Peter Segal Biography

An individual who ultimately clocked in as one of Hollywood's mainstays for helming male-dominated farces (and demonstrated an adroit hand for working with A-list stars), Peter Segal graduated from the University of Southern California. He forged his first significant professional association with Tom Arnold, for whom he wrote a series of acclaimed specials and worked as a writer on the comic's sitcom The Jackie Thomas Show (1992-1993) during the early '90s. Segal first bowed as a director on the schtick-fest The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994), and thereafter, moved almost exclusively into feature territory with his heaviest emphasis on slapstick. Projects included the Chris Farley yuckfest Tommy Boy (1995), the Dan Aykroyd-Jack Lemmon presidential comedy My Fellow Americans (1996), and the Eddie Murphy vehicle The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000). Shortly thereafter, Segal began a longstanding, multi-film association with comedic actor Adam Sandler and his Happy Madison production banner, for which he turned out Anger Management (2003), 50 First Dates (2004), and The Longest Yard (2005) -- all starring Sandler. Two years after Yard, Village Roadshow tapped Segal to helm the spy comedy Get Smart, starring Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway -- a cinematization of Mel Brooks' 1960s sitcom of the same title. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi