Larry Charles

Lawrence Charles Wengrod (born 1956), known professionally as Larry Charles, is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He was a staff writer for the sitcom Seinfeld for its first five seasons. He has also directed the documentary film Religulous and the mockumentary comedy films Borat, Brüno, and The Dictator. His Netflix documentary series Larry Charles' Dangerous World of Comedy premiered in 2019.

Early life Charles was born in Brooklyn, New York City, and raised in a Jewish family in Trump Village in Coney Island. His father was a World War II veteran who went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts on the GI Bill and was a stand-up comic named Sy Coe the Psychotic Neurotic. Charles attended Rutgers University, but dropped out to pursue writing and comedy.

Career Early career Charles performed stand-up comedy during the 1970s until he was hired to write for the short-lived sketch comedy show Fridays, where he worked with Larry David. This began Charles's career in television writing that included The Arsenio Hall Show and eventually Seinfeld. David gave him the job as a writer on Seinfeld and his directorial debut on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Seinfeld Although series co-creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld wrote the bulk of the show's episodes during the early seasons, Charles was their second in command during this period. Charles had met Seinfeld co-creator David when he was part of the writing staff of the ABC sketch show Fridays, on which David and Michael Richards were also part of the show's ensemble cast.

Charles is noted for contributing some of the show's darker storylines and scenes. In the season two episode "The Baby Shower" Charles wrote a dream sequence in which the title character, Jerry Seinfeld, was killed. Charles's episodes also covered such controversial topics as Nazis (in "The Limo"), a psychotic stalker (in "The Opera") and a hospital patient committing suicide (in "The Bris"). A season two episode he wrote, "The Bet", concerning Elaine buying a handgun to protect herself, was never filmed because NBC, some of the cast, and the show's director felt the gun content was too provocative. Charles claimed that his writing on Seinfeld was heavily influenced by Dragnet, Superman and Abbott and Costello.

Charles said he was instrumental in the development of Cosmo Kramer. He felt that "Jerry and George were so well-defined through Larry David and Jerry, that there was less room for me to, sort of, expand on those personas. But Kramer was very unformed at the beginning of the show and it gave me an area of creativity to, sort of, expand upon. So I spent a lot of time with Kramer because he was a character that I could have an impact on in the future of the show".

Film Charles's feature debut was Masked and Anonymous (2003) which he directed, and co-wrote with Bob Dylan (under the pseudonyms Sergei Petrov and Rene Fontaine, respectively). The film received a mixed reaction from audiences and critics alike; it did poorly at the box office. Charles maintains it takes many viewings to get true enjoyment from the film: "I want the movie to be like a great Bob Dylan song that is listened to over and over and for people to [go] back and see it again and get a lot more things, or totally different things."

His second feature film as director, the Sacha Baron Cohen comedy mockumentary Borat, was much more successful; it "set new records in terms of profitability; on a budget of 18 million dollars, it grossed in excess of 261 million dollars." The film was nominated for Best Motion Picture—Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes.

Charles's third film was Religulous—a documentary about Bill Maher's take on the state of contemporary religion —which was released in October 2008.

Charles directed an unreleased biography of Larry David, set to be released on March 1, 2022, titled The Larry David Story. A few hours prior to its scheduled release, the film was postponed; according to HBO, this was at David's request. In a podcast appearance with Marc Maron on October 5, 2023, Charles described the documentary as the result of a four-hour conversation, adding that he had not spoken to David since the release was canceled.

Live performances Charles rarely performs live, but has appeared at Un-Cabaret and can be heard on several of its podcasts.

Filmography Film

Television

Seinfeld Season Episode Info 2

Charles has stated about this episode: "I was extremely happy and proud with this show, and I loved the idea of doing that fantasy sequence, I loved the cinematic quality of the story where we kinda go from a plane to a fantasy sequence, and we have all these stories swirling around. I thought that it was a good template for later episodes." and Keely Charles.

Charles has a daughter, Pearl Charles, who is a singer-songwriter.

Charles objected to "blind support for this Israeli genocide" in reference to the Gaza war.