Charlie Day

Charles Peckham Day (born February 9, 1976) is an American actor, writer, producer and podcaster. He is best known for playing Charlie Kelly on the FX comedy ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'' (2005–present), which he co-created with Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton, and on which he also serves as executive producer and writer. In 2011, he was nominated for a Critics' Choice Television Award and a Satellite Award for this role. He subsequently co-created ''The Cool Kids'' (2018–2019) on Fox with Paul Fruchbom in 2018 and ''Mythic Quest'' (2020–present) on Apple TV+ with Rob McElhenney and Megan Ganz in 2020, and continues to serve as executive producer on the latter.

On film, he is best known for his performances as Dr Newton Geiszler the biologist in Guillermo del Toro's science-fiction monster movie ''Pacific Rim'' (2013) and its sequel '' Pacific Rim: Uprising'' (2018), Dale Arbus in the comedy ''Horrible Bosses'' (2011) and sequel ''Horrible Bosses 2'' (2014), and teacher Andy Campbell in the comedy ''Fist Fight'' (2017). He is also known for his voice roles in '' Monsters University'' (2013) and ''The Lego Movie'' film franchise (2014–2019). Day will be voicing Luigi in the upcoming Nintendo film ''The Super Mario Bros. Movie'' in April 2023.

Early life

Charles Peckham Day was born in New York City on February 9, 1976. His family lived in the Riverdale section of the Bronx. He spent most of his childhood in Middletown, Rhode Island. He is the youngest of two children, with an elder sister named Alice. His father, Dr. Thomas Charles Day, who is of Italian and Irish descent, is a retired professor of music history at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island and his mother, Mary (''née'' Peckham), was a piano teacher at The Pennfield School in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. She was of English descent. His paternal grandfather changed the family name from "Del Giorno" to "Day" to assimilate during WWII and died in a military training accident when his son Thomas was only four.

Day attended Pennfield School and graduated from the Portsmouth Abbey School, both in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. He majored in art history at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts in 1998. At Merrimack, he was active in the Onstagers, Merrimack's student theater organization. In May 2014, Day gave the commencement speech for Merrimack College's graduating class and received an honorary Ph.D.

After graduating, Day worked on small television roles, advertisements, and voiceovers for the Independent Film Channel, and supplemented his income by waiting tables and answering phones for a telethon.

Career

Beginning in summer 1997 as a college student, Day was active in the training programs at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where he was a contemporary of actors such as Jimmi Simpson, David Hornsby, Kathryn Hahn and Sterling K. Brown. Day went on to play the lead role in ''Dead End'', at the Huntington Theatre in Boston. In the early 2000s, he appeared on several television shows such as ''Third Watch'', ''Law & Order'', ''Reno 911!'' and the cancelled sitcom ''Luis''.

As a young actor living in New York City, Day had lived with Simpson, and the two had often made comedy sketches and absurd short films with Hornsby, Nate Mooney, Logan Marshall-Green and other actor friends. These served as the inspiration for several scripted home movies he later developed with Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton in 2003, including a few about three struggling actors getting into schemes and awkward situations in their spare time while living in LA. The scripts evolved and went on to become the pilot episode of the comedy series ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia''. In 2005, the first season was released on FX television. In addition to being a co-creator, executive producer and writer on the show, Day plays Charlie Kelly, one of the main characters on the show. In 2021, ''It's Always Sunny'' became the longest running live action comedy on American television with the release of its fifteenth season.

In July 2011, Day starred in New Line Cinema's ''Horrible Bosses'' with Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis, Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Farrell, and Jamie Foxx. The film was a commercial success and Day's performance was praised by critics. He also had a role in the 2010 film '' Going the Distance'', alongside Justin Long, Jason Sudeikis, and Drew Barrymore. In 2013, he voiced the character Art in the Pixar animated film '' Monsters University'' and appeared in the Guillermo del Toro science fiction ''kaiju'' film ''Pacific Rim'', in which he played biologist Dr Newton "Newt" Geiszler, who is the focus of the secondary comedic plot with Burn Gorman and Ron Perlman. In 2018, he reprised the role for the sequel '' Pacific Rim: Uprising'' directed by Steven S. DeKnight.

