50 Fun Facts About Steve Carell

Steve Carell was born in which Massachusetts town?

Concord. He was born there but raised a few miles away in Acton, the youngest of four brothers.

Which actor played the smooth bachelor who gives Carell's newly single dad a makeover in Crazy, Stupid, Love?

Ryan Gosling. His ladykiller, Jacob, coaches Carell's Cal on clothes and chat-up lines, then falls for a woman who turns out to be Cal's daughter.

Carell played which instrument with a reenactment group portraying the British 10th Regiment of Foot?

Fife. He first played it alongside other members of his family, then joined the reenactors who march as Revolutionary War redcoats.

Carell earned a degree in which subject from Denison University in 1984?

History. He was headed for law school until an application essay asking why he wanted to be a lawyer stumped him, and his parents told him to try acting.

At Denison, Carell was a goalie on the school's team in which sport?

Ice hockey. In high school he had to decide whether to chase a goaltending career, and he chose small-college Denison so he could keep playing for fun.

Which scene in The 40-Year-Old Virgin did Carell insist on doing for real, with no special effects?

The chest waxing. Carell argued that a faked wax would not be as funny, so the cameras rolled once while his chest hair was really torn out, and one co-star ran off set feeling sick.

Carell quit which job after seven months because his boss said he was too slow?

He worked for the USPS in Littleton, Massachusetts.

Which Office co-star directed Carell as the voice of Blue, a giant purple imaginary friend, in IF?

John Krasinski. Their old roles were reversed: the actor who played salesman Jim to Carell's boss was now in charge, as the film's writer and director.

Who served as Carell's understudy at Chicago's famous improv troupe early in their careers?

Stephen Colbert. It was his first professional job, and the two later voiced Ace and Gary, the cartoon heroes of The Ambiguously Gay Duo.

Carell made his film debut with a bit part in which 1991 John Hughes film?

Curly Sue. He is billed as 'Steven Carell' for a brief turn as Tesio, and it proved to be the last film John Hughes ever directed.

Carell was a cast member of which short-lived 1996 ABC sketch series?

The Dana Carvey Show. ABC pulled it after seven episodes, and two decades later its rise and fall became a Hulu documentary called Too Funny to Fail.

Where was Carell a correspondent from 1999 to 2005?

The Daily Show. Carell said he disliked mocking people who were merely eccentric, so he tried to make himself the idiot and the butt of the joke.

Carell played smug newscaster Evan Baxter in which 2003 Jim Carrey film?

Bruce Almighty. Armed with God's powers, Carrey's reporter makes his rival humiliate himself live on air, and four years later the rival got a sequel of his own, Evan Almighty.

What job does Carell's character Brick Tamland hold in Anchorman?

Weatherman. Brick, a forecaster with an IQ of 48, so impressed the film's producer that he asked Carell to come up with a movie of his own.

Carell co-wrote The 40-Year-Old Virgin with which producer-director?

Judd Apatow. He simply asked whether Carell had any ideas for a movie, and Carell pitched an old stage sketch about a man hiding that he is still a virgin.

Michael Scott makes a surprise return in The Office's 2013 finale to be best man at whose wedding?

Dwight Schrute. Jim, the appointed best man, steps aside as a last prank to reveal Michael in the doorway, and Carell's cameo was kept secret for months and went uncredited.

Michael Scott manages the Dunder Mifflin branch in which Pennsylvania city?

Scranton. Playing its branch manager brought Carell six straight Emmy nominations for lead actor in a comedy, and he lost every time.

Which innuendo is Michael Scott's catchphrase, blurted out even in business meetings and legal depositions?

That's what she said. In one episode a company lawyer orders him to stop using it, and he lasts only seconds before he is goaded into saying it again.

Carell and his wife created which TBS police spoof starring Rashida Jones?

Angie Tribeca. TBS launched it by showing the whole first season back to back, without adverts, in a 25-hour marathon.

Carell played a marriage counsellor to Tommy Lee Jones and which actress in Hope Springs?

Meryl Streep. Her character pays for a week of intensive couples therapy in Maine herself and all but drags her grumbling husband of 31 years to it.

Which of these Office episodes did Carell write himself?

Casino Night. The season-two finale he wrote ends with Jim finally telling Pam he loves her and kissing her, and it won Carell a Writers Guild award.

In 'Goodbye, Michael', Michael Scott flies to which state to join Holly Flax?

Colorado. The state's real governor played along: on 1 April 2011 his office announced Michael Scott's appointment as its director of paper distribution.

Which star of the British Office turned down the role of Michael Scott, unwilling to move to America?

Ricky Gervais. He said the remake had to be made by Americans for Americans, and he did not fancy seven years of 14-hour days abroad.

Which actress played Carell's neighbour and road-trip companion in Seeking a Friend for the End of the World?

Keira Knightley. With an asteroid three weeks from Earth, her character sets out to help him find his high-school sweetheart, and the two neighbours fall for each other instead.

Which Anchorman co-star of Carell's was considered for Michael Scott and later played Todd Packer?

David Koechner. His Packer is the American answer to the British show's Chris Finch, and two salesmen get rid of him by phoning in a fake head-office job in Florida.

What does Michael Scott call the action film he spends a decade making?

Threat Level: Midnight. The staff find his unfinished script in season two, and five seasons later he screens the film, with himself as a secret agent and Jim as the villain.

Where did Michael Scott buy his 'World's Best Boss' mug?

Spencer Gifts. Nobody gave him the title: he admits in the very first episode that he bought the mug for himself at the novelty chain.

Who plays Holly Flax, the HR rep Michael Scott eventually marries?

Amy Ryan. Holly arrives as Toby's replacement, and Michael, who loathes the HR department, is won over the moment she jokes about how dull Toby is.

Which former late-night colleague wrote and directed Carell's 2020 political satire Irresistible?

Jon Stewart. His old boss cast him as a Democratic strategist who descends on a small Wisconsin town to run a retired Marine's campaign for mayor.

Carell played Uncle Arthur in the 2005 film of which classic sitcom?

Bewitched. He played the part as an impression of Paul Lynde, copying the camp delivery Lynde gave the prankster uncle in the original series.

Carell voiced Hammy the Squirrel in which 2006 animated film?

Over the Hedge. Hammy is the hyperactive squirrel who saves the day at the climax, when an energy drink makes him fast enough to spring the trap on the villains.

What role did Carell play in Little Miss Sunshine?

Uncle Frank. He is a Proust scholar who moves in with his sister's family after a suicide attempt and is swept along on their road trip in a failing yellow van.

Carell played Maxwell Smart in a 2008 film adapting a series that starred whom?

Don Adams. He played the bumbling Agent 86 in the 1960s series that Mel Brooks and Buck Henry created to cash in on James Bond and Inspector Clouseau.

Who was Carell's co-star in the 2010 comedy Date Night?

Tina Fey. They play a bored married couple who grab another party's restaurant reservation and are mistaken for the crooks who made it.

Carell voices which character in the Despicable Me franchise?

Gru. He starts out as a supervillain plotting to steal the Moon and ends the first film as the doting adoptive father of three girls.

What is the name of Carell's production company?

Carousel Productions. Its first release was Crazy, Stupid, Love in 2011, and his father had been born a Caroselli before shortening the family name.

Carell earned an Oscar nomination for playing which millionaire in Foxcatcher?

John du Pont. The chemical-fortune heir turned his Pennsylvania estate into a training base for Olympic athletes and was later convicted of murdering one of them.

Foxcatcher centres on which Olympic sport?

Wrestling. Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo play the Schultz brothers, both gold medallists at the 1984 Olympics, who are recruited to train on a millionaire's estate.

In The Big Short, Carell's character Mark Baum was based on which real investor?

Steve Eisman. The hedge-fund manager made a fortune betting against subprime mortgages before the 2008 crash; the book used his real name and the film changed it.

Carell played which tennis star opposite Emma Stone in Battle of the Sexes?

Bobby Riggs. The 55-year-old former champion boasted that he could beat any woman, then lost the televised 1973 match to Billie Jean King.

Carell played which real-life official in Adam McKay's Vice?

Donald Rumsfeld. The film shows him taking on a young Dick Cheney as an intern and schooling him in power, years before he first ran the Pentagon.

In Beautiful Boy, Carell played David Sheff, the father of a son played by whom?

Timothée Chalamet. He plays Nic Sheff, and the script weaves together two memoirs of the same addiction, one written by the father and one by the son.

Carell played Mitch Kessler, a news anchor fired for sexual misconduct, in which drama series?

The Morning Show. He signed on for a single season opposite Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, then agreed to come back for a second.

Carell co-created Space Force with which Office alumnus?

Greg Daniels. Netflix came to Carell with nothing but the title, so he rang the man who had adapted The Office and asked if he wanted to make a show called Space Force.

In The Patient, Carell plays a therapist held captive by what kind of person?

A serial killer. The captor is his own new patient, who wants therapy to curb his urge to kill and decides the sessions must continue in captivity.

Carell replaced which actor, who caught COVID-19, in Wes Anderson's Asteroid City?

Bill Murray. He had appeared in Wes Anderson's previous nine features, and fell ill four days before he was due to start work as the motel manager.

Carell made his Broadway debut in 2024 starring in which Chekhov play?

Uncle Vanya. The Lincoln Center revival used a new adaptation by Heidi Schreck, with Alfred Molina as the pompous professor Vanya has wasted his life working for.

Carell met his wife Nancy Walls when she was a student in his class at which institution?

The Second City. Nancy Walls went on to join Saturday Night Live, and later played Carol, the estate agent Michael Scott dates in The Office.

Which business did Carell buy in Marshfield, Massachusetts?

A general store. Carell called the 1853 shop an emotional investment rather than a business one, a chance to preserve a piece of Americana, and put his sister-in-law in charge.

Which star joined The Office as Deangelo Vickers, the manager hired to replace Michael Scott?

Will Ferrell. Carell's Anchorman co-star signed on for a four-episode arc to see him off, playing a successor who turns out to be hopeless at the job.