- Not to be confused with Jerry Seinfeld, the character.
Jerome Allen Seinfeld (born April 29, 1954) is an American stand–up comedian, actor, writer and producer. As a stand–up comedian, Seinfeld specializes in observational comedy. Seinfeld gained stardom playing a semi-fictionalized version of himself in the NBC sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998), which he co-created and wrote with Larry David. Seinfeld earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy in 1995. The show is one of the most acclaimed and popular sitcoms of all time. He has since created and produced the reality series The Marriage Ref (2010–2011), and created and hosted the web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (2012–2019), the latter of which earned him three Webby Awards. He also co–produced, co–wrote, and starred in the DreamWorks animated film Bee Movie (2007) and the Netflix comedy Unfrosted (2024).
He has released four standup specials his first being Stand-Up Confidential (1987) followed by I'm Telling You for the Last Time (1998), Jerry Before Seinfeld (2017) and 23 Hours to Kill (2020).
Seinfeld has received numerous accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Awards, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards as well as nominations for four Grammy Awards. In 2004, Comedy Central named him the 12th–greatest stand–up comedian of all time. In 2017, Rolling Stone named him the 7th–greatest stand–up comedian of all time.
Seinfeld has also written three books starting with SeinLanguage (1993), followed by the children's book Halloween (2002), and the comedic compilation book Is This Anything? (2020). He is a fan of coffee and automobiles. He practices transcendental meditation. He is married to author and philanthropist Jessica Seinfeld, with whom he has three children.
Early life and education[]
Seinfeld was born on April 29, 1954, to a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York City. His father, Kalmen Seinfeld, a sign painter, was from Hungary and collected jokes that he heard while serving in World War II. His mother, Betty (née Hosni) and her parents, Selim and Salha Hosni, were Syrian Jews from Aleppo. Their nationality was stated as Turkish when they immigrated in 1917, as Syria was under the Ottoman Empire. Seinfeld has an older sister, Carolyn. Salha's mother, Garez Dayan, Seinfeld's great–grandmother, was a member of the Dayan rabbinic family, who claim ancestry back to the Medieval Exilarchs, and from the Exilarchs back to the Biblical King David. Seinfeld's second cousin is alternative metal musician and actor Evan Seinfeld.
Seinfeld grew up in Massapequa, in the Nassau County of Long Island and attended Massapequa High School. At 16, he spent time volunteering in Kibbutz Sa'ar in Israel. He attended the State University of New York at Oswego, and transferred after his second year to Queens College of the City University of New York in Flushing, from which he graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communications and theater.
Career[]
1976—1987: Rise to prominence[]
Seinfeld developed an interest in stand–up comedy after brief stints in college productions. He appeared on open–mic nights at Budd Friedman's Improv Club while attending Queens College. After graduation in 1976, he tried out at an open–mic night at New York City's Catch a Rising Star, which led to an appearance in a Rodney Dangerfield HBO special. In 1980, he had a small recurring role on the sitcom Benson, playing Frankie, a mail–delivery boy who had comedy routines that no one wanted to hear. Seinfeld was abruptly fired from the show due to creative differences. Seinfeld said that he was not told he had been fired until he arrived for a read–through session and found that there was no script for him. In January 1981, he performed stand–up on An Evening at the Improv. In May, Seinfeld made an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, impressing Carson and the audience, leading to frequent appearances on that show and others, including Late Night with David Letterman. On September 5, 1987, his first one–hour special Stand-Up Confidential aired live on HBO.
1988—1998: Seinfeld and stardom[]
Seinfeld created The Seinfeld Chronicles with Larry David in 1988 for NBC. It was renamed Seinfeld to avoid confusion with the short–lived teen sitcom The Marshall Chronicles. By its third season, Seinfeld had become the most watched sitcom on American television. The final episode aired in 1998, and the show has been a popular syndicated re–run ever since. NBC offered Seinfeld $110 million—a record $5 million an episode for a 22–episode tenth season—but he declined. Along with Seinfeld, the show starred Saturday Night Live alumna Julia Louis-Dreyfus and established actors Michael Richards and Jason Alexander. Alexander played George, a caricature of Larry David. Seinfeld is the only actor to appear in every episode.
Personal life[]
Seinfeld is a fan of the New York Mets and periodically calls Steve Somers' show on WFAN-AM, a sports radio station, as "Jerry from Queens." Seinfeld called four innings of a Mets game on SNY on June 23, 2010, reuniting with analyst Keith Hernandez, who appeared in the Seinfeld two–part episode entitled "The Boyfriend." According to Seinfeld, he thinks about baseball "all day" and has said "when I think of retirement, all I would think of is going to a baseball game every day."
Seinfeld is left–handed, and the first joke he ever wrote was about the topic. In a 2014 interview with NBC News, he made statements suggesting that he believed he was on the autism spectrum. However, following criticism for his alleged self–diagnosis, he later clarified that he is not autistic and had been commenting on a play about the condition that he "related to […] on some level".
Episodes written[]
Season 1[]
- "The Seinfeld Chronicles" (with Larry David)
- "The Stake Out" (with Larry David)
- "Male Unbonding" (with Larry David)
- "The Stock Tip" (with Larry David)
Season 2[]
- "The Ex-Girlfriend" (with Larry David)
- "The Pony Remark" (with Larry David)
- "The Jacket" (with Larry David)
- "The Phone Message" (with Larry David)
- "The Chinese Restaurant" (with Larry David)
- "The Busboy" (with Larry David)
Season 3[]
- "The Stranded" (with Larry David and Matt Goldman)
Season 4[]
- "The Shoes" (with Larry David)
Season 5[]
- "The Sniffing Accountant" (with Larry David)
- "The Raincoats" (with Tom Gammill, Max Pross and Larry David)
- "The Opposite" (with Andy Cowan and Larry David)
Season 6[]
- "The Kiss Hello" (with Larry David)
Season 7[]
- "The Cadillac" (with Larry David)
External links[]
- Jerry Seinfeld article at Wikipedia
