Steven John "Steve" Carell (born August 16, 1962)
Steve Carell was born at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts, and was raised in nearby Acton by his parents, Harriet T., a psychiatric nurse, and Edwin A. Carell, an electrical engineer. Carell was educated at The Fenn School and Middlesex School, and attended Denison University in Granville, Ohio. Early in his performing career, Carell acted on the stage in a touring children's theater company and later in the comedy musical, Knat Scatt Private Eye. He also acted in a television commercial for Brown's Chicken during 1989. After that, Carell performed with Chicago troupe The Second City during 1991, where Stephen Colbert was his understudy for a time. That same year, he obtained his first film work in a minor role as Tesio in Curly Sue. Other early screen credits include a role in Julia Louis-Dreyfus's short-lived situation comedy Watching Ellie (2002–2003) and Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda. Carell has also made fun of himself for auditioning for Saturday Night Live but losing the job to Will Ferrell. Two important roles helped Carell get the attention of audiences: Bruce Almighty, in which Carell plays Evan Baxter (an arrogant rival to Jim Carrey's character), and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, in which Carell plays another news personality, as slow-witted weatherman Brick Tamland. During 2005, Carell signed a deal with NBC to star in an American version of the BBC British TV show The Office, a so-called "mockumentary" about life at a mid-sized paper supply company. He plays Michael Scott, the idiosyncratic regional manager of Dunder Mifflin Inc, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. On April 29th, 2010, Carell stated he probably would not continue his role as Michael Scott after the 2010-2011 season of The Office after which his contract expires.
