Joel McHale

Joel Edward McHale (born November 20, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, and television host. He is best known for hosting ''The Soup'' (2004–2015) and his role as Jeff Winger on the NBC sitcom ''Community'' (2009–2015). He has performed in the films ''Spider-Man 2'' (2004), '' Spy Kids: All the Time in the World'' (2011), ''Ted'' (2012) and ''The Happytime Murders'' (2018). He also starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom '' The Great Indoors'' (2016–2017), hosted a reboot of ''Card Sharks'' (2019–2021), and portrayed the superhero Sylvester Pemberton / Starman on the show '' Stargirl'' (2020–2022). In 2020, he hosted a special aftershow interviewing key subjects from the Netflix documentary series ''Tiger King'' and voiced Johnny Cage in the direct-to-video martial arts film '' Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge'' (2020), a role he reprised in the sequel '' Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms'' (2021). He also voices X-PO in '' Lego Dimensions'' (2015–2017) and The Scientist in ''Fortnite'' (2021–present).

Early life

McHale was born in Rome on November 20, 1971, the son of Jack McHale, who worked as the Dean of Students at Loyola University's Rome Center, and his wife Laurie. His father is American and is from Chicago, while his mother is Canadian and a native of Vancouver. McHale is of Irish and Norwegian descent, and was raised Catholic. He grew up on Mercer Island, Washington, and briefly lived in Haddonfield, New Jersey, before returning to Mercer Island. He attended Mercer Island High School. He received a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Washington in 1995, and was briefly in the Theta Chi fraternity but left it because he "couldn't stand it."

McHale was recruited to be on the University of Washington's rowing team, but later joined its football team. Though most of his teammates received athletic scholarships, he was a walk-on who played tight end for two years on the scout team without appearing in an actual game. He was part of the ''Almost Live!'' cast, a local sketch comedy television show produced by Seattle's KING-TV. From 1993 to 1997, he was a member of the improv comedy group at Unexpected Productions, participating in ''Theatersports!'' at the Market Theater located in Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. He received an MFA from the Professional Actors Training Program at the University of Washington.

Career

Hosting

In 2004, McHale began hosting ''The Soup'', a satirical weekly television show on the E! television network. Throughout the show, he takes the audience through the oddities and ridiculous happenings of the week in television. He frequently appears as a co-host on ''Loveline''. He has been a judge on '' Iron Chef America''. He was involved in the American version of the British TV show '' The IT Crowd''. McHale made a guest appearance on the finale of ''Last Comic Standing''s sixth season, when he recapped the show's events in his typical format of jokes made popular on ''The Soup''. He made an appearance as a guest judge on ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' season 11, episode 4, " Trump: The Rusical".

McHale was the host at the 2014 White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner. He hosted the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards and the 2015 ESPY Awards. In 2016, he appeared as an occasional co-host alongside Kelly Ripa in the ABC morning show ''Live with Kelly''. McHale hosted the 43rd People's Choice Awards on January 18, 2017 and the 2017 Webby Awards on May 15, 2017. McHale hosted video game developer and publisher Ubisoft's press conference at E3 2010.

In January 2018, it was announced that he would be receiving his own talk show on Netflix in February. ''The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale'' combined celebrity guests, pre-taped sketches and video clips in a half-hour series that focused on pop culture and news from around the world. On August 17, 2018, it was announced that Netflix had canceled the show after 19 episodes, reportedly due to low viewership.

On April 8, 2019, TVLine reported that McHale would host a revival of the game show ''Card Sharks'' for ABC. The revival would premiere on June 12 of that year, running for two seasons and 21 episodes until July 7, 2021. The iteration was canceled in April 2022.

Beginning March 27, 2020, McHale co-hosts ''The Darkest Timeline'' podcast with former ''Community'' co-star Ken Jeong; the podcast was created in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Also in 2020, he hosted an after-show special of the Netflix documentary series ''Tiger King''. With Jeong, they became the new hosts of Fox's New Year's Eve special '' New Year's Eve Toast & Roast''. The second edition was canceled due to the quickly rising cases of Omicron variant in the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, McHale hosted '' Crime Scene Kitchen'', also on Fox.

Acting

After earning his master's degree in acting, McHale moved to Los Angeles and landed small roles in '' Diagnosis: Murder'', ''CSI: Miami'', and ''Will & Grace''. He played a TV reporter in the biopic ''Lords of Dogtown''. He guest-starred as a cast member on the NBC improv comedy show ''Thank God You're Here'' during the pilot episode and had a guest role on an episode of ''Pushing Daisies''. McHale appeared in ''Spider-Man 2'' in a small role as Mr. Jacks, a bank manager.

McHale has a long association with Circle X Theatre

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