Paul Reiser

Paul Reiser (; born March 30, 1956) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He played the roles of Michael Taylor in the 1980s sitcom My Two Dads, Paul Buchman in the NBC sitcom Mad About You (which he also co-created), Modell in the 1982 film Diner, and Detective Jeffrey Friedman in the Beverly Hills Cop franchise. He has gained recognition for his roles as Jim Neiman in the 2014 film Whiplash and Dr. Sam Owens in the Netflix series Stranger Things.

Reiser portrayed Carter Burke in James Cameron's Aliens. He appeared in the second and third seasons of The Kominsky Method as Martin, Mindy Kominsky's boyfriend.

Reiser has been ranked 77th on Comedy Central's 2004 list of the "100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time". The name of his production company, Nuance Productions, is inspired by one of his lines in the film Diner, where his character explains his discomfort with the word "nuance".

Early life Reiser was born in New York City in 1956, the son of Helen Hollinger Reiser (1919–2012), a homemaker who was one of the first women to graduate from Baruch College; and Samuel H. Reiser (1914–1989), a wholesale health food distributor who served in the military. His family is of Romanian Jewish descent. He has three sisters. He attended the East Side Hebrew Institute and graduated from Stuyvesant High School. He earned his bachelor's degree at the State University of New York at Binghamton, where he majored in music (piano, composition).

During his college years, Reiser was active in student theater productions at the Hinman Little Theater, an on-campus community theater organization in Hinman College, Reiser's dorm community. He found his calling as a comedian while performing in New York clubs during university summer breaks.

Career

Acting

After developing his skills as a stand-up comedian, Reiser had a breakout film role in 1982 when he appeared in Diner, a coming-of-age film directed by Barry Levinson. Reiser's character, Modell, a closet stand-up comedian, effectively brought Reiser's abilities to the attention of Hollywood. He followed this success playing a detective in Beverly Hills Cop (1984), a role he reprised in its sequel Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), and again in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. and performed the piano for the theme's recording. Reiser's role in Mad About You earned nominations for an Emmy, a Golden Globe, an American Comedy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for him. For the show's final season, Reiser and Hunt received $1 million ($ million today) per episode. After signing onto a Mad About You revival in 2018, it was picked up as a 12-episode limited series by Spectrum Originals in March 2019, which became available for members of Amazon Prime Video as of fall 2020.

In 2001, Reiser played a dramatic role as a man desperate to locate his biological mother, after learning he has a serious illness, in the British TV film My Beautiful Son. In 2002, Reiser made a guest appearance as himself on Larry David's HBO sitcom, Curb Your Enthusiasm. In the TV comedy film Atlanta (2007), Reiser appears as one half of a couple who, after meeting at a funeral, are unable to stay away from each other. In 2010, Reiser collaborated with the singer Julia Fordham to create a CD album titled Unusual Suspects, which includes the song "UnSung Hero", dedicated to American soldiers serving in Afghanistan. The two embarked on an acoustic tour after its release. Reiser also co-wrote the song, "No There There" with Melissa Manchester for her 2015 album, You Gotta Love the Life. Early in his career, Reiser was the opening act for Manchester, who warned him that music audiences can be rough on comedians and that the last comedian that opened for her left the stage in tears. Reiser reflects about this warning and on how he then bombed at the Concord Hotel in the chapter "Don't Worry if They Suck" in I Killed: True Stories of the Road from America's Top Comics (2010), by Ritch Shydner and Mark Schiff.

Reiser scripted and starred in the semi-autobiographical comedy series The Paul Reiser Show, which aired on NBC as a mid-season replacement during the 2010–11 TV season. "This is nice", commented Reiser on the Stephanie Miller radio program, "because you get to sit around and root for other shows to fail." However, due to the lack of lead time and promotion by NBC prior to its debut (as well as poor scheduling), the low-rated show was canceled on April 22, 2011, with only two episodes aired. He co-created (but did not star in) the 2017 dramedy There's... Johnny!, set backstage at The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1972. Originally created for Seeso, the seven-episode season was released on Hulu after Seeso's collapse. In recent years Reiser has appeared in films such as Whiplash and TV series such as Red Oaks, Stranger Things and The Boys.

In 2022, Reiser appeared in the third season of The Boys as The Legend, and reprised his role in the fifth season.

In 2024, Reiser will revisit his Aliens character for a new Marvel comic titled Aliens: What If...? which will explore what could have happened if Carter Burke survived the events of Hadley's Hope. The book is co-written by his son, Leon Reiser, with art by Guiu Vilanova.

Writing

Reiser has written three books: Couplehood (1995), about the ups and downs of being in a committed relationship; Babyhood (1997), about his experiences as a first-time father, and Familyhood (2011), a collection of humorous essays. Couplehood is unique in that it starts on page 145; Reiser explained this as his method of giving the reader a false sense of accomplishment. In 1996, Reiser appeared on Late Show with David Letterman in the middle of writing Babyhood. Since he had not yet decided on a title, he presented a prop book, titled simply "Book" and with the same cover as that of Couplehood. The term olive theory was first coined in Couplehood.

He also co-wrote Michael McDonald's memoir What a fool believes. They discuss how the book came about and McDonald's career on the first episode of season one of Recorded Live at Analog.

Personal life Reiser married Paula Ravets on August 21, 1988. They have two sons, born in 1995 and 2000. His older son has cerebral palsy, which Reiser has spoken about publicly at fundraisers and other events.

Reiser is the cousin of screenwriter and producer Will Reiser, who wrote the semi-autobiographical comedy-drama film 50/50 (2011).

Reiser's first cousin is the legal scholar Richard Epstein.

Filmography

Film Year Title Role Notes 1982 Diner Modell 1984 Beverly Hills Cop Det. Jeffrey Friedman 1986 Odd Jobs Max Aliens Carter Burke 1987 Beverly Hills Cop II Det. Jeffrey Friedman Cross My Heart Bruce Gaynor 1990 Crazy People Stephen Bachman 1991 The Marrying Man Phil Golden 1993 Family Prayers Dan Linder 1994 Mr. Write Charlie Fisher 1995 Bye Bye Love Donny 1999 Get Bruce Himself The Story of Us Dave UncreditedPros & Cons Prison Man #1 2001 One Night at McCool's Carl Purpose Ben Fisher 2005 The Thing About My Folks Ben Kleinman Also writer and producerThe Aristocrats Himself 2009 Funny People 2014 Whiplash Jim Neiman Life After Beth Noah Orfman 2015 Concussion Dr. Elliot Pellman 2016 Joshy Steve Miles Lloyd Bryant War on Everyone Lt. Gerry Stanton The Book of Love Wendell The Darkness Simon Richards 2017 The Little Hours Ilario I Do... Until I Don't Harvey Burger 2018 The Spy Who Dumped Me Arnie Freeman 2020 Horse Girl Gary 2021 Fatherhood Howard Scenes From An Empty Church The Dad 2023 The Problem with People Barry Also co-writer 2024 The Gutter Angelo Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F Deputy Chief Jeffrey Friedman

Television Year Title Role Notes 1982 Remington Steele Ivan Turbell Episode: "A Good Night's Steele" 1983 Sunset Limousine Jay Neilson Television film 1987 The Disney Sunday Movie Dexter Bunche Episode: "You Ruined My Life" 1987–1990 My Two Dads Michael Taylor 60 episodes 1987 Paul Reiser: Out on a Whim Himself Stand-up special 1991 Paul Reiser: 3½ Blocks from Home 1992–1999, 2019 Mad About You Paul Buchman 174 episodes; also creator, writer, and executive producerViewers for Quality Television Award for Best Actor in a Quality Comedy SeriesNominated—American Comedy Award for Funniest Male Performer in a Television SeriesNominated—Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or Comedy (1995–98)Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series (1994–97)Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (1994–99)Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actor – Television Series Musical or ComedyNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series (1995–96)Nominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (1995–98)Nominated—Viewers for Quality Television Award for Best Actor in a Quality Comedy Series 1993 The Tower Tony Minot Television movie 1995 37th Annual Grammy Awards Himself (host) TV specialSaturday Night Live Episode: "Paul Reiser/Annie Lennox" 2001 My Beautiful Son Jerry Lipman Television movie; AKA Strange Relations 2002 Curb Your Enthusiasm Paul Reiser Episode: "The Terrorist Attack"Women vs. Men Bruce Television movie 2011 The Paul Reiser Show Paul Reiser 7 episodes; also creator, writer, and executive producer 2013 Behind the Candelabra Mr. Felder Television movie 2014–2016 TripTank Gary (voice) 10 episodes 2014–2015 Married Shep 2014–2017 Red Oaks Doug Getty Main role 2017–2022 Stranger Things Dr. Sam Owens 14 episodesNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series 2018 The Romanoffs Bob Isaacson Episode: "House of Special Purpose" 2019 Fosse/Verdon Cy Feuer 2 episodes 2019–2021 The Kominsky Method Martin Schneider 12 episodesNominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy SeriesNominated—Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series (2020, 2022) 2022, 2026 The Boys The Legend 3 episodes 2022 Reboot Gordon Gelman Main cast 2025–present Long Story Short Elliot Cooper (voice) Main cast TBA The Altruists Joe Bankman Upcoming series