Jason Segel

Jason Jordan Segel, born January 18, 1980 is an American television and film actor, screenwriter, composer, puppeteer and musician, known for his work with producer Judd Apatow on the cult-classic, short-lived television series Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, the films Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Knocked Up, I Love You, Man, Gulliver's Travels, Bad Teacher, Despicable Me, and The Muppets, and also for his role as Marshall Eriksen in the CBS hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother.


Segel was born in Los Angeles, the son of Jillian (née Jordan), a homemaker, and Alvin G. Segel, a lawyer, and was raised in Pacific Palisades, California. His father is Jewish and his mother is Christian; he was raised in his father's religion, and also attended St. Matthew's Parish School, a private Episcopal school. He has stated that he and his older half brother, Adam, were not close while growing up.


He is known for his role "Freak" Nick Andopolis on the short-lived NBC comedy-drama series Freaks and Geeks, about a group of suburban Detroit high school students circa 1980. He also personally wrote a song for his character, Nick, to sing to the lead female character, Lindsay (Linda Cardellini), in an episode of Freaks and Geeks. She and Segel dated for a few years following the show's cancellation. It was rumored that she broke up with him for gaining twenty pounds,  but it has since emerged that the statement was in fact a joke taken out of context.
Segel had recurring roles on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Neil Jansen and on Undeclared as Eric. He currently plays Marshall Eriksen on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother. Feature film appearances include Slackers, SLC Punk!, The Good Humor Man, and Dead Man on Campus. In 2007, he appeared in Knocked Up, directed by Freaks and Geeks creator Judd Apatow. Segel starred in the lead role of 2008's Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a film he wrote and Apatow produced with Shauna Robertson for Universal Pictures. In it, he appeared fully nude on camera. He also starred in I Love You, Man, which was released on March 20, 2009 by Dreamworks.
In Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Segel's character writes a "Dracula" musical performed by puppets. In an interview, he stated that the Dracula musical with puppets, as well as being broken up with while naked, were real experiences he wrote into the movie. Those cloth creatures were custom-made by the Henson puppeteers, and the experience emboldened Segel to pitch his concept for a Muppets movie. Segel performed his Dracula's Lament on the 1000th episode of Craig Ferguson's show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.


Tags: How I Met Your Mother,   Alyson Hannigan, Josh Radnor, Neil Patrick Harris