Seth Aaron Rogen (born April 15, 1982) is a Canadian actor, comedian and filmmaker.
Seth Aaron Rogen was born on April 15, 1982, in Vancouver, British Columbia, into a Jewish family of Ukrainian and Russian origin.
His mother, Sandy Belogus, is a social worker, and his American father, Mark Rogen, worked for non-profit organizations and as an assistant director of the Workmen's Circle Jewish fraternal organization.
Of his dual citizenship, Rogen has stated, "I definitely associate with being Canadian much more than being American" because he grew up in Canada.
He has described his parents, who met on kibbutz Beit Alfa in Israel, as "radical Jewish socialists."
Rogen has an older sister named Danya.
He attended Vancouver Talmud Torah Elementary School and Point Grey Secondary School, incorporating many of his classmates into his writing, and took up kyokushin karate for 10 years.
He was also known for the stand-up comedy he performed at Camp Miriam, a Habonim Dror camp.
As a child, Rogen did not want to pursue any career other than comedy, stating, "As soon as I realized you could be funny as a job, that was the job I wanted."
He got his start in show business at age 12 after enrolling in a comedy workshop taught by Mark Pooley.
His early comedy routines involved jokes about his bar mitzvah, his grandparents and his camp counsellors.
As a teenager, he would perform stand-up comedy routines at places like bar mitzvahs and small parties, later shifting to bars.
A mohel paid him to write jokes.
At the age of 13, he co-wrote a rough draft of Superbad with childhood friend Evan Goldberg, whom he had met at bar mitzvah classes.
Based on their teenage experiences, Rogen and Goldberg spent the rest of their time in high school polishing the script.
1999
Originally a stand-up comedian in Vancouver, he moved to Los Angeles for a part in Judd Apatow's series Freaks and Geeks in 1999, and got a part on Apatow's sitcom Undeclared in 2001, which also hired him as a writer.
They initially worried that American Pie (1999) had beaten them to the idea for the movie, but they decided that the film "'managed to totally avoid all honest interaction between characters,' which is what we're going for."
His mother was supportive of his comic endeavours and would often drive him to stand-up gigs at the comedy club Yuk Yuk's.
With his deadpan humour, he placed second in the Vancouver Amateur Comedy Contest at 16 years old.
Also when Rogen was 16, his father lost his job and his mother quit hers, forcing them to put their house up for sale and relocate to a significantly smaller apartment.
Around this time, he landed a role on Judd Apatow's television show Freaks and Geeks after attending a local casting call.
Rogen dropped out of high school, began working for Apatow and relocated with his family to Los Angeles.
Rogen paid the bills and had become the main wage earner at just 16.
Rogen's acting debut was as Ken Miller, a cynical, acerbic "freak" in Apatow's Freaks and Geeks, an eventual cult hit series first released in 1999.
Revolving around a group of teenagers' lives, Freaks and Geeks first aired in 1999.
Although well reviewed, the show was NBC's lowest-viewed program and was cancelled after one season due to poor ratings.
Impressed with Rogen's improvisational skills, Apatow then chose him as the lead in another of his shows, Undeclared.
Rogen was originally set to play a fairly popular but nerdy college freshman, but the network did not think he was leading man material.
Apatow opted not to go along with the show.
2001
His first movie appearance was a minor role in Donnie Darko (2001), and he had a supporting part in Apatow's directorial debut, The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), which he co-produced.
2004
Rogen landed a job as a staff writer on the final season of Da Ali G Show (2004), for which the writing team was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series.
Apatow subsequently guided him toward a film career.
2007
He had leading roles in Apatow's comedies Knocked Up (2007) and Funny People (2009).
Rogen and his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, co-wrote the films Superbad (2007), Pineapple Express (2008), The Green Hornet (2011) and This Is the End (2013), and directed This Is the End and The Interview (2014), all of which starred Rogen.
Rogen is also known for his voice roles in the animated films Shrek the Third (2007), Horton Hears a Who! (2008), the Kung Fu Panda series, The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008), Monsters vs. Aliens (2009), Sausage Party (2016), The Lion King (2019), and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).
2008
He had further comedic roles in Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008), Neighbors (2014), its 2016 sequel, The Disaster Artist (2017), and Long Shot (2019).
2011
He has played dramatic roles in 50/50 (2011), Take This Waltz (2011), Steve Jobs (2015) and The Fabelmans (2022).
He also starred in the FX on Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy (2022) for which he received Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor nominations.
2016
Rogen has co-developed the AMC television series Preacher (2016–2019), on which he also served as writer, executive producer and director.
2019
He has also executive produced the Amazon Prime Video superhero series The Boys from 2019, and Invincible from 2021.
