David Schwimmer

David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2, 1966) is an American actor, director, activist, and producer. Schwimmer began his acting career performing in school plays at Beverly Hills High School. In 1988, he graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in theater and speech. After graduation, Schwimmer co-founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company. For much of the late 1980s, he lived in Los Angeles as a struggling, unemployed actor.\n', ' He starred in the television movie A Deadly Silence in 1989 and appeared in a number of television roles, including on L.A. Law, The Wonder Years, NYPD Blue, and Monty, in the early 1990s. Schwimmer later gained worldwide recognition for playing Ross Geller in the sitcom Friends, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1995. His first leading film role was in The Pallbearer (1996), followed by roles in Kissing a Fool (1998), Six Days, Seven Nights (1998), Apt Pupil, and Picking Up the Pieces (both 2000). He was then cast in the miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) as Herbert Sobel.\n', ' After the series finale of Friends in 2004, Schwimmer was cast as the title character in the 2005 drama Duane Hopwood. Other film roles include the voice of Melman the Giraffe in the computer-animated Madagascar film franchise, the dark comedy Big Nothing (2006), and the thriller Nothing But the Truth (2008). Schwimmer made his West End stage debut in the leading role in Some Girl(s) in 2005. In 2006, he made his Broadway debut in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. Schwimmer made his feature film directorial debut with the 2007 comedy Run Fatboy Run. The following year, he made his Off-Broadway directorial debut in the 2008 production Fault Lines.\n', '