Joel McHale

Highest Rated: 90% Parachute (2023)

Lowest Rated: 14% A Merry Friggin' Christmas (2014)

Birthday: Nov 20, 1971

Birthplace: Rome, Italy

Joel McHale became one in a long line of wry, rapier-edged comedians to make a name for mercilessly eviscerating pop culture on E! Entertainment Television's signature comedy show before riding that job to fame well beyond the cable channel. Though having only minor acting credits under his belt, McHale's host duties for "The Soup" (E!, 2004-2015) earned him such buzz that in 2009, he was tapped to star in the much-anticipated NBC sitcom, "Community" leading to TV Guide to chose him as one of its "Fresh Faces of Fall 2009." A member of the University of Washington Huskies national championship football team, he made a name for himself as anything but a dumb jock, translating his snarky, iconoclastic dissection of "the festering petri dish of celeb culture" into stand-up comedy, as well as on-call pundit status on news shows such as "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" (MSNBC, 2003-2011). Along with the ratings success of "Community" came feature film offers, including a turn alongside Matt Damon in director Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant!" (2009). Demonstrating that rare capacity for both sarcasm and nice-guy affability, McHale - like Steve Carell before him - leveraged a small but zealous cable following into a more multifaceted acting career.