Zach Galifianakis Mainstream performances What was his first mainstream performance? played Alan Garner in the hit comedy The Hangover What other roles did he take after that? G-Force, Youth in Revolt and the Oscar-nominated film Up in the Air.
What role did he play in Up in the Air?
What role did Zach Galifianakis play in Up in the Air?
Galifianakis played Alan Garner in the hit comedy The Hangover and earned the MTV Movie Award for the Best Comedic Performance. He was also prominently advertised in subsequent films that featured him in supporting roles, such as G-Force, Youth in Revolt and the Oscar-nominated film Up in the Air. Galifianakis also starred in the HBO series Bored to Death and hosted Saturday Night Live on March 6, 2010 during the show's 35th season, during which he shaved his beard mid-show for a sketch, and then closed the show wearing a fake beard. He hosted again on March 12, 2011 and shaved his head this time, in a Mr. T-like hairstyle, which was allegedly supposed to be used for a sketch that never aired due to time constraints. In 2010, he starred in several films, including Dinner for Schmucks, It's Kind of a Funny Story, and Due Date. On October 29, 2010, while debating marijuana legalization on the show HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Galifianakis appeared to have smoked marijuana on live television; host Bill Maher denied that it was real marijuana in an interview with Wolf Blitzer during an episode of The Situation Room. In 2011, he reprised his role for The Hangover Part II, which was set in Thailand and voiced Humpty Dumpty in Puss in Boots. Galifianakis starred alongside Will Ferrell in Jay Roach's 2012 political comedy The Campaign. He received critical praise for his performance in the 2014 film Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), in which he starred with Michael Keaton, Emma Stone and Edward Norton. In 2017, Galifianakis voiced The Joker in The Lego Batman Movie. In January 2014, it was announced that Galifianakis and Louis C.K. were developing a comedy pilot for FX. CANNOTANSWER
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Zachary Knight Galifianakis (; , ; born October 1, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, musician, and writer. He appeared in Comedy Central Presents special and presented his show Late World with Zach on VH1.

Galifianakis has starred in films including The Hangover trilogy (2009–2013), Due Date (2010), The Campaign (2012), Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) and Masterminds (2016). He has also voiced characters in animated films such as Puss in Boots (2011), The Lego Batman Movie (2017), Missing Link (2019), and Ron's Gone Wrong (2021).

Galifianakis currently hosts the Funny or Die website talk show Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis. He starred in the FX series Baskets and was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2017.

Early life
Zachary Knight Galifianakis was born in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, on October 1, 1969. the son of community arts center owner Mary Frances (née Cashion) and heating oil vendor Harry Galifianakis. His mother is of Scottish-Irish and English descent, while his paternal grandparents were Greek immigrants from Crete. He was baptized in his father's Greek Orthodox faith. He has a younger sister, Merritt, and an older brother, Greg. His cousin is Washington Post cartoonist Nick Galifianakis, while his uncle, also named Nick Galifianakis, is a politician. Galifianakis attended Wilkes Central High School, and subsequently attended North Carolina State University, where he majored in communications. While in college, he worked at a public access station. He taught a waltz class in 1991 where he crossed paths with Mary J. Blige.

Career

Early work
After his television debut Boston Common, Galifianakis joined Saturday Night Live for two weeks. He has stated "I worked on Saturday Night Live for two weeks, and Britney Spears was the host one week when I was doing it. Wrote a sketch, Will Ferrell was going to play a bodyguard to her belly button, and we were going to shrink Will down to fit into a belly button. ...she just stared at me after I explained it to her. And then she finally goes 'Yeah that's funny.'"  Galifianakis co-starred in the film Out Cold, and had small roles in Corky Romano, Below, Bubble Boy, Heartbreakers, Into the Wild, Super High Me, Little Fish Strange Pond and Largo.

In September 2001, he appeared in an episode of Comedy Central Presents. It included a stand-up routine, a segment with a piano, and a cappella group The Night Owls  (introduced as his "12 ex-girlfriends") singing "Eternal Flame" by The Bangles while he made jokes. In 2002, he hosted his own VH1 talk show called Late World with Zach. It featured many of his friends and regular performers from the LA comedy and music venue Largo where he appeared frequently during this time period. One episode featured Largo regulars Jon Brion and Rhett Miller as musical guests. He played Davis in the Fox drama series Tru Calling. He appeared many times on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and played Frisbee in Reno 911!.

Galifianakis played Alan Finger on the Comedy Central show Dog Bites Man, a fake news program that caught people during candid moments thinking they were being interviewed by a real news crew. He also guest-starred in the episode of the Comedy Central show The Sarah Silverman Program as Fred the Homeless Guy. He also had a recurring guest role as a doctor on the animated Adult Swim show Tom Goes to the Mayor and appeared in several episodes of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! in a recurring role as Tairy Greene. In 2006, Galifianakis appeared in Fiona Apple's music video for the song "Not About Love", where he is seen lip-syncing the lyrics to the song. A year later, Kanye West employed Galifianakis and indie rock musician Will Oldham for similar purposes in the second version of the video for his song "Can't Tell Me Nothing". In June 2006, Galifianakis released the single "Come On and Get It (Up in 'Dem Guts)", a comedic hip-hop dance song which features Apple's vocals.

