Will Ferrell Biography

Will Ferrell is an American actor, comedian, producer, and writer was born John William Ferrell on July 16, 1967, in Irvine, California, USA. He is the son to Betty Kay, a teacher who taught at Old Mill School elementary school and Santa Ana College and Roy Lee Ferrell Jr. (born 1941), a musician with The Righteous Brothers.

Will Ferrell

Ferrell at first attended Turtle Rock Elementary then later attended Rancho San Joaquin Middle School, both in Irvine. He attended University High school in Irvine where he was a kicker for the school’s varsity football team. He was also on the soccer team and captain of the basketball team as well as serving on the student council. He then attended the University of Southern California (USC), where he majored in sports journalism.

Ferrell’s attempts at stand up comedy had little success. He started in the advanced classes and grew to love improvisation. He realized he also liked to impersonate people, and one of his favorites was Harry Caray, the Hall of Fame baseball announcer.

Lorne Michaels who was then the producer of Saturday Night Live came to town looking for fresh talent for his show and that is how he discovered Ferrell as he made it through the first audition. Ferrell finally got a slot on Saturday Night Live where Ferrell made performances notable through his imitations of President George W. Bush, Attorney General Janet Reno, pompous television host James Lipton, and singer Neil Diamond, His impressions of Bush became wildly popular during the 2000 presidential election.

While on SNL, Ferrell also appeared in such feature films as the James Bond parody Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery in 1997; Dick in 1999, a satire of the Watergate scandal and Zoolander. In 2002, Will  left Saturday Night Live to pursue a film career and in the same year he landed a role  as he was one of the stars in ‘Old School’, and he took the lead role in Elf in the year 2003, playing a charmingly naive human raised in Santa’s village who ventures to New York City. Both films were box office successes.

Other hits followed in the form of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy in 2004, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby 2006 and Blades of Glory in 2007. He later in the year 2010 took up the tole of an alien supervillain in the animated Megamind. Although most of Ferrell’s film work was broadly comic in tone, he occasionally took on more serious roles including a methodical Internal Revenue Service agent in Stranger than Fiction and an alcoholic selling his possessions in Everything Must Go.

He also starred in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues in the year 2013 and in the next year he voiced a tyrannical businessman in The LEGO Movie. The actor also landed a role in  Get Hard (released in 2015) where he played a hedge-fund manager who, after being framed for insider trading, looks to a black employee (Kevin Hart) for assistance on learning how to survive in prison. He also starred as a hapless stepfather whose relationship with his stepchildren is challenged by the arrival of their father in Daddy’s Home (2015).

In 2017 he co-starred with Amy Poehler in the film ‘The House’, a film that is about a suburban couple that runs an illegal casino in order to pay for their daughter’s college tuition.

Will Ferrell Wife

Ferrell married Swedish actress Viveca Paulin in the year 2000. The two met in 1995 at an acting class. They live in New York City and Orange County and have three sons, Magnus Paulin Ferrell who was born March 7, 2004, Mattias Paulin Ferrell who was born December 30, 2006, and Axel Paulin Ferrell who was born January 23, 2010

Will Ferrell Children

Together with his actress wife  Viveca Paulin have three sons, Magnus Paulin Ferrell who was born March 7, 2004, Mattias Paulin Ferrell who was born December 30, 2006, and Axel Paulin Ferrell who was born January 23, 2010.

Will Ferrell Awards

Will has numerous awards under his name including: ESPY Awards, James Joyce Award, Kids Choice Awards, MTV Movie Awards, Razzie Awards, Spike TV Guys’ Choice Awards, Teen Choice Awards, Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, British GQ Men of the Year and several others.

Note: This biography is based on the available information as of 2023, and real-time updates or developments are being updated by our editorial team.