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Kevin Pollak

Kevin Pollak has captured the attention of audiences worldwide with his range of both dramatic and comedic roles. Over the past two decades, he has appeared in more than sixty films, as well as numerous television projects, and has established himself as one of the few stand-up comedians to have a successful dramatic film career. In addition to his acting talents, he has also proven himself as both a writer and producer.

Pollak started performing stand-up comedy at the age of ten and became a touring professional stand-up at age twenty. In 1988, he landed a role in Ron Howard's Willow, after which he co-starred in his first dramatic role, in Barry Levinson's Avalon.

His work in Rob Reiner's 1992 film A Few Good Men, starring Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore, proved his ability to share the big screen with dramatic heavyweights. Pollak next co-starred with icons Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon in Grumpy Old Men and its sequel, Grumpier Old Men. In 1994, he was offered a plum role opposite Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacey, Benicio Del Toro and Chazz Palminteri in The Usual Suspects, which debuted to tremendous acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival and went on to win two Academy Awards and a special award from The National Board of Review for Best Ensemble Cast. Later that same year, Pollak got the call from Martin Scorsese to join Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Sharon Stone in his Vegas epic, Casino.

As the 20th century came to a close, Variety named its Top Ten hardest-working film actors, the criteria of which was having done at least three films per year throughout the 1990s; Pollak made the list.

With a 2001 stand-up comedy tour, Pollak returned to his first love while subsequently continuing to co-star in numerous films, including End of Days, The Whole Nine Yards, Hostage, The Santa Clause 2 and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause.

Next up for Pollak is George Gallo's Middle Men, which debuted at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and co-stars Luke Wilson, Gabriel Macht, Giovanni Ribisi and James Caan. He is currently in post-production with Columbus Circle, which he cowrote with Gallo, the film's director, and in which he stars with Jason Lee, Selma Blair, Amy Smart, Giovanni Ribisi, Jason Antoon and Beau Bridges.

Pollak will direct Three Nights in August from a script he wrote based on the New York Times bestseller by Pulitzer Prize winner Buzz Bissinger; Billy Bob Thornton will star in the film, with Pollak producing along with Bissinger and St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa. Additionally, Pollak and his producing partners recently acquired the feature rights to the life story of boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard, with Bissinger set to write the screenplay.

In addition to his extensive television work, Pollak was recently hired by producer Mark Burnett to host Our Little Genius, a quiz show which will debut in Spring 2010 on Fox. He has also starred in two of his own HBO stand-up comedy specials, the more recent being Kevin Pollak: Stop With the Kicking, directed by David Steinberg.

Pollak has been hosting his own Internet talk show, Kevin Pollak's Chat Show, since March 2009. Streaming live at http://Kevinpollakschatshow.com every Sunday at 5PM PST, the show can also be seen in archived episodes at both that site and www.Youtube.com/Kevinpollakschatshow.

Comedy Central named Pollak one of the Top 100 Comedians of All Time.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2010.
Read earlier biographies on this page.

Kevin Pollak Facts

Birth NameKevin E. Pollak
OccupationActor, Comedian
BirthdayOctober 30, 1957 (66)
SignScorpio
BirthplaceSan Francisco, California, USA
Height5' 5" (1m65)  How tall is Kevin Pollak compared to you?
Social Media kevinpollak

Selected Filmography

She's All That
Grumpy Old Men
End of Days
The Sex Monster
Grumpier Old Men
Tropic Thunder
Misery Loves Comedy
A Few Good Men
Casino
Ruby Bridges
Continue » Find more details on the Kevin Pollak Movies page