Galifianakis, Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn and Maria Bamford, are the four Comedians of Comedy, a periodic packaged comedy tour in the style of The Original Kings of Comedy and the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. They chose to perform at live rock clubs as opposed to comedy clubs to try to reach a different audience. Much of the tour was taped and has been featured in both a short-lived TV series on Comedy Central and a full-length movie that has appeared at SXSW and on Showtime. On February 22, 2008, he made an appearance on the Jackassworld.com: 24 Hour Takeover. He interviewed various members of the Jackass cast. Galifianakis starred in first leading role in the independent film Visioneers which premiered in 2008. The film which was released on direct-to-DVD. That same year, Galifianakis appeared in a web video series of advertisements for Absolut vodka, along with Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, creating a parody of the Golden Girls in which one has a deep anger issue, breaking the fourth wall in exasperation and outright violence on the set. He also completed the pilot Speed Freaks for Comedy Central.

Zach's 2006 stand-up concert film Zach Galifianakis Live at the Purple Onion was one of the first original programs from Netflix.

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis

Galifianakis has a series of videos on the Funny or Die website titled Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis where he conducts interviews with popular celebrities between two potted ferns. He has interviewed Jimmy Kimmel, Michael Cera, Jon Hamm, Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, Bradley Cooper, Carrot Top, Conan O'Brien, Andy Richter, Andy Dick, Ben Stiller, Steve Carell, Sean Penn, Bruce Willis, Tila Tequila, Jennifer Aniston, Will Ferrell, Samuel L. Jackson, Tobey Maguire, Arcade Fire, Justin Bieber, Brie Larson, David Letterman, former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Brad Pitt. His interview style consists of typical interview questions, bizarre non sequiturs, awkward product endorsements and sometimes inappropriate sexual questions and comments. Galifianakis won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Program as a producer of the show at the 66th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

Mainstream performances
Galifianakis played Alan Garner in the hit comedy The Hangover and earned the MTV Movie Award for the Best Comedic Performance. He was also prominently advertised in subsequent films that featured him in supporting roles, such as G-Force, Youth in Revolt and Up in the Air.

Galifianakis starred in the HBO series Bored to Death and hosted Saturday Night Live on March 6, 2010 during the show's 35th season, during which he shaved his beard mid-show for a sketch, and closed the show wearing a fake one. He hosted again on March 12, 2011 and shaved his head this time, in a Mr. T-like hairstyle, which was allegedly supposed to be used for a sketch that never aired due to time constraints.

In 2010, he starred in several films, including Dinner for Schmucks, It's Kind of a Funny Story, and Due Date. On October 29, 2010, while debating marijuana legalization on the show HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Galifianakis appeared to have smoked marijuana on live television; host Bill Maher denied that it was real marijuana in an interview with Wolf Blitzer during an episode of The Situation Room. In 2011, he reprised his role for The Hangover Part II, which was set in Thailand and voiced Humpty Dumpty in Puss in Boots. Galifianakis starred alongside Will Ferrell in Jay Roach's 2012 political comedy The Campaign. He received critical praise for his performance in the 2014 film Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), in which he starred with Michael Keaton, Emma Stone and Edward Norton. In 2017, Galifianakis voiced The Joker in The Lego Batman Movie.

Charity work
In January 2014, Galifianakis and his Night of a Thousand Vaginas co-star Sarah Silverman announced their intention to raise $20,000 to help fund the Texas Abortion Fund, part of a nationwide network of funds set up to assist women in obtaining abortions in states whose legislatures had placed restrictions on the practice. The fundraiser was set up in response to the passage of Texas H.B. 2, which established several restrictions that forced a majority of the state's abortion clinics to close.

Galifianakis befriended Marie "Mimi" Haist, a homeless woman in her 80s who was living in a Santa Monica laundromat for 18 years, and bought her an apartment across the street from the laundromat. The story was revealed in the 2015 documentary Queen Mimi.

Personal life
In August 2012, Galifianakis married Canadian charity worker Quinn Lundberg at the UBC Farm in Vancouver. They have two sons together: one born on September 7, 2013 (Galifianakis skipped the premiere of his film Are You Here to attend the birth) and another born on November 7, 2016.

Galifianakis owns a farm in Sparta, North Carolina, and splits his time between the farm and his work. He said, "My farm is a place that I get to think clearly and pretend to know what I am doing."

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Music videos

Awards and nominations

References

External links

 
 
 

20th-century American comedians
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American male actors
1969 births
American cannabis activists
American comedy musicians
American male comedians
American male film actors
American male television actors
American male voice actors
American male web series actors
American people of Greek descent
American people of Scottish descent
American stand-up comedians
American television writers
Funny or Die
Zach
Late night television talk show hosts
Living people
Male actors from North Carolina
American male television writers
North Carolina Democrats
North Carolina State University alumni
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Screen Actors Guild Award winners
People from Alleghany County, North Carolina
People from Wilkesboro, North Carolina
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Screenwriters from North Carolina
Streamy Award winners
Joseph Marcell (born 14 August 1948) is a British actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Geoffrey Butler, the butler on the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from September 1990 until the show ended in May 1996. Born in Saint Lucia, he moved to the United Kingdom, when he was 9 years old and grew up in Peckham, South London. Marcell currently lives in Banstead, Surrey.

He studied speech and dance at the Central School of Speech and Drama.

Career
Marcell grew up in Peckham, South East London. As a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he appeared in productions of Othello and A Midsummer Night's Dream. He has also appeared in feature films and on television in Britain. He serves on the board of the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London where he featured in a nationwide production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and King Lear. 

He played Gonzalo in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in May of 2016. He also played Solly Two Kings in the play by August Wilson, Gem of the Ocean at the Tricycle Theatre, in London, in January 2016. Marcell began rehearsals as Titus Andronicus, in July 2017, for the La Grande Shakespeare Company, in La Grande, Oregon.

Film and television

Film

Television

Stage
King Lear, as King Lear.
Gem of the Ocean (2016), as Solly Two Kings.
Lady Windermere's Fan (2018) as Lord Lorton, Vaudeville Theatre, London.
The Tempest (2016) as Gonzalo, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, London.
Peter Pan (1982) as Nibs, The RSC at the Barbican

References

External links
 
 Alex Fletcher, "What happened to Geoffrey from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?", TV interview, Digital Spy, 24 February 2014.
 "Caribbean Footsteps meets with Joseph Marcell". YouTube
 "What the butler did next" 

1948 births
Living people
20th-century English male actors
21st-century English male actors
Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Black British male actors
English male film actors
English male Shakespearean actors
English male television actors
English people of Saint Lucian descent
Male actors from London
People from Southall
Royal Shakespeare Company members
Saint Lucian actors
Saint Lucian emigrants to the United Kingdom The Mercian Trail is the name given to a group of museums and historical sites in the West Midlands of England that will be used to display objects from the Staffordshire Hoard. The trail is organised by a partnership of Lichfield District, Tamworth Borough Council, Staffordshire County Council, Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Birmingham City Council, and features the following locations:

 Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery ()
 Potteries Museum & Art Gallery ()
 Lichfield Cathedral ()
 Tamworth Castle ()

Most of the objects from the Staffordshire Hoard will be put on display at these four locations, although other locations may be included in the trail in the future. In addition a touring exhibition will take some objects from the hoard to other parts of the West Midlands, starting with the Shire Hall Gallery in Stafford. This exhibition will tie in with a display in the nearby Ancient High House Museum, entitled: 'Out of the Dark Ages: Stafford's Anglo-Saxon Origins'. The Ancient High House exhibition, which runs from 28 June to 1 October,  examines the coming of the Anglo Saxons and the emergence of the Kingdom of Mercia as well as telling the story of the Saxon burh founded in 913. The display cabinets include a selection of coins and artefacts including a wealth of domestic and personal items, these in contrast to the largely martial artefacts of the Hoard.

Background

The Staffordshire Hoard was discovered in a field in Hammerwich, near Lichfield in July 2009. After the hoard was declared treasure in September 2009, it was valued at £3.285 million, and a public appeal was launched to raise the money in order for Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery to jointly purchase the hoard. On 23 March 2010 it was announced that the required sum had been raised, and that the hoard would be purchased by these two museums for display in the West Midlands.

Purpose
The Mercian Trail is not only intended to make the Staffordshire Hoard available for display to the public, but it is also intended to highlight the history and archaeology of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, which was centred on the area corresponding to the modern county of Staffordshire. The exhibits of the treasure will attempt to relate the items to other archaeological objects, and promote a greater understanding of the items in their historical context. The organisers of the trail have stated that the trail will attempt to provide answers to the following questions.

 How were such ornate items made in Anglo-Saxon times?
 What trading links were established in Anglo-Saxon times?
 How did the gold reach Britain's shores, and how was it carried here?
 What links are there to Birmingham's thriving jewellery industry today?
 What role did Staffordshire play in ancient Mercia?
 What was life like in Staffordshire during Anglo-Saxon times?
 What links are there to existing Staffordshire Anglo-Saxon finds?
 Why did the Hoard end up in Staffordshire?
 What are the links between the Hoard and early Christendom?
 What does the biblical inscription tell us?
 What are the links to the Lichfield Angel and St Chad?
 What is the significance of the folded up cross and serpents?
 Are there any links to the St Chad Gospels?
 What are the links to Offa, and key figures of the period?
 What battles took place, and what role did the Hoard play?
 Who were the owners of the Hoard, and what wars did they fight in?
 What role did Tamworth play in ancient Mercia?
 How did the archaeologists extract the Hoard?
 Why did the Hoard get laid down in Staffordshire?
 How can archaeology uncover the secrets of the Hoard?

See also
 Staffordshire Hoard
 Mercian Way

References

External links

 The Mercian Trail: the gateway to the Staffordshire Hoard
 LGA Mercian Trail Presentation

Mercia
Tourist attractions in Staffordshire