Joel McHale

Joel Edward McHale (born November 20, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, and television presenter. He is best known for hosting The Soup (2004–2015) and his role as Jeffrey "Jeff" Winger on the NBC sitcom Community (2009–2015). He has performed in the films Spider-Man 2, Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Ted (2012), and The Happytime Murders (2018).

McHale also starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom The Great Indoors (2016–2017), hosted a reboot of Card Sharks (2019–2021), and portrayed the superhero Starman on the show Stargirl (2020–2022). In 2020, he hosted a special aftershow interviewing key subjects from the Netflix documentary series Tiger King and voiced Johnny Cage in the direct-to-video martial arts film Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge, a role he reprised in its sequel, Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms (2021). He also voices X-PO in Lego Dimensions (2015–2017) and The Scientist in Fortnite (2021–present). He has a lead role in the Fox comedy series Animal Control (2023–present), and recurred as abusive chef David Fields on the FX on Hulu comedy-drama series The Bear (2022–2026).

Early life McHale was born in Rome, Italy, on November 20, 1971, the son of Jack McHale, who worked as the dean of students at Loyola University Chicago's Rome Center, and his wife Laurie. His father is American and is from Chicago, while his mother is Canadian and a native of Vancouver. McHale is of Irish and Norwegian descent, and was raised Catholic. He grew up on Mercer Island, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. He also briefly lived in Haddonfield, New Jersey, before returning to Mercer Island. He attended Mercer Island High School. He received a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Washington in 1995, and was briefly in the Theta Chi fraternity but left it because he "couldn't stand it."

McHale was recruited to be on the University of Washington's rowing team but later joined its football team. He was a walk-on as a tight end. He spent two years with the team but did not play in any games. He was on the team that played in the 1993 Rose Bowl. He was part of the Almost Live! cast, a local sketch comedy television show produced by Seattle's KING-TV. From 1993 to 1997, he was a member of the improv comedy group at Unexpected Productions, participating in Theatersports! at the Market Theater located in Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. He received an MFA from the Professional Actors Training Program at the University of Washington.

Career Hosting In 2004, McHale began hosting The Soup, a satirical weekly television show on the E! television network. Throughout the show, he takes the audience through the oddities and ridiculous happenings of the week in television. He frequently appears as a co-host on Loveline. He has been a judge on Iron Chef America. McHale made a guest appearance on the finale of Last Comic Standings sixth season, when he recapped the show's events in his typical format of jokes made popular on The Soup. He made an appearance as a guest judge on RuPaul's Drag Race season 11, episode 4, "Trump: The Rusical".

McHale was the host at the 2014 White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner. He hosted the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards and the 2015 ESPY Awards. In 2016, he appeared as an occasional co-host alongside Kelly Ripa in the ABC morning show Live with Kelly. McHale hosted the 43rd People's Choice Awards on January 18, 2017, and the 2017 Webby Awards on May 15, 2017. McHale hosted video game developer and publisher Ubisoft's press conference at E3 2010.

In January 2018, it was announced that he would be receiving his own talk show on Netflix in February. The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale combined celebrity guests, pre-taped sketches and video clips in a half-hour series that focused on pop culture and news from around the world. On August 17, 2018, it was announced that Netflix had canceled the show after 19 episodes, reportedly due to low viewership.

On April 8, 2019, TVLine reported that McHale would host a revival of the game show Card Sharks for ABC. The revival would premiere on June 12 of that year, running for two seasons and 21 episodes until July 7, 2021. The iteration was canceled in April 2022.

Beginning March 27, 2020, McHale co-hosts The Darkest Timeline podcast with former Community co-star Ken Jeong; the podcast was created in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Also in 2020, he hosted an after-show special of the Netflix documentary series Tiger King. With Jeong, they became the new hosts of Fox's New Year's Eve special New Year's Eve Toast & Roast. The second edition was canceled due to the quickly rising cases of Omicron variant in the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, McHale began hosting Crime Scene Kitchen, also on Fox. In 2023, McHale hosted the E! reality competition series House of Villains.

McHale has been the host of the American version of The 1% Club since 2025.

Acting

After earning his master's degree in acting, McHale moved to Los Angeles and landed small roles in Diagnosis: Murder, CSI: Miami, and Will & Grace. He played a TV reporter in the biopic Lords of Dogtown. He guest-starred as a cast member on the NBC improv comedy show Thank God You're Here during the pilot episode and had a guest role on an episode of Pushing Daisies. McHale appeared in Spider-Man 2 in a small role as Mr. Jacks, a bank manager.

