His most recent work is a Mockumentary Genre Anthology series called Documentary Now! (2015–present). He's also the star and co-creator of the HBO original series Barry (2018), in which he plays the eponymous lead character.
From 2006 to 2018, he was married to director Maggie Carey, with whom he has three daughters.
Filmography
- You, Me and Dupree (2006) as Mark
- Knocked Up (2007) as Brent
- Hot Rod (2007) as Dave
- Superbad (2007) as Officer Slater
- The Brothers Solomon (2007) as Recumbent Biker
- Pineapple Express (2008) as Private Greg B. Miller
- Tropic Thunder (2008) as Rob Slolom
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) as Brian Bretter
- Adventureland (2009) as Bobby
- Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) as George Armstrong Custer
- Year One (2009) as The Shaman
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) as Flint Lockwood (voice)
- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009) as Gazelle (voice)
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) as The Voice (voice)
- Paul (2011) as Agent Haggard
- Men in Black 3 (2012) as Andy Warhol/Agent W
- Monsters University (2013) as Referee/Slug (voice)
- Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) as USS Vengeance computer (voice)
- Turbo (2013) as Guy Gagne (voice)
- The To Do List (2013) as Willy McLean
- The Skeleton Twins (2014) as Milo
- They Came Together (2014) as Kyle
- Trainwreck (2015) as Aaron Conners
- Inside Out (2015) as Fear (voice)
- The Force Awakens (2015) as voice consultant for BB-8
- Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016) as Zippy
- The Angry Birds Movie (2016) as King Leonard Mudbeard (voice)
- Finding Dory (2016) as Stan (voice)
- The BFG (2016) as Bloodbottler (voice and motion capture)
- Sausage Party (2016) as Firewater/Tequila/El Guaco (voices)
- Power Rangers (2017) as Alpha 5 (voice and motion capture)
- Toy Story 4 (2019) as Axel (voice)
- It: Chapter Two (2019) as Richie Tozier
- Noelle (2019) as Nick Kringle
- The Addams Family 2 (2021) as Cyrus Strange (voice)
- Lightyear (2022) as Featheringhamstan (voice)
Television
- Saturday Night Live (sketch player 2005-2013)
- Bob's Burgers (2012-) as Mickey/Big Bob (voice)
- Documentary Now! (2015- ) as Various
- Barry (2018- ) as Barry Berkman/Barry Block
- The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019) as urGoh/The Wanderer
- Adventure Time: Distant Lands (2021) as Bufo (voice)
Needless to say, these tropes have everything:
- Actor Allusion: Bill Hader starred in Sausage Party where he said "Fuck me right." He also starred in Superbad where the line is also said (however it's Jonah Hill who says the line).
- The Cast Showoff: In The Skeleton Twins, he lip-syncs to "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship.
- Corpsing: He's famous for doing this on Saturday Night Live, especially in the "Californians" and "Scared Straight" sketches, and as Stefon on "Weekend Update". John Mulaney would often change Hader's lines on the teleprompter at the last minute to get him to break character and laugh.
- He Also Did: He actually worked on several movies as a production assistant (basically the lowest crew member in the hierarchy). The most notable film he was on was Collateral Damage.
- Irony as She Is Cast: Bill's genuine reaction of fear is more of a nervous laugh. Rather appropriate for a comedian... but not so much when you're cast in a straight horror movie.
- Large Ham: His performances tend to be very expressive, in both comedy and drama.
- Man of a Thousand Voices: Particularly when he's a voice actor his talent with voices shines through his live action performances.
- Perma-Stubble
- Playing Against Type:
- Known as a versatile comedian, his role in the drama The Skeleton Twins shows even more range than before.
- His role in It: Chapter Two which is a straightforward horror film (as in not a Horror Comedy).
- Takes this even further with his show Barry, wherein he plays a depressed hitman with PTSD prone to the occasional bout of murderous rage.
- Star-Making Role: Officer Slater in Superbad. Although he was known at the time as a cast member on SNL his role in this Judd Apatow film helped solidify him as a member of Seth Rogen's production posse and helped start a collaboration with director Greg Mottola. He gained further recognition with younger audiences with Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: He's 6'1" with black hair and good-looking.
- Those Two Actors: He has frequently collaborated with Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd, Kristen Wiig, Amy Poehler, and Seth Rogen.
