Adam McKay

Born in the Windy City in 1968, the television sketch comedy scripter, big screen writer/director, and occasional performer Adam McKay first entered the public eye (and established himself professionally) when he helped found the Upright Citizens Brigade comic improv troupe in 1990, alongside Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Horatio Sanz, and others. McKay subsequently worked at the ImprovOlympic theater in Chicago and joined the cast of SCTV, contributing heavily to its infamous sketch "The Piñata Full of Bees." Later (in the early '90s), McKay auditioned for the cast of Saturday Night Live. He failed to make the cut as an SNL performer, but submitted (highly politicized) material to the program which was so sharp and funny that it secured him a position as a regular SNL contributor (of scripts and occasional short films) from 1995 through 2001. For three of those years, McKay served as SNL head writer; longtime friend (and SCTV alumnus) Tina Fey succeeded him in the role.

During his SNL stint, McKay met and befriended funnyman Will Ferrell. Not long after McKay departed from the program, the two formed a professional partnership, teaming up to co-write the summer 2004 big screen comedy vehicle Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy; McKay took the director's chair for that turn. Unsurprisingly, the film -- about an oversexed, chauvinistic, mentally-deficient San Diego newsman in the mid-'70s (Ferrell) -- became a massive hit. It prompted a follow-up, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, with the same pedigree as Anchorman, but this time around, McKay posed a triple threat, not only co-authoring the script with Ferrell, but portraying Terry Cheveaux in the cast.

McKay married actress Shira Piven in 1996, with whom he has two children.

by Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide