Paul Rudd
Photo Credit: Justin Bishop

Birthdate: April 6, 1969
NJ Town Affiliation: Passaic

For nearly 30 years, Paul Rudd has been entertaining audiences as an actor of stage and screen. Born in Passaic, he lived in Palisades Park as a kid. Because of his father’s airline job at TWA, Paul moved several times, eventually spending his teenage years in Kansas City. After graduating high school, he studied theater at the University of Kansas. He is also a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts as well as the British Drama Academy at Oxford University.

Rudd made his small screen debut in 1992 with the television drama Sisters. But it was in 1995, with the comedy film Clueless, that was his breakout performance.

Some of his other well-known credits include Wet Hot American Summer, The Cider House Rules, Romeo + Juliet, Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, I Love You, Man, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Role Models, Ghostbusters: Afterlife & Frozen Empire. In 2015, he appeared as the lead Scott Lang in Ant-Man. Rudd reprised this role in Captain America: Civil War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Avengers: Endgame, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Rudd currently stars in two A24 films – Andrew DeYoung’s comedy, Friendship, alongside Tim Robinson and Kate Mara which premiered to critical acclaim at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival and Alex Scharfman’s Death of a Unicorn, opposite Jenna Ortega. He has also completed production on John Carney’s musical comedy, Power Ballad, where he will star opposite Nick Jonas. And will next begin production on Sony Pictures’ Anaconda, opposite Jack Black later this year.

In 2004, Rudd had a recurring role on the popular sitcom Friends. In 2012, Rudd signed to appear on four episodes of NBC’s Parks and Recreation. He most recently starred in the third season of Only Murders In The Building alongside Meryl Streep, Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Selena Gomez.

He has also has originated multiple roles in Broadway plays, the first being The Last Night of Ballyhoo. The following year, he appeared in Twelfth Night at Lincoln Center. In 2000, he played the role of Jamie in London’s West End production of Long Days Journey Into Night followed by the Almeida Theaters’s production of Neil Labute’s The Shape of Things. In 2006, he once again appeared on Broadway with Julia Roberts in Three Days of Rain. In 2012, Rudd appeared in the original Broadway production of Grace with Michael Shannon.

Since 2014, Rudd and fellow actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan have been co-owners of Samuel’s Sweet Shop, a candy store in the town of Rhinebeck, New York. Rudd is also the co-founder of Big Slick, a charity event that raises money for Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City to advance the goal of eradicating pediatric cancer. 2024 marks the 15th year and they have raised over $21 million since its launch. Additionally, Rudd is an avid supporter and trustee for S.A.Y. (Stuttering Association for the Young), which aims to provide vital and transformative programs for young people who stutter.

Rudd has been married to his wife Julie for over twenty years and they have two children.