Zach Galifianakis

Zachary Knight Galifianakis (/ˌɡælɪfəˈnækɪs/; born October 1, 1969) is an American actor, comedian and writer who came to prominence with his Comedy Central Presents special in 2001 and presented his own show called Late World with Zach on VH1 the following year. He has also starred in films, such as The Hangover trilogy (2009–2013), Due Date (2010), The Campaign (2012), Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), Masterminds (2016) and The Lego Batman Movie (2017).\n', ' Galifianakis is the host of the Emmy Award-winning talk show Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis on the Funny or Die website. He currently stars in the FX series Baskets.\n', ' Galifianakis was born in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. To his mother, Mary Frances (née Cashion), a community arts center owner and his father, Harry, was a heating oil vendor. His mother has Scottish ancestry, while his paternal grandparents, Mike Galifianakis and Sophia Kastrinakis, were emigrants from Crete, Greece, and Galifianakis was baptized in his father\'s Greek Orthodox church. He has a younger sister named Merritt and an older brother named Greg. His cousin is The Washington Post cartoonist Nick Galifianakis. His uncle, a politician, is also named Nick Galifianakis. Galifianakis attended Wilkes Central High School, and subsequently attended but did not graduate from North Carolina State University, where he was a communication major. While in college, he was working at a public access station teaching a waltz class in 1991, and he crossed paths with Mary J. Blige.\n', '