Larry Charles

Infobox actor
name = Larry Charles


imagesize =
caption =
othername = Rene Fonatine
birthdate = Birth date and age|1956|2|20|mf=y
birthplace = Brooklyn, New York
occupation = Screenwriter, director
website =
emmyawards = Outstanding Writing - Comedy Series
1992 "Seinfeld"

Larry Charles (February 20, 1956) is an American Emmy Award-winning writer, director, and producer. He is best known as a staff writer for the American sitcom "Seinfeld", contributing some of the show's darkest and most absurd storylines. He also directed the film "".

Early career

Born in Brooklyn, Charles performed stand-up comedy in the 1970s until he was hired to write for the short-lived sketch comedy show "Fridays" (where he worked with Larry David, who would later give him a job as a writer on "Seinfeld" and director on "Curb Your Enthusiasm"). This began a career in television writing which included "The Arsenio Hall Show" and eventually "Seinfeld".

"Seinfeld"

Although series co-creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld wrote the bulk of the show's episodes during the first five seasons, Charles was their second in command during this period. On the DVD commentary to the series, Charles discusses how he was especially instrumental in the development of the Cosmo Kramer character; as he felt that George Costanza and the fictionalized Jerry Seinfeld had their real life counterparts in David and Seinfeld, he felt the task fell to him to flesh out the then 'smaller' character. It was Charles who imbued in Kramer a distrust of authority (especially in his episodes "The Baby Shower" and "The Heart Attack") and who created the character of Kramer's notorious unseen friend Bob Sacamano, after his real-life friend of the same name.

"Curb Your Enthusiasm"

In 2000 Charles began his first job as a director, on "Seinfeld" creator Larry David's follow-up series "Curb Your Enthusiasm". To date he has directed 11 episodes of the hit HBO show; on September 9, 2007, he directed the opening episode of the show's sixth season.

Entourage

More recently, Charles served as an executive producer and writer on the hit HBO show "Entourage" for the first two seasons. The episodes that he wrote were:

Film

Charles' feature debut was "Masked and Anonymous" (2003) which he directed, and co-wrote with Bob Dylan (under the pseudonyms Rene Fonatine and Sergei Petrov respectively). The film has received a mixed reaction from audiences and critics alike, although it has been gathering somewhat of a cult following. However, Charles maintains that 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 back and see it again and get a lot more things, or totally different things." [ [http://www.reelmoviecritic.com/20035q/id1996.htm Interview with Larry Charles ] ]

His second feature film as director, the critically acclaimed "", was much more successful. Charles was asked to take over when original director Todd Phillips left the production after creative differences between Phillips and Sacha Baron Cohen, the star of the film, forced Philips off the project. [ [http://imdb.com/title/tt0443453/trivia Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006) - Trivia ] ] In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Charles discussed how, because of the nature of the mockumentary process, he had to act as well, even if none of his performance made it to the screen: "We all, especially me, had to play a character as well. I wasn't Larry Charles when we were on the road. We all had to be in character, and we had to balance that with our aesthetic and logistical needs to produce the movie properly [...] The director also had to act." [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/click/movie-1161544/reviews.php?critic=18&sortby=default&page=1&rid=1569983 ROTTEN TOMATOES: RT Interview: High Five! ] ] The film was nominated for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes.

Charles' most recent film is "Religulous" - a documentary about Bill Maher's take on the current state of world religion, [ [http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=5441 Bill Maher Talks Religion Documentary at WorstPreviews ] ] which was released in October 2008. He is currently working on a number of projects, including directing an "Untitled Kanye West HBO Project"; [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0942387/ Untitled Kanye West HBO Project (2008) (TV) ] ] as well as directing and co-writing the new National Lampoon movie "This is America"; an episodic, sketch-comedy style satire of American culture. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0396894/]

Live performances

Charles rarely performs live, but has appeared at Un-Cabaret and can be heard on several of their podcasts. [http://www.audible.com/uncabaret ]

Further reading

*Parker, Robin (31 July 2008). " [http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/international/interview/2008/07/anarchy_in_the_usa.html Larry Charles: Anarchy in the USA] ", "Broadcast Now", EMAP. Retrieved on 7 August 2008.

References

External links

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Persondata
NAME=Charles, Larry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=American television writer, director and producer
DATE OF BIRTH=1956
PLACE OF BIRTH=Brooklyn, New York
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=