Many might not be aware that many directors and filmmakers we know of today started as comedians. While that might seem like a leap, their writing and performing skills—both necessary to be a successful comedian, aid comedians well in filmmaking.

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Comedians such as Jordan Peele, who started in a sketch comedy series such as Key & Peele, would not have been taken seriously as a filmmaker, but how things have changed. Peele and other comedians like Mike Nichols, Judd Apatow, and Ben Stiller have proven that they’re more than just funny.

Jordan Peele

A man is giving a woman acting instructions

Jordan Peele started starring in the Fox sketch comedy series Mad TV, where he made his breakout role and met his future comedy collaborator Keegan-Michael Key. After leaving the show, Key and Peele formed and created their own Comedy Central sketch comedy series, Key & Peele. Following the success of Key & Peele, they continued to collaborate in projects such as appearing as FBI agents in FX’s critically acclaimed anthology series Fargo and later wrote, starred, and produced in the comedy film Keanu.

In 2017, Peele transitioned into filmmaking and made his directorial debut with Get Out, starring Daniel Kaluuya, which became a box office success and received accolades, including Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. Since Get Out, he has produced and directed BlacKkKlansman, Us, Candyman, and Nope, all of which have been widely recognized and nominated for many awards.

Larry David

Larry David puzzled in Curb Your Enthusiasm
Image via HBO

Larry David first started recognizing his ability to make people laugh simply by being himself while attending the University of Maryland, College Park. While testing the water as a stand-up comedian, David worked as a store clerk, limousine driver, and historian. Not long after, he secured a job as a writer for ABC’s Fridays and worked with Michael Richards. Two years later, he became a writer for NBC’s Saturday Night Live (SNL), where he met Julia Louis-Dreyfus​​​​​​, who would later be part of the Seinfeld cast.

In 1989, David and comedian Jerry Seinfeld decided to collaborate on a pilot for NBC called The Seinfeld Chronicles, which was later developed into the full-blown sitcom program, Seinfeld. It became one of the most successful shows in history. In 1999, HBO aired a one-hour special of Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, and by 2000, the special had turned into a television series: Curb Your Enthusiasm, a sitcom about Larry David, who plays a semi-fictionalized version of himself.

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Mike Nichols

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Mike Nichols’ was playing the leading role of Miss Julie when he saw his future counterpart, Elaine May, sitting in the front row. After they started to get to know each other and even had a brief romance, they eventually formed the comedy duo act Nichols and May. Nichols and May had a good run of performing in many nightclubs and even on radio and television. In 1961, the failure of May’s A Matter of Position, which starred Nichols, added to personal tensions between the two and led to the duo’s professional breakup.

In the 1960s, Nichols began to use his stage and theater background into good use. He was offered the job to direct Neil Simon’s play Barefoot in the Park. At that moment, Nichols believed that he wanted to direct plays and films. The play was a big hit as it ran 1530 performances and later earned Nichols a Tony award for his role as a director. It kickstarted his career, and he would go on to direct feature films such as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Graduate, Silkwood, Working Girl, Primary Colours, along with theater productions such as Luv and a revival of Death of a Salesman. Nichols is also one of the few members of EGOT, a person who has won all four significant entertainment awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.

Elaine May

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Following the split of the comedy act Nichols and May, Elaine May took on a different path and became a screenwriter and playwright while doing a bit of acting and directing work. She wrote several plays, including Not Enough Rope, Mr. Gogol and Mr. Preen, Hotline, After the Night and the Music, and more, but her most successful play was the one-act, Adaptation. In 1971, May made her film writing and directorial debut with A New Leaf, a black comedy based on Jack Ritchie's The Green Heart. A year later in 1972, May followed her debut by directing The Heartbreak Kid. It starred Charles Grodin, Cybill Shepherd, Eddie Albert, and even May’s daughter, Jeannie Berlin. The film was a critical success and garnered a 91% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

A few years later, she wrote and directed two more films, Mikey and Nicky (1976) and Ishtar (1987), which were initially not well-received but were later recognized as favorable in the 21st Century. As a writer, May earned her first Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Warren Beatty’s Heaven Can Wait. And as an actor, starred in films such as Woody Allen’s Small Time Crooks and reunited with Nichols on the feature film The Birdcage and his stage production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which were all well-received.

Bob Odenkirk

Nobody - Bob Odenkirk - Interrogation

Since his teen years, Bob Odenkirk has always had a knack for comedy sketch writing. Odenkirk began comedy writing as a radio DJ for WIDB, a college station at South Illinois University, where he created a late-night radio comedy show he called The Prime Time Special. By 1987, Odenkirk worked as a writer for Saturday Night Live (SNL) and worked alongside Robert Smigel and Conan O’Brien on the show.

Odenkirk and David Cross created a comedy-sketch show called Mr.Show, which ran for four seasons on HBO and received several Emmy Award nominations. He began doing roles in television shows such as Everybody Loves Raymond, Dr. Katz, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Arrested Development and eventually landed playing Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad and its prequel Better Call Saul. Odenkirk has also written, produced, and directed many projects, such as Mr. Show with Bob and David, Tenacious D, Tom Goes to the Mayor, The Birthday Boys, and many more.

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Judd Apatow

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Image via Universal

Judd Apatow was first exposed to the world of live stand-up comedy when his mother spent a summer working at a comedy club. At age seventeen, Apatow had begun performing stand-up comedy. While studying at the University of South California, he volunteered for benefit concerts for HBO’s Comic Relief and was given the opportunity to perform at the Improv in Hollywood. His career as a comedian and writer became more promising after landing gigs such as writing for the 1991 Grammy Awards, co-producing comedy specials with Tom Arnold, Roseanne Arnold, and Jim Carrey, and writing and co-producing The Larry Sanders Show.

In 2005, he made his directorial debut with The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which he co-wrote with the film’s leading role, Steve Carell. The film reached number one at the box office and grossed over $175 million worldwide. Two years later, in 2007, he followed his debut with the romantic comedy Knocked Up, which starred Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl and became a widely-acclaimed film. Apatow wrote, produced, and directed more feature films, including Pineapple Express, This is 40, and The King of Staten Island.

Billy Crystal

Billy Crystal as Ben Sobel in Analyze This
Image via Warner Bros.

Billy Crystal grew up in a family with three younger brothers who would reenact the comedy routines of Bob Newhart, Rich Little, and Sid Caesar from the tapes their father brought home for them. Crystal and two of his friends formed a comedy trio act and performed in colleges and coffee houses for several years. Later, however, Crystal parted ways with his friends and ventured on his own as a solo act, regularly performing at The Improv and Catch a Rising Star. By 1984, he had hosted Saturday Night Live twice and eventually joined the regular cast for the 1984 - 85 season.

While doing comedy, Crystal also became interested in acting and filmmaking. He first appeared in Joan RiversRabbit Test and later progressed as an actor after playing the leading role in When Harry Met Sally alongside Meg Ryan. Following the success of his acting career, Crystal wrote, directed, and starred in Mr. Saturday Night and Forget Paris, and most recently, Here Today.

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Mel Brooks

Blazing Saddles 1974 - Mel Brooks

Mel Brooks worked as a drummer and pianist in the Borscht Belt resorts and nightclubs. When a stand-up comic at the club was too ill to perform, Brooks took the opportunity to fill in for the comic and eventually became a regular stand-up performer. As Brooks honed his career in comedy, Sid Caesar hired him to write for the DuMont/NBC series The Admiral Broadway Revue and again in Caesar’s variety comedy series Your Show of Shows. Later, Brooks became close friends with Carl Reiner, and the two began to improve comedy routines together. In 1960, Brooks and Reiner began performing their “2000 Year Old Man” act on The Steve Allen Show, which led to the release of their comedy album 2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, which sold over a million copies.

After two producers, Joseph E. Levine and Sidney Glazier, saw the potential in Brooks and his unconventional idea, his first feature film, a musical comedy about Adolf Hitler titled The Producers, became a reality. Though many major companies did not find it compelling, it won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay at the 41st Academy Awards. Brooks has since directed an additional eleven feature films, notably Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.

Ben Stiller

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Most notably known as a comedy actor, Ben Stiller has acted in many box-office movies such as Zoolander, the Night at the Museum franchise, the Meet the Parents film series, Along Came Polly, The Royal Tenenbaums, Tropic Thunder, and more. Many, however, might not have been aware that not long after Stiller started acting in 1986, he made his directorial debut with a short film, Elvis Stories, just three years later. In 1994, Stiller made his feature debut with the romantic comedy, Reality Bites, which starred himself, Winona Ryder, and Ethan Hawke and was produced by Danny DeVito and Michael Shamberg. And in 1996, he directed another feature titled The Cable Guy, which, similar to Reality Bites, only received average ratings.

In 2001, Stiller decided to write, direct, producer, and star in Zoolander. Although the film was initially perceived as simply a “wacky satire” and was released at the wrong time: two weeks after the 9/11 attacks in New York and involves a plot of the assassination of a prime minister, it eventually got the appreciation it deserved. Film critic Roger Ebert, who at the time of its release heavily criticized the film and gave the film a rating of one out of four, later told Stiller in private that he had changed his mind about the film and that he found it funny, and apologized for going “overboard.”

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