Birthdate: Apr 6, 1969
Birthplace: Passaic, New Jersey, USA
Paul Rudd (birthname: Paul Stephen Rudd) is a multifaceted actor (as well as writer and producer) who has worked frequently with filmmaker Judd Apatow, has taken on the comedy-tinged superhero of Ant-Man, and has voiced several animated film roles, starting with a part in writer-director Amy Heckerling’s hit teen comedy, Clueless (1995), starring Alicia Silverstone. His full name was credited as Rudd in a lead role in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), the sixth entry in the Halloween franchise, with Donald Pleasence, Marianne Hagan, Mitch Ryan, and Kim Darby.
Rudd played Juliet’s spurned fiancé named “Dave Paris” in Baz Luhrmann’s modernized Shakespeare, Romeo + Juliet (1996), co-starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes, grossing over ten times its costs with a $148 million global gross after premiering at the Berlin Film Festival, where DiCaprio won best actor, and Luhrmann won the Alfred Bauer Prize. Rudd joined the colorful ensemble of Janeane Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Molly Shannon, Christopher Meloni, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, and Elizabeth Banks in the cult comedy from co-writer/director David Wain, Wet Hot American Summer (2001).
Paul Rudd then re-created his co-starring role from writer-director Neil LaBute’s stage play for the film version of The Shape of Things (2003), with Gretchen Mol, Rachel Weisz, and Fred Weller. Rudd’s feature debut as a writer-actor was in the brilliant comedy, Role Models (2008), which marked Rudd’s reunion with writer-director David Wain, and also featured Seann William Scott, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Jane Lynch, and Elizabeth Banks, and which proved to be a smash hit for Universal Pictures with a global take of $92.4 million.
Rudd followed with another successful studio comedy, I Love You, Man (2009), co-written and directed by John Hamburg and co-starring Jason Segel, with Rashida Jones, Andy Samberg, J.K. Simmons, Jane Curtin, Jon Favreau, and Jaime Pressly, and earning $92.3 million for distributor Paramount Pictures. Rudd has had many collaborations with comedy filmmaker Judd Apatow, including Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), This is 40 (2012), and Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013).
Paul Rudd soon landed the durable, offbeat superhero starring role of Ant-Man/Scott Lang in the Ant-Man franchise, starting with the Peyton Reed-directed Ant-Man (2015); the Anthony and Joe Russo-directed Captain America: Civil War (2016); director Reed’s Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018); the Russo Brothers-directed Avengers: Endgame (2019); and the Russos’ highly anticipated follow-up sequel, Avengers: Doomsday (2026), in which Robert Downey Jr. took on the role of Doctor Doom. Rudd starred in the Reed-directed $275-million-budgeted Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), while Rudd additionally co-wrote Ant-Man with Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, and Adam McKay, and co-wrote the script of Ant-Man and the Wasp with Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Andrew Barrer, and Gabriel Ferrari.
Rudd has co-starred in another franchise, the Ghostbusters series, as Gary in the series revival Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)—directed by Jason Reitman--and then in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024), directed by Gil Kenan and co-written by Kenan and Reitman, with Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson. Rudd has contributed voice performances to a long roster of largely successful animated movies, including Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), The Little Prince (2015), Sausage Party (2016), Nerdland (2016), The Bob’s Burgers Movie (2022), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023).
Paul Rudd has starred in several American indie features, including writer-director Stephen Chbosky’s feature adaptation of his 1999 novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), with Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Dylan McDermott, and Joan Cusack; director-writer David Gordon Green’s comedy-drama, Prince Avalanche (2013), with Emile Hirsch; the Sundance-premiering period drama, The Catcher Was a Spy (2018), with Mark Strong, Sienna Miller, Jeff Daniels, Tom Wilkinson, Giancarlo Giannini, Hiroyuki Sanada, Guy Pearce, and Paul Giamatti; director-writer Alex Scharfman’s black comedy, Death of a Unicorn (2025), with Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, and Richard E. Grant; writer-director Andrew DeYoung’s suburban comedy, Friendship (2025), with Kate Mara.
Rudd co-starred with Jack Black in director/co-writer Tom Gormican’s horror comedy remake, Anaconda (2025), with Selton Mello, Daniela Melchior, Thandiwe Newton, Steve Zahn, and Ione Skye, produced by Columbia Pictures/Fully Formed Entertainment and released by Sony Pictures Releasing. Rudd joined Irish director/writer/producer John Carney as co-star of one of his musical films, Power Ballad (2026), co-starring Nick Jonas, Jack Reynor, and Havana Rose Liu, with Lionsgate distributing the U.S.-Ireland co-production.
Paul Rudd co-starred in debuting director/writer/producer Erika Burke Rossa’s drama, Rain Reign (date to be announced), based on Ann M. Martin’s best-selling novel, with Felice Kakaletris, Gretchen Mol, Mary Stuart Masterson, Jeremy Sisto and Sean Weil, produced by With a Twist/Long Odds/Rainbow Goat/City Hill Arts/Ley Line Entertainment/Poster Child Pictures.
Paul Rudd was born in Passaic, New Jersey, and was raised in numerous places (including Ontario, Canada, Anaheim, Kansas, Johnson County, Kansas, and Overland Park, Kansas) by parents Michael (TWA vice-president and tour guide) Gloria Rudd (television station sales manager), who were both born in London, England. Rudd has a sister, Mandi Rudd Arnold. Rudd was educated in Kansas at Broadmoor Junior High School and Shawnee Mission West High School in Kansas Rudd has been married to writer/producer/production unit publicist Julie Rudd; the couple has two children, Jack and Darby. Rudd’s height is 5’ 9”. Rudd’s estimated net worth is $70 million.
(2009)
SELECT HONORS: Winner, Best Vocal Ensemble-TV Special, Behind the Voice Actors Awards (2017); Winner, Male Star of the Year, CinemaCon (2015); Nominee, Best Actor-TV Series, Golden Globe Awards (2020); Winner, Man of the Year, Hasty Pudding Theatricals Awards (2018); Winner, Hollywood Walk of Fame Star (2015); Eight-time Nominee, Best Musical Performance/Best On-Screen Team/Best Kiss/Best WTF Moment/Best Fight/Best Hero, MTV Movie + TV Awards (2005-2006, 2009, 2014, 2016, 2023); Two-time Nominee, Best Cast-Motion Picture/Best Cast-Comedy Series, Screen Actors Guild Awards (2000, 2024);
Actor
Screen Actors Guild Awards
Critics Choice Award
Critics Choice Awards
Critics Choice Award
Critics Choice Awards
Upcoming (1)
Previous (66)
Heritage: Paul Rudd’s parents are both London-born and both have Ashkenazi Jewish heritage; Rudd’s paternal grandfather’s name was Rudnitsky, which he changed to Rudd when he emigrated to the United Kingdom.
Theater Guy: Rudd has frequently appeared in New York theater, including The Last Night of Ballyhoo (1997), Twelfth Night, with Kyra Sedgwick and Max Wright at Lincoln Center Theatre (1998), Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain (2006) on Broadway, and Grace at Broadway’s Cort (now James Earl Jones) Theatre with Michael Shannon and Ed Asner (2012). Rudd has also appeared on the London stage in such productions as the Lyric Theatre’s 2000 revival of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night with Jessica Lange, Charles Dance and Olivia Colman, and Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things (2001), for which Dano re-created his performance on Off-Broadway and in the 2003 movie version directed by LaBute.
Fan Boy: Paul Rudd roots for the Kansas City Chiefs, the Kansas City Royals, and the teams of the University of Kansas Jayhawks program.
People Also Searched For