In 2017, Day starred in ''Fist Fight'', with Ice Cube. In it, Day plays Andy Campbell, a high school English teacher challenged by his co-worker, history teacher Ronald Strickland (Cube), to a fight after getting him fired. In 2018, he had a role in Drew Pearce's film ''Hotel Artemis'', with Jodie Foster, Sterling K Brown, Brian Tyree Henry and Jenny Slate.

Most recently, Day played his first leading role in a romantic comedy on ''I Want You Back'' with Slate for Amazon Studios released on 11 February 2022.

Day also produced the television shows ''How to Be a Gentleman'' and ''Unsupervised'', created by ''It's Always Sunny'' writers David Hornsby, Scott Marder and Rob Rosell. Day hosted the November 5, 2011 episode of ''Saturday Night Live'' (SNL) with Maroon 5 as the musical guest. He was the second cast member from ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'' to host ''SNL'' (after Danny DeVito, though DeVito hosted ''SNL'' before ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'' premiered, the last time being in 1999; notably, however, DeVito would make a brief cameo during Day's opening monologue in this episode). Day would also make another brief cameo in the following season's episode hosted by Jamie Foxx on December 8, 2012, as a congressman in the episode's sketch "Maine Justice". In September 2014, Day provided his voice for ''The Sims 4'' TV spots.

He is the creator and producer of Fox comedy The Cool Kids, starring Vicki Lawrence, Martin Mull, David Alan Grier and Leslie Jordan and set in a retirement community. On August 9, 2019, ''Mythic Quest'', a new half-hour comedy series co-created by Day and, colleagues from ''It's Always Sunny'', Rob McElhenney and Megan Ganz, was announced as one of the original productions for the then-upcoming streaming service, Apple TV+.

In September 2021, Nintendo announced that Day will be voicing Luigi, in ''The Super Mario Bros. Movie'', set to be released on April 7, 2023. Day is currently also working on his feature directorial debut with the upcoming comedy ''El Tonto'', featuring Kate Beckinsale, Edie Falco and John Malkovich. Day writes, produces, and stars as a silent man who becomes a celebrity and loses it all.

Since November 2021, Day, McElhenney and Howerton have been releasing ''The Always Sunny Podcast'', originally intending on re-watching the entire series and sharing behind-the-scenes information, before the focus of the podcast naturally shifted to emphasize the banter and dynamic between the three creators.

Personal life

A skilled musician, Day can play the piano, accordion, trombone, guitar, and harmonica, and has written or improvised most of the songs featured on ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia''. In 2014, he received an honorary doctorate in performing arts from Merrimack College, where he also delivered that year's keynote address.

In 2001, Day met actress Mary Elizabeth Ellis. They were already dating in 2004 when they co-starred as incestuous siblings on ''Reno 911!''.Interview with Charlie Day & Mary Elizabeth Ellis
MonsterFresh.com Ellis has a recurring role on ''It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia'' as The Waitress, the object of the unrequited love and obsession for Day's character. The couple married on March 4, 2006. They had their first child, a son named Russell Wallace Day, in December 2011. They live in Los Angeles, California.

Day has stated with uncertainty that he is agnostic.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Web

Music videos

Theme park attractions

Theatre

Awards and nominations

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Day, Charlie
1976 births
Male actors from Rhode Island
American male film actors
American male comedians
American male television actors
American male video game actors
American male voice actors
20th-century American comedians
21st-century American comedians
American people of English descent
American people of Irish descent
American writers of Italian descent
American people of Welsh descent
American television writers
American male television writers
Living people
Merrimack College alumni
People from Middletown, Rhode Island
Male actors from New York City
21st-century American male actors
Screenwriters from New York (state)
Screenwriters from Rhode Island
American agnostics
21st-century American screenwriters
Portsmouth Abbey School alumni
21st-century American male writers