Background

Ethnicity: Paul's father was of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, from Hungary and Romania, but later converted to Christian Science. Paul's mother had British ancestry.

Paul Samuel Feig was born on September 17, 1962, in Royal Oak and raised in Mount Clemens, Michigan, United States. Paul's mother, Elaine Elizabeth (Artingstall), was a telephone operator, and his father, Sanford William Feig, owned Ark Surplus on Gratiot Avenue.

Education

Paul Feig completed his studies at Chippewa Valley High School in 1980, then attended Wayne State University for one year and moved to the University of Southern California Film School (University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts), which he graduated from in 1984.

Career

Before Paul Feig became famous as an actor he worked as a tour guide at Universal Studios in Hollywood, embarked on a stand-up comedy act, and landed minor roles on various television shows. Then he got a job as a script reader for Michael Phillips, who produced such films as Taxi Driver and The Sting. Feig longed to be back on stage, however, though he couldn't manage two jobs at once. A chance win of $29,000 in 1985 on The $25,000 Pyramid game show provided Feig with the money he needed and used to finance a run at stand-up comedy. The struggling comic became a struggling actor with roles in such features as Three O' Clock High and Ski Patrol, and on the small screen in It's Garry Shandling's Show and the short-lived Dirty Dancing. More substantial role in That Thing You Do! was quick to follow, and after having collected 30,000 dollars to film his feature debut, Feig directed his script for Life Sold Separately. A low-key comedy-drama concerning four strangers attempting to escape their day-to-day lives, Life Sold Separately went largely unseen despite landing mostly favorable reviews.

Feig is best known for directing the 2011 films Bridesmaids, featuring Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy, the comedy films The Heat (2013) starring McCarthy and Sandra Bullock, Spy (2015) which stars McCarthy, Jason Statham, and Jude Law, and A Simple Favor (2018), starring Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively. He created the critically acclaimed show Freaks and Geeks, Other Space, and directed several episodes of The Office, Nurse Jackie, and Arrested Development as well as some episodes of 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Mad Men, Other Space, and other television series. In his television series Freaks and Geeks (1999), the fictitious town of Chippewa was loosely based on the area surrounding Mt. Clemens, Michigan, where he grew up. The title of his memoir Superstud is based on a line from the Freaks and Geeks episode "Looks and Books."

Feig also directed a film with Melissa McCarthy called Just Do It and a female-driven reboot of the Ghostbusters franchise. Paul is also known for playing Mr. Eugene Pool, Sabrina's science teacher, on the first season of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, as well as Tim, a camp counselor, in the film Heavyweights. Paul Feig has written several screenplays including Life Sold Separately (1997), a drama film I am David (2003), for which he received an Audience Award for Best Advance Screening, a Crystal Heart Award, a Best Feature Film and other awards, Sick in the Head (2003), Spy (2015), Ghostbusters (2016). In 2019 Feig has directed the romantic comedy Last Christmas starring Henry Golding alongside Emilia Clarke. The film received mixed reviews and was a box office success, earning over $120 million.

Feig has been nominated for four Emmy Awards for writing on Freaks and Geeks and three for directing on The Office. In 2015 Paul was the winner of the CinemaCon Award as the Comedy Filmmaker of the Year.

Paul has written two memoirs: Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence (2002) and Superstud: Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin (2004). He is also the author of the Ignatius MacFarland science fiction series for kids: Frequenaut! (2008), Frequency Freakout! (2010). Feig is a founder of his own company Feigco Entertainment. In 2019 Universal Pictures has set a first-look production agreement with Feig's Feigco Entertainment, bringing in the prolific producer, writer, and director.

