Ed Helms

Ed Helms (born January 24, 1974) is an American actor, comedian, and singer, best known for his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show, Andy Bernard in the U.S. version of The Office, and Stuart Price in The Hangover trilogy.

Ed Helms was born as Edward Parker Helms on January 24, 1974, in Atlanta, Georgia to John A. Helms, a lawyer, insurance executive, and Navy veteran; and Pamela Ann (née Parker), a school administrator. He is of English, Irish, German, Dutch, and French descent. He is the youngest of three children, having one sister and one brother. 

When he was 13, he had open-heart surgery to correct a severe congenital heart defect, which he described as supravalvular aortic and pulmonic stenosis. According to Helms, his surgery lasted nine hours and he was kept in an intensive care unit for one week after.

Helms attended Interlochen Center for the Arts as a youth and later attended Westminster School, Atlanta, Georgia, graduating in 1992, one year after The Office cast-mate Brian Baumgartner. He then entered Oberlin College as a geology major but ended up graduating in 1996 with his B.A. in film theory and technology. He spent a semester as an exchange student at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.

Helms is the recipient of an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from Knox College, where he delivered the 2013 Commencement Address. In May 2014, Helms gave the convocation speech at Cornell University, alma mater of Andy Bernard, the character he portrayed for seven seasons on The Office. In May 2015, Helms gave the valedictory speech at the University of Virginia.

Early years

After graduating from Oberlin, Helms began his comedy and acting career as a writer and performer with New York City sketch comedy bands and studied improvisation with the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe. Helms concurrently worked as a trainee film editor at Crew Cuts, a post-production facility in New York City. While doing so, he recorded some rough voiceover scratch tracks that eventually led to paying voiceover work, which in turn led to finding a talent agent.

Television

Helms made his screen debut in 1999, playing various characters in the TV series Neutrino.

He was performing comedy in New York City when, as he recalled in a 2005 interview, "The Daily Show had a sort of open audition with a casting company that I had dealt with. I read for the part, and got it". In his April 2002 to mid-2006 tenure on the satirical news program hosted by Jon Stewart, Helms contributed "field reports" in addition to hosting various segments of the show, such as "Digital Watch", "Ad Nauseam", and "Mark Your Calendar". He has also contributed to the "This Week in God" segment. 

His 2005 segment "Battle of the Bulge", which focused on the wearing of Speedo bathing suits on the beaches of Cape May, New Jersey, and his "Mass. Hysteria" segment, in which he reported criticism of Massachusetts when it became the first state to legalize gay marriage, are regarded by TV Guide as his signature segments on the program.

Helms left the show in 2006 but has occasionally returned for brief appearances. On July 21, 2008, he returned for Obama Quest—a segment covering then-Senator Barack Obama's trip to Iraq. He occasionally narrates the Prescott Group educational films on sister series, Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report.

In late July 2006, NBC announced that Helms was added to the cast of the mockumentary The Office, alongside fellow The Daily Show correspondent Steve Carell, in a recurring role as Andy Bernard, a nostalgic Cornell graduate who is obsessed with a cappella music. Helms was a series regular starting with the 3rd season. "He had so much in common with this character we wanted to create," recalled Paul Lieberstein, a writer for the show who also plays Toby Flenderson, the human resources representative at the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin. "I can't remember when they started merging." Helms returned to The Daily Show on December 5, 2006, stating he had been gone because he was "undercover at a paper company in Scranton", an allusion to his stint on The Office. In February 2007, NBC announced that Helms had been promoted to series regular, and in February 2010 Helms was added to the show's opening credits. Helms quickly became a solidifying part of the cast, and eventually came to be one of the show's producers. In June 2009, on a radio interview with National Public Radio, Helms said that like his character, Andy Bernard, he is obsessed with a capella music.

Helms has also appeared on such television shows as Mindy Kaling's The Mindy Project, Wilfred, NTSF:SD:SUV, Tanner on Tanner, Childrens Hospital, Arrested Development, and Cheap Seats, and in various Comedy Central specials. He was the celebrity guest on the August 3, 2015, survival skills reality show Running Wild with Bear Grylls, coming to grips with his fear of heights on the Colorado Mountains. He has done commercial voiceover work in campaigns for Burger King, Doritos, Hotels.com, Sharp Aquos, and Advair asthma medication, and he voices Angel, a character on Cartoon Network's Weighty Decisions series. 

Helms plays guitar, banjo (which was shown in the commercial bumpers and on a What Up With That? sketch when he hosted Saturday Night Live in 2011), piano, and all three, as well as a sitar, in some of his entertainment performances.

In August 2014, it was announced that Helms will star in Alejandro González Iñárritu's new Starz television drama series The One Percent, with Hilary Swank and Ed Harris. Helms was to serve as an executive producer on the upcoming TV series adaptation of the web series Jake and Amir, however, its pilot was later rejected by TBS. He also co-created the Peacock sitcom Rutherford Falls with Sierra Teller Ornelas and Michael Schur.

Most recently, in 2017, Helms was seen in the first episode of the first season of the TV series The Fake News with Ted Nelms, which he also co-wrote.

Film

Helms made his film debut in 2004 playing the character of Bunker in Brant Sersen's comedy Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, starring Rob Corddry and Paul Scheer. His next film appearance was with Paul Francis Sullivan's sci-fi/comedy I'll Believe You (2006).

