Jerry Seinfeld is arguably the most successful comedian of the 1990's. Born in Brooklyn, he first attended Oswego College in upstate New York. Not long after, he transferred back to New York City, and into Queens College, where he studied communications. Seinfeld took part in various productions, and portrayed Martini in a student rendition of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Thus began his interest in the performance arts, which eventually led him into standup comedy.
Initially, to make ends meet, he worked a variety of seedy jobs, including a telemarketing scam, and selling fake jewelry. Seinfeld's big break came when he attracted the attention of Rodney Dangerfield, who featured him on an HBO special. The notoriety led to a role in the short-lived sitcom, Benson. He was quickly fired, however, after clashing with producers over the direction of his role.
Not long after, Seinfeld landed a spot on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. His strong performance led to several more, as well as frequent appearances on Late Night with David Letterman, and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He also played a small role in Danny Devito's TV movie, The Ratings Game. After his experience with Benson, Seinfeld was careful to reject any subsequent television offer that did not grant him total control.
Finally, in 1990, he was given creative authority over his own sitcom, The Seinfeld Chronicles. The show entailed miscellaneous accounts of the lives of Jerry and co-writer, Larry David. David became the model for the highly neurotic George Costanza. Their combination with Elaine, played by Saturday Night Live regular Julia Louis Dreyfus, and Michael Richards as Kramer, proved to be an unstoppable comedic force. Despite skeptical claims that the show was about nothing, it reigned atop television ratings for all nine seasons, winning an Emmy in 1993.
In 1998, at the peak of its ratings, Seinfeld and David opted to end the show. Now with a cult following, Seinfeld proceeded back to standup comedy. Beyond flourishing ticket sales from his tours, Seinfeld has also amassed a great personal wealth. He also published a book, Seinlanguage whose strong sales served as supplement to the millions of dollars that he made from the syndication of his show.
Seinfeld has won or been nominated for many awards, including the WGA, Q, TCA, Screen Actors' Guild, People's Choice, Nova, Golden Satellite, Golden Globe, GLAAD, Emmy, DGA, Artios, British Comedy, American Comedy, Eddie, and ASCAP awards.
He is most notably credited with changing the face of standup comedy, bringing momentum to the 'observational humor' trend. Having popularized jokes from airplane travel to taxi cabs, Seinfeld is one of the most referenced and impersonated comedians on the planet.
He has been romantically linked with writer Carol Leifer, fashion designer, Shoshanna Lonstein, and Jennifer Crittenden. Seinfeld is currently married to his publicist, Jessica Sklar. They wed in December of 1999, and gave birth to daughter, Sascha, on November 7, 2000. On March 1st, 2003 the couple had their second child, son, Julian Kal.
