Heder was born in Fort Collins, Colorado, the son of Helen (née Brammer) and Dr. James Heder, a practicing physician. He has an identical twin brother, Dan, as well as an older sister and brother, Rachel and Doug, and two younger brothers, Adam and Matt. Heder is the nephew by marriage of former NFL running back and WCAU sportscaster, Vai Sikahema. Heder is of part Swedish descent. Heder and his parents moved to Salem, Oregon, when he was about two years old. He attended Walker Middle School in Salem and graduated from South Salem High School in 1996, where he was on the swim team and was a member of the Drama Association. \n', '

A 2002 alumnus of Brigham Young University, Heder worked on the short CGI animated film Pet Shop, written by Logan Deans, which earned a non-traditional animation student Emmy in 2005. After his movie career took off, he did not return to complete the work he started on the short, although his name does appear in the credits. While attending BYU he befriended Jared Hess and starred in Hess\'s short film Peluca, which was later expanded into Napoleon Dynamite. Peluca received rave reviews on the BYU campus after showing at a few college and local film festivals and competitions.\n', '

Napoleon Dynamite, filmed in Preston, Idaho, earned $44.5 million at the box office. In June 2005, Heder received the MTV Movie Award for Best Musical Performance and Breakthrough Male Performance for the role. On October 8, 2005, he hosted Saturday Night Live with musical guest Ashlee Simpson. After his success with Napoleon Dynamite, Heder and his film co-star Efren Ramirez filmed a series of commercials to promote the Utah\'s 2005 State Fair. They reprised their roles in a self-parody sketch called "Napoleon Bonamite" on the animated series Robot Chicken.[citation needed]\n', '

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