McHale has a long association with Circle X Theatre, where he has done several plays. McHale was a weekly guest on The Adam Carolla Show and Mickey and Amelia, and occasional guest on Opie and Anthony. He occasionally appeared on Countdown with Keith Olbermann in a humor sequence closing the show.

He was involved in the American version of the British TV show The IT Crowd.

McHale starred in the sitcom Community, which premiered in fall 2009, and continued to host The Soup. McHale made an appearance on the first episode of the fifth season of Tosh.0. He played Rex in Ted (2012) and had a short guest stint on the FX show Sons of Anarchy. He played a police officer in the supernatural horror film Deliver Us from Evil. McHale appeared in 3 episodes between the tenth and eleventh seasons of The X-Files in 2016 and 2018, respectively.

McHale played the lead role in the CBS sitcom The Great Indoors, which began airing in the fall of 2016. The series was cancelled on May 13, 2017, due to low ratings.

In 2018, McHale was cast in the recurring role of Chris on the second season of the Netflix horror-comedy series Santa Clarita Diet.

In December 2018, it was announced that McHale was cast as Sylvester Pemberton, the Golden Age Starman in the DC Universe and The CW series Stargirl. After sporadic appearances in its first two seasons, he was upgraded to series regular for the third.

McHale has been a regular guest panelist on The Masked Singer. He first guested in episode four of the first season, then in two episodes of season 2 and episode 8 of season 3. In season 4, he was a guest panelist in episodes 3 and 4, on his first appearance performing Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" as the "Robin" (wearing a cut-out face of Robin Thicke). He went on to be a guest panelist in the third episode of season 5 and episode 7 of season 6. He was absent in season 7. He later served as a guest panelist alongside the late Leslie Jordan on episode 7 of season 8.

In April 2025, McHale was announced as starring alongside Paula Patton in the musical indie film Reimagined.

Personal life McHale married Sarah Williams in July 1996. They have two sons. The family resides in Los Angeles, California, currently in Studio City and previously in Los Feliz.

In a 2018 interview on Dax Shepard's podcast Armchair Expert, McHale revealed he was dyslexic, having discovered this when his two sons were diagnosed.

Religious beliefs and political views McHale attends a Presbyterian church and has been supportive of the LGBTQ community. While performing at the Durham Performing Arts Center in North Carolina, he wore a handmade gay-rights shirt, talked about the bathroom law passed weeks prior, and said he was donating all proceeds to the LGBTQ Center of Durham and would not perform in the state again until the law was overturned.

McHale, along with several of his Community castmates, made a campaign video in support of Joe Biden in October 2020 titled "Human Beings for Biden."

Philanthropy In 2021, McHale has shown his support for the Children's Tumor Foundation, an organization dedicated to raising awareness for and treating neurofibromatosis. Some other charities and foundations that McHale has supported include DoSomething.org, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Friar's Charitable Foundation, Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Motion Picture & Television Fund, Noreen Fraser Foundation, Screen Actors Guild, The FEED Foundation, The Trevor Project, and UNICEF.

Filmography Film

Year Title Role NotesRef 2004 Spider-Man 2 Mr. Jacks Wait Short film 2005 Lords of Dogtown Reporter Game Time Johnson Short film 2006 Mini's First Time Host 2008 Office Worker Uncredited Open Season 2 ElliotVoice 2009 FBI Agent Robert Herndon 2011 Spy Kids: All the Time in the World Wilbur Wilson What's Your Number? Roger Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope Himself Documentary Barry Loomis 2012 Ted Rex 2014 Blended Mark Reynolds Deliver Us from Evil Butler Adult Beginners Hudson Boyd Mitchler 2018 Assassination Nation Nick Mathers Chevy Chase Game Over, Man! Himself Cameo The Happytime Murders Agent Campbell 2019 Trouble Norbert Voice 2020 Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge Johnny Cage Voice, direct-to-video Becky Jeff Hooper 2021 Happily Tom Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms Johnny Cage Voice, direct-to-video Queenpins Rick Kaminski 2022 The Seven Faces of Jane Michael 2023 Parachute Jamie Mortal Kombat Legends: Cage Match Johnny Cage Voice, direct-to-video It's a Wonderful Knife David Carruthers 2024 Tim Travers and the Time Traveler's Paradox James Bunratty 2025 California King Zane 2026 Scream 7 Mark Evans Stop! That! Train! Male passenger 2

Television Year Title Role Notes 1996 Almost Live! Various Unknown episodes 1998 Bill Nye the Science Guy Defendant Episode: "Fluids" 2000 Quicky the Clown Episode: "Springing Tiny" Curtis Episode: "Far from Home" Diagnosis: Murder Richard Episode: "By Reason of Insanity"2001; 2020Will & Grace Ian Episode: "Cheaters" Phil Episodes: "Filthy Phil, Part I" and "Filthy Phil, Part II" 2004–2015 Himself (host) 618 episodes; also writer and executive producer 2005 CSI: Miami Greg Welch Episode: "Urban Hellraisers" 2007 The IT Crowd Roy US pilot; never aired Thank God You're Here Himself 1 episode Pushing Daisies Harold Hundin Episode: "Bitches" 2007; 2009 Robot Chicken Various Voices 2 episodes 2009–2015 Community Jeff Winger Main cast: 110 episodes 2011 26th Independent Spirit Awards Himself (host) Television special Phineas and Ferb Norm Head Prototype Voice, episode: "Candace Disconnected" 2012 Sons of Anarchy Warren 2 episodes 2013 Conan Conan O'Brien Episode: "Occupy Conan: When Outsourcing Goes Too Far" 2013–2015 Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja First Ninja Voice, 5 episodes 2013 2013 VGX Awards Himself (host) Television special 2014 Video Game High School The President of the United States Episode: "OMGWTFPS!?" White House Correspondents' Dinner Himself (host) Television special 2015 Regular Show DVD Voice, episode: "Format Wars II" 2015 ESPY Awards Himself (host) Television special Comedy Bang! Bang! Himself Episode: "Joel McHale Wears a Navy Zip-up and High Tops" BoJack Horseman Alex Voice, episode: "Yesterdayland" 2016–2018 Tad O'Malley 4 episodes 2016 Dr. Ken Ross Episode: "Dave's Valentine" Difficult People Felix Episode: "Hashtag Cats" Lip Sync Battle Himself Episode: "Jim Rash vs. Joel McHale" 2016–2017 Jack Gordon 22 episodes 2017 Dimension 404 Dr. Matthew Maker Episode: "Matchmaker" Mystery Science Theater 3000 Doug McClure Episode: "At the Earth's Core" Rick and Morty Death Stalker Hemorrhage Voice, episode: "Rickmancing the Stone" 2017–2018 Milo Murphy's Law Victor Verliezer Voice, 2 episodes 2017, 2019 Ryan Hansen Solves Crimes on Television Himself 2 episodes 2018 The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale Himself (host) 19 episodes; also writer and executive producer 2018–2019 Santa Clarita Diet Chris 4 episodes 2018 Drunk History George Corwin, Robert Ellis Cahill Episode: "Halloween" 2019 Joel McHale: Live from Pyongyang Himself Comedy special 2019–2022 The Masked Singer Himself 10 episodes 2019 RuPaul's Drag Race Himself (guest judge) Episode: "Trump: The Rusical" The Rookie Brad Hayes Episode: "The Shake Up" 2019–2021 Card Sharks Himself (host) 21 episodes; also executive producer 2019Mr. Iglesias Danny Episode: "Oh Boy, Danny" What Just Happened??! with Fred Savage Himself Episode: "Preetempted" 2020 Medical Police Himself Episode: "Deuce to Nines, Double Draw" Black-ish Himself Episode: "You Don't Know Jack" Dummy Jason Levy Episode: "Ideal Woman" 2020–2022 Stargirl Sylvester Pemberton / Starman, Ultra-Humanite Recurring role (Season 1–2); main role (Season 3) 2022Area Man Lives John Kunveni

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Work Result 2010 EWwy Award Best Actor in a Comedy Community 2011 Critics' Choice Television Award Best Actor in a Comedy Series EWwy Award Best Actor in a Comedy Satellite Award Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy 2012 TV Guide Award Favorite Ensemble Critics' Choice Television Award Best Actor in a Comedy Series PAAFTJ Television Award Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Best Cast in a Comedy Series EWwy Award Best Actor, Comedy Satellite Award Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy 2014 Primetime Emmy Award Outstanding Short-Format Live-Action Entertainment Program 2019 Golden Raspberry Award Worst Supporting ActorThe Happytime Murders