Helms starred in the 2011 film Cedar Rapids and co-starred in the blockbuster The Hangover film trilogy as Stuart Price. He had minor roles, including Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, Meet Dave, Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, I'll Believe You, Evan Almighty, Semi-Pro, and with The Office co-star Jenna Fischer, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.

In 2009, Helms appeared in The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, directed by Neal Brennan and starring Jeremy Piven, and in 2012, he voiced the Once-ler in The Lorax. He played the lead role, Rusty Griswold, in the 2015 film Vacation, a sequel/spin-off of the National Lampoon's Vacation series, opposite Christina Applegate as Debbie Griswold. The movie began shooting in September 2014 in Helms' native Atlanta.

Helms was cast to play the title role in the forthcoming Dreamworks animated film Captain Underpants and is also slated to star in the Paramount Pictures Naked Gun reboot in development as of December 2013.

In 2015, Helms starred as Hank in Jessie Nelson's romance-comedy, Love the Coopers, alongside Diane Keaton and John Goodman. 

In 2017, he starred in Dito Montiel's comedy-drama The Clapper as Eddie Krumble who works as a paid audience member for infomercials and experiences a whirlwind of unwanted overnight fame, after a late-night talk show host publicizes his frequent infomercial appearances. Also in 2017, he voiced the title role in the DreamWorks animated film Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie.

In 2018, he played Joseph Gargan in John Curran's thriller Chappaquiddickalongside Jason Clarke and Kate Mara.

In the summer of 2018, Helms was seen in Jeff Tomsic's comedy Tag. The film is based on a true story that was published in The Wall Street Journal about a group of grown men, played by Helms, Jake Johnson, Hannibal Buress, Jon Hamm, and Jeremy Renner, who spend one month a year playing the game of tag. Annabelle Wallis, Isla Fisher, Rashida Jones, and Leslie Bibb also star. The film was released on June 15, 2018, by Warner Bros. Pictures, to mixed reviews from critics and has grossed over $78 million worldwide.

Most recently, in 2020, Helms starred as "Coffee" in Michael Dowse-directed Netflix action-comedy Coffee & Kareem alongside Terrence Little Gardenhigh and Taraji P. Henson. The film follows a bumbling Detroit cop, played by Helms, who must rescue his girlfriend (Henson) and her 12-year-old son (Gardenhigh) from gangsters after the boy witnesses a murder.

On December 13, 2013, Paramount announced that a reboot of The Naked Gun franchise was in development, with Helms starring as Drebin. Thomas Lennon and Ben Garant were enlisted to write the script. However, on January 11, 2014, Garant announced that the film will be more of a sequel than a traditional reboot. In March 2015, however, David Zucker made a contradictory statement referring to the film as more of a reboot than a sequel, stating that it will not have the same spoofing style as the original series. Disagreeing with the choice of Helms as the lead, Zucker said, "I would want somebody who had never been in a comedy". In August 2015, Helms gave an update on the film stating "You have to make something that a contemporary audience is going to like. We haven't seen many of those slapstick movies in a while, so I'm not sure what the right angle is on it", echoing Zucker's comments on the film's modern take. In October 2018, Yahoo! Entertainment reported that SNL star Bill Hader may play the lead role instead of Helms.

Other work

Helms is also a singer and is in a bluegrass band called The Lonesome Trio with his friends Ian Riggs and Jacob Tilove. They formed the band when they were at Oberlin College, and still get together to play a few shows every year. They recorded an as-yet-untitled album in summer 2013, shortly after appearing on The Bluegrass Situation stage at the Bonnaroo festival, which Helms curated. Helms is a self-confessed "bluegrass nerd" and founded the annual LA Bluegrass Situation festival. Helms plays banjo, guitar, and piano. On April 22, 2020, The Bluegrass Situationdebuted "The Whiskey Sour Happy Hour," a weekly music and comedy program befitting the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund and Direct Relief.

In August 2013, Helms was seen in the music video for Mumford and Sons' song "Hopeless Wanderer." Helms portrayed Ben Lovett and other three actors Jason Sudeikis, Jason Bateman, and Will Forte, played the other three band members Marcus Mumford, Winston Marshall, and Ted Dwayne, respectively. In April 2015, Helms had a cameo appearance in the Mumford and Sons' music video for the song "The Wolf". 

Helms launched his own production company, Pacific Electric Picture Company, in 2013. The company has a two-year development deal with Universal Television.

In 2013, Helms co-wrote, produced, and starred in the Yahoo! Screen web series Tiny Commando, about a former Navy SEAL (played by Zachary Levi) who is accidentally shrunken in a military experiment to four inches in height, and is then deployed in places that his size allows him to infiltrate.

In 2015, Helms played a cameo role as "Mickey" on the web series Jake and Amir(Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld) after Tweeting his support for the series.

Over the years, Helms has been a guest on a variety of television talk shows including Late Night with Conan O'Brien (2006-2008), Last Call with Carson Daly(2009), Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (2011), The Graham Norton Show (2011), Real Time with Bill Maher (2012), Late Show with David Letterman (2009-2013), Larry King Now (2017), The Ellen DeGeneres Show (2018), Late Night with Seth Meyers (2015-2018), and Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2009-2019), among others.

Helms is a private person and keeps his personal life away from the spotlight. What is known is that he is married and has a daughter. 

Films

Television

Music Video