David Schwimmer

For much of the late 1980s, he lived in Los Angeles as a struggling, unemployed actor, until he starred in the television movie A Deadly Silence in 1989 and appeared in a number of television roles in the early 1990s, including L.A. Law, The Wonder Years, NYPD Blue, and Monty.

In addition to its main cast, L.A. Law was also well known for featuring then relatively unknown actors and actresses in guest starring roles, who later went on to greater success in film and television including Don Cheadle, Jeffrey Tambor, Kathy Bates, David Schwimmer, Jay O. Sanders, James Avery, Gates McFadden, Bryan Cranston, CCH Pounder, Kevin Spacey, Richard Schiff, Carrie-Anne Moss, William H. Macy, Stephen Root, Christian Slater, Steve Buscemi and Lucy Liu.

Schwimmer 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.

With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the show revolved around six friends in their 20s and 30s who lived in Manhattan, New York City.

After graduation, Schwimmer co-founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company.

Lookingglass was founded in 1988 by David Schwimmer, David Catlin, Eva Barr, Thom Cox, Lawrence DiStasi, Joy Gregory, David Kersnar, and Andy White.

He was cast as the title character in the 2005 drama film Duane Hopwood, and voiced Melman the Giraffe in the computer-animated Madagascar film franchise, acted in the dark comedy Big Nothing (2006), and the thriller Nothing But the Truth (2008).

Duane Hopwood is a 2005 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Matt Mulhern, and starring David Schwimmer, Janeane Garofalo, Judah Friedlander, John Krasinski and Steve Schirripa.

He was cast as the title character in the 2005 drama film Duane Hopwood, and voiced Melman the Giraffe in the computer-animated Madagascar film franchise, acted in the dark comedy Big Nothing (2006), and the thriller Nothing But the Truth (2008).

The voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith are all featured in the films.

While still acting in Friends, his first leading film role was in The Pallbearer (1996), followed by roles in Kissing a Fool, Six Days, Seven Nights, Apt Pupil (all 1998), and Picking Up the Pieces (2000).

The Pallbearer is a 1996 American romantic comedy film co-written and directed by Matt Reeves and starring David Schwimmer, Gwyneth Paltrow, Toni Collette, Michael Vartan, Michael Rapaport, and Barbara Hershey.

While still acting in Friends, his first leading film role was in The Pallbearer (1996), followed by roles in Kissing a Fool, Six Days, Seven Nights, Apt Pupil (all 1998), and Picking Up the Pieces (2000).

It primarily stars David Schwimmer, Jason Lee, Mili Avital, Kari Wührer, and Vanessa Angel.

He was cast as the title character in the 2005 drama film Duane Hopwood, and voiced Melman the Giraffe in the computer-animated Madagascar film franchise, acted in the dark comedy Big Nothing (2006), and the thriller Nothing But the Truth (2008).

Big Nothing is a 2006 black comedy crime film directed by Jean-Baptiste Andrea, starring David Schwimmer, Simon Pegg and Alice Eve.

Schwimmer made his West End stage debut in the leading role in 2005's Some Girl(s), in 2006, he made his Broadway debut in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, his feature film directorial debut followed in 2007 with the comedy Run Fatboy Run, and the following year, he made his Off-Broadway directorial debut in Fault Lines.

Run Fatboy Run is a 2007 British-American comedy film directed by David Schwimmer, written by Michael Ian Black and Simon Pegg, and starring Pegg, Dylan Moran, Thandie Newton, Harish Patel, India de Beaufort, and Hank Azaria.

Schwimmer made his West End stage debut in the leading role in 2005's Some Girl(s), in 2006, he made his Broadway debut in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, his feature film directorial debut followed in 2007 with the comedy Run Fatboy Run, and the following year, he made his Off-Broadway directorial debut in Fault Lines.

The cast included David Schwimmer in the lead role, Catherine Tate, Lesley Manville, Saffron Burrows and Sara Powell.

While still acting in Friends, his first leading film role was in The Pallbearer (1996), followed by roles in Kissing a Fool, Six Days, Seven Nights, Apt Pupil (all 1998), and Picking Up the Pieces (2000).

Picking Up the Pieces is a 2000 black comedy film directed by Alfonso Arau and starring Woody Allen, David Schwimmer, Maria Grazia Cucinotta, Kiefer Sutherland, Cheech Marin, and Sharon Stone.

For much of the late 1980s, he lived in Los Angeles as a struggling, unemployed actor, until he starred in the television movie A Deadly Silence in 1989 and appeared in a number of television roles in the early 1990s, including L.A. Law, The Wonder Years, NYPD Blue, and Monty.

The series also starred Tom McGowan as his executive producer and David Schwimmer as his left-leaning son.

He was then cast in the miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) as Herbert Sobel.

Sobel was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by David Schwimmer.

While still acting in Friends, his first leading film role was in The Pallbearer (1996), followed by roles in Kissing