Achievements

• Paul Feig is the king of feminist comedies, working as a writer, director, and producer on films and TV shows about characters rarely depicted on the big screen - particularly funny women. He has created and directed the television series Freaks and Geeks, Other Space, The Office, Nurse Jackie, and Arrested Development, numerous films including Bridesmaids, The Heat, Spy, Ghostbusters, and A Simple Favor. Paul was four times nominated for Emmy Awards, American Comedy Awards as Best Comedy Director for The Heat, Gold Derby Awards, PGA Awards, and Hugo Awards, as well as won numerous awards.
  
  Feig is also an author of two memoirs Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence, and Superstud: Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin (2004), as well as other two science fiction books for children Ignatius MacFarland: Frequenaut!, and Ignatius MacFarland: Frequency Freakout!.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Kick Me: Adventures in Adolescence

    (Written in side-splitting and often cringe-inducing detai...)

    2002
  • Ignatius MacFarland: Frequency Freak-out!

    (When Iggy's transporter makes a crash landing in an even ...)

    2010
  • Ignatius MacFarland: Frequenaut!

    (After being teased one too many times at school, Ignatius...)

    2008
  • Superstud: Or How I Became a 24-Year-Old Virgin

    (Lost in love and don't know much? Paul Feig knew even les...)

    2005

• movie

  • This Changes Everything

    (Told first-hand by some of Hollywood's leading voices, Th...)

    2018
  • Ghostbusters

    (Following a ghost invasion of Manhattan, paranormal enthu...)

    2016
  • The Peanuts Movie

    (Snoopy embarks upon his greatest mission as he and his te...)

    2015
  • Bad Teacher

    (A lazy, incompetent middle school teacher who hates her j...)

    2011
  • Heavyweights

    (Plump kids are lured into joining a posh fat camp with th...)

    1995
  • Knocked Up

    (For fun-loving party animal Ben Stone, the last thing he ...)

    2007
  • Unaccompanied Minors

    (A group of unaccompanied minors bond while snowed in at t...)

    2006
  • The 4%: Film's Gender Problem

    (The 4%: Film's Gender Problem is a new, provocative origi...)

    2016
  • Snatched

    (When her boyfriend dumps her before their exotic vacation...)

    2017
  • The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult

    (Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) comes out of retirement to ...)

    1994
  • Three O'Clock High

    (A nerd gets himself in hot water with the new bully, a qu...)

    1987
  • Bridesmaids

    (Competition between the maid of honor and a bridesmaid, o...)

    2011
  • That Thing You Do!

    (A local Pennsylvania band scores a one-hit-wonder in 1964...)

    1996
  • Simple Favor

    (Stephanie is a single mother with a parenting vlog who be...)

    2018
  • Spy

    (A desk-bound CIA analyst volunteers to go undercover to i...)

    2015
  • Zoo Radio

    (Under the terms of their father's will, rival radio stati...)

    1990
  • I Am David

    (A twelve-year-old boy escapes from a Bulgarian Communist ...)

    2003
  • It's Better In Italian

    (A charming look at the "doppiatori" - the Italian voice o...)

    2015
  • Stealing Harvard

    (A middle-class man turns to a life of crime in order to f...)

    2002
  • The Heat

    (An uptight FBI Special Agent is paired with a foul-mouthe...)

    2013
  • Ghostheads

    (A look at the intense fandom that developed around the mo...)

    2016
  • The Arrested Development Documentary Project

    (A history of this one-of-a-kind show told through intervi...)

    2013
  • Song of Back and Neck

    (Fred rarely gets through the day without falling to the g...)

    2018
  • Ski Patrol

    (A developer attempts to sabotage the safety record of a s...)

    1990
  • Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

    (Singer Dewey Cox overcomes adversity to become a musical ...)

    2007
  • Last Christmas

    (Kate is a young woman subscribed to bad decisions. Workin...)

    2019
  • My Fellow Americans

    (Two former U. S. Presidents hated rivals, join forces to ...)

    1996
  • Paramount Comedy Theater: Decent Exposures 1987
  • Zombie High 1987
  • Welcome to Comic-Con 2008
  • A Night of 140 Tweets: A Celebrity Tweetathon For Haiti 2010
  • Ferdinand 2017

• TV series

  • How I Rock It

    (Every half-hour episode in this six-part series features ...)

    2013
  • NTSF:SD:SUV

    (NTSF:SD: SUV, also known as the National Terrorism Strike...)

    2012
  • 9JKL

    (Mark Feuerstein stars as Josh Roberts, a new divorcé and ...)

    2017
  • @midnight with Chris Hardwick

    (Who will wear the crown as the funniest person on earth (...)

    2015
  • Maron

    (The show explores a fictionalized version of Marc's life,...)

    2014
  • 30 Rock

    (Liz Lemon (Tina Fey), head writer of the sketch comedy sh...)

    2007
  • Mad Men

    (A drama about one of New York's most prestigious ad agenc...)

    2007
  • Last Call with Carson Daly

    (Now in its tenth season, NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly...)

  • Weeds

    (When a suburban mother turns dealing marijuana in order t...)

    2005
  • Bored to Death

    (A well-meaning but struggling writer decides to lead a so...)

    2009
  • Chelsea Handler

    (The Chelsea Handler Show follows the comedian as she take...)

    2016
  • Hell's Kitchen

    (World-renowned chef Gordon Ramsay puts aspiring young che...)

    2014
  • Insert Name Here

    (Comedy panel show in which host Sue Perkins challenges tw...)

    2017
  • The Ellen Show

    (A mix of celebrity interviews, musical performers, audien...)

    2016
  • The Soup

    (From the hottest new series to the latest OMG reality TV ...)

    2015
  • Sabrina, The Teenage Witch

    (When a sixteen-year-old high school student finds out she...)

    1996
  • Love & War

    (A woman impulsively buys a share of the Blue Shamrock bar...)

    1995
  • Nurse Jackie

    (A drug-addicted nurse struggles to find a balance between...)

    2009
  • Cultureshock

    (Cultureshock takes an in-depth look at the untold stories...)

    2018
  • The Office

    (A mockumentary on a group of typical office workers, wher...)

    2005
  • Dirty Dancing

    (A continuation of the movie of the same name where France...)

    1988
  • Undeclared

    (College freshman Steve Karp, his girlfriend and their fel...)

    2002
  • Roseanne

    (A revival of the popular 1990s sitcom "Roseanne," which c...)

    1993
  • Freaks and Geeks

    (A high school mathlete starts hanging out with a group of...)

    1999
  • Parks and Recreation

    (The absurd antics of an Indiana town's public officials a...)

    2009
  • An Evening at the Improv

    (America's longest-running comedy television series and th...)

    1989
  • The Louie Anderson Show

    (Veteran funnyman Louie Anderson returns to the stage in t...)

    1996
  • Ellen

    (Ellen Morgan is a neurotic bookstore owner who deals with...)

    1997
  • Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist

    (Zoey Clarke is a whip-smart computer coder forging her wa...)

    2020
  • Arrested Development

    (Level-headed son Michael Bluth takes over family affairs ...)

    2004
  • Newhart

    (The misadventures of an author turned innkeeper in rural ...)

    1988
  • Thirtysomething

    (Seven thirtysomethings living in Philadelphia struggle wi...)

    1990
  • Get A Life

    (The misadventures of a 30-year-old paper-boy and his wack...)

    1991
  • The Drew Carey Show

    (A sitcom about Drew's personal and professional life.)

    1998
  • America in Primetime

    (The new Golden Age of television is now. In the expansive...)

    2011
  • Men Behaving Badly

    (Kevin and Jamie are two roommates. Kevin is irresponsible...)

    1997
  • The Facts Of Life 1986
  • It's Garry Shandling's Show 1990

• Video game

  • LEGO Dimensions 2016

Religion

Feig was raised in Christian Science. Feig's father was converted to Christian Science, where he met Paul's mother at a social of Church of Christ, Scientist.

Views

Feig is a fierce opponent of misogyny, offense, and violence. Paul Feig always supports his hometown whether it's setting his classic TV series, Freaks and Geeks, in a fictional Detroit suburb or slipping Michigan references into his movies The Heat and Ghostbusters. Feig has made what Henry Ford Health System describes as a generous donation to its COVID-19 Emergency Needs Fund for patients and front-line staffers. Paul hosts a daily happy hour on Instagram called #QuarantineCocktailTime that mixes adult beverages and fun to lift spirits during these hard times.

Most important, Feig encourages his virtual guests to donate to new causes every day that provide help to those in need during the pandemic. He said: "I follow it very closely and have been extremely concerned. I love Michigan and the Detroit area and have many old friends there. It's where I grew up. It's the place that made me who I am. I love the people of Michigan and the fact that they're going through such a hard time is devastating to me. I'm friends with Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin and have been talking to her whenever possible to find out how things are and what I can do to help. Michigan hospitals need donations and funding and obviously so many people are out of work and need help. I've tried to do my part with donations, but there's just so much more to do. I do think that Gretchen Whitmer is doing a fantastic job under a lot of pressure from both the pandemic and outside pressures. I am behind her 100%." In his own words, Happy Hours and cocktail times are all about what makes us happy. For some, like him, it's an ice-cold martini up with a twist. For others, it's their favorite mixed drink like a whiskey sour or Negroni. For others, it's a cold pop or a hot cup of coffee or a chocolate milkshake or any other elixir that makes us feel good. What we're all going through as a people and a planet is very hard and very strange for such social creatures as we all are. He believes that anything that makes us feel better and brightens our mood and gives us comfort is valid these days. Obviously we should never go overboard with anything (like his father always said, "All things in moderation"), but if we're doing the occasional cheat on our diet or New Year's resolution, it's OK to not be hard on ourselves. We just have to get through this as happily as possible."

Quotations: "Every director should take an acting class."

"At the end of the day the question comes, what are you doing for the world? You have to try to do something that's going to add something positive."

"What's great about the geek spirit is that life never seems to stop us, and they never seem to kill our enthusiasm, our optimism, and our hunger to experience the world. We keep our sense of humor, we protect our dignity, we talk to our friends about the experience and then we start again fresh the very next day."

"When I was an actor, I was in this horrendous movie called Ski Patrol. And I have so many young people come up to me and say it's their favorite movie. I guess it just depends when you watched it and what your relationship was to it at the age you saw it. Time seems to be the great equalizer."

"To me, comedy is drama."

Personality

Paul Feig always wears a suit and tie when he directs. He saw Woody Allen's Take the Money and Run (1969) when he was 9 years old and was so enthralled by it, he still remembers how "It came on and it was like a religious experience." Feig describes himself as the world's biggest Mystery Science Theater geek. He thinks TV series are better than movies these days because you are getting a never-ending movie on television. When Paul was a kid, he used to hate watching kids on TV who were smart or snappy. He liked watching adults being stupid.

Feig likes jokes, but he thinks that the male humor devolves, eventually, into homophobia, punching, and name-calling. As he said he was an only child and grew up next to a family of eight kids, six of whom were girls. He liked the humor of joking around with his female friends.

Physical Characteristics: Paul Feig has a height of 6 ft or 183 cm.

Interests

• Stand-up

Connections

Paul Feig was married to Laurie Karon on September 23, 1994.

Father:

Sanford William Feig

Mother:

Elaine (Artingstall) Elizabeth

Wife:

Laurie Karon

colleague:

Judd Apatow

colleague:

Melissa McCarthy

colleague:

Sandra Bullock

colleague:

Rebel Wilson

colleague:

Anna Kendrick

References

• Paul Feig's Instagram
• Paul Feig (@paulfeig) | Twitter
• Paul Feig's Facebook