Jason Segel

Jason Jordan Segel ( ; born January 18, 1980) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his role as Marshall Eriksen in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother from 2005 to 2014. He began his career with director and producer Judd Apatow on the television series Freaks and Geeks (1999–2000) and Undeclared (2001–2002) before gaining prominence for his leading roles in various successful comedy films which he has starred in, written, and produced.

Segel's comedic films include Knocked Up (2007), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008), I Love You, Man (2009), Bad Teacher (2011), The Five-Year Engagement (2012), This Is 40 (2012), and Sex Tape (2014), as well as family films such as Despicable Me (2010), and The Muppets (2011). For his role as David Foster Wallace in The End of the Tour (2015) he received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead. He also starred in the dramas Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011), The Discovery (2017), Our Friend (2019), and Windfall (2022). From 2022 to 2023, he played the role of Paul Westhead in the HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.

In 2023, he began starring as Jimmy Laird, a therapist in the Apple TV series Shrinking, which he also co-created alongside Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein. For his performance, he was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.

Early life Segel was born on January 18, 1980, in Santa Monica, California, to Jillian (; born 1952) and Alvin Segel, a lawyer. He grew up in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. He has an older brother, Adam, and a younger sister, Alison.

Segel's father is Jewish, whereas his mother is of English, Scottish, Irish, and French descent. He has stated that he was raised Jewish, as well as "a little bit of everything". Segel went to Hebrew school and had a Bar Mitzvah ceremony. He also attended St. Matthew's Parish School, a private Episcopal school.

Following elementary school and middle school, Segel completed his high school studies at Harvard-Westlake School, where his frame helped him as an active member of the 1996 and 1997 CIF state champion boys' basketball team. He won a slam dunk contest in high school and he was nicknamed "Dr. Dunk." He was a backup to the team's star center, Jason Collins, who went on to play in the NBA.

Career

Segel's first major role was as stoner "freak" Nick Andopolis on the critically acclaimed but short-lived 1999 NBC comedy-drama series Freaks and Geeks. The series revolved around a group of suburban Detroit high school students circa 1980. Segel personally composed a song for his character, Nick, to sing to the lead female character, Lindsay (Linda Cardellini).

Segel had recurring roles on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Neil Jansen and on Undeclared as Eric. He played Marshall Eriksen on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother; he had previously stated he would move on to other projects in 2013 when his contract expired, but was convinced to finish the series after its ninth season in 2014.

Segel made his film debut with Can't Hardly Wait in 1998. His other early 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 producer 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. 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. He also appeared in the most prominent scene containing full frontal nudity in the film. 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. The film's puppets were custom-made by the Jim Henson Company, and the experience emboldened Segel to pitch his concept for a Muppets movie. Segel performed a song from the film, "Dracula's Lament", on the 1,000th episode of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

For the 2010 comedy Get Him to the Greek, Segel co-wrote most of the soundtrack's music which was performed by the fictional celebrity singer, Aldous Snow, including Infant Sorrow. He also appeared on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and sang an original song entitled "Wonky Eyed Girl".

In 2010, he voiced Gru's arch-rival Vector in Universal's CGI animated film Despicable Me and appeared as "Horatio" in a fantasy comedy film Gulliver's Travels directed by Rob Letterman and very loosely based on Part One of the 18th-century novel of the same name by Jonathan Swift. Segel appeared in Bad Teacher, starring Cameron Diaz, which opened in June 2011. He played gym teacher and thwarted suitor Russell Gettis. Along with Nicholas Stoller, Segel approached Disney in 2007 to write the latest Muppets film. Disney was unsure on how to take the request, as Segel had just appeared nude in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but after realizing that he was a fan, the project was approved. Segel stated that he wanted to do the film because the last film in the series to be released in theaters was Muppets from Space in 1999, and he felt that the younger generation was missing out on enjoying one of his childhood favorites.

Segel decided not to star in the sequel to The Muppets, Muppets Most Wanted. He filmed The Five-Year Engagement with Emily Blunt in the spring of 2011 in Michigan, and the film was released on April 27, 2012.

In 2013, Segel revealed he was working on a series of young adult novels, based on a story he conceived when he was 21. In the fall of 2014, the first novel of the series Nightmares!, co-written with Kirsten Miller, was released with the follow-up coming out the following year.

In 2015, Segel received praise for his portrayal of the late author David Foster Wallace in the independent biographical drama film The End of the Tour. For his performance, he earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead.

In 2017, Segel and Miller released a new book, Otherworld , the first of a new young adult series. A second book in the series, OtherEarth, was released in 2018, and a third novel, OtherLife, in 2019. Segel created and starred in the American drama television series Dispatches from Elsewhere, which premiered on March 1, 2020, on AMC.

In 2019, Segel starred in Our Friend based on Matthew Teague's 2015 essay "The Friend".

Personal life Segel is an ordained minister with the Universal Life Church. He performed a wedding ceremony on The Tonight Show on July 6, 2010, for a couple that solicited his services by placing pictures of him around his hometown and the bar he frequently visited.

Segel dated his Freaks and Geeks co-star Linda Cardellini for several years following the show's cancellation. He dated Michelle Williams from 2012 to 2013. From December 2013 to April 2021, Segel dated photographer Alexis Mixter. Since 2023, he has been dating former Taylor Swift backup dancer Kayla Radomski. In June 2025, Radomski announced their engagement via Instagram.

Filmography

Film

Television

Year Title Role Notes 1999–2000 Freaks and Geeks Nick Andopolis Main cast 2001 North Hollywood Unsold pilot 2001–2002 Undeclared Eric Recurring role 2004 Harry Green and Eugene Eugene Green Unsold pilot 2004–2005 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation Neil Jansen 3 episodes 2005 Alias Sam Hauser Episode: "The Road Home" 2005–2014 How I Met Your Mother Marshall Eriksen Main role; 208 episodes 2009 Family Guy Marshall Eriksen (voice) Episode: "Peter's Progress" 2011 Saturday Night Live Himself (host) Episode: "Jason Segel/Florence and the Machine" 2020 Dispatches from Elsewhere Peter 10 episodes; also creator, writer, director, and executive producer 2020 Home Movie: The Princess Bride Fezzik Episode: "Chapter Two: The Shrieking Eels" 2022–2023 Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty Paul Westhead 12 episodes 2023–present Shrinking Jimmy Laird Main cast; also creator, writer, and executive producer

Awards and nominations Organizations Year Category Work Result Ref. Chicago Film Critics Association 2015 Best Actor The End of the Tour Critics' Choice Awards 2011 Critics Choice Award for Best Song Golden Globe Awards 2024 Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy Shrinking 2025 Independent Spirit Awards 2015 Best Male Lead The End of the Tour MTV Movie Award 2008 Best WTF Moment Forgetting Sarah Marshall Primetime Emmy Awards 2023 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Shrinking (episode: "Imposter Syndrome") 2025 Shrinking 2026 Shrinking Razzie Awards 2015 Worst Screen Combo (share with Cameron Diaz)Sex Tape Worst Screenplay (share with Kate Angelo, Nicholas Stoller) Seattle International Film Festival 2015 Best Actor The End of the Tour Screen Actors Guild Awards 2024 Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series Shrinking (season one) Teen Choice Award 2008 Choice Movie: Breakout Male Forgetting Sarah Marshall Writers Guild of America Awards 2024 Television: New Series Shrinking Young Artist Awards 2000 Best Performance in a TV Series: Young Ensemble Freaks and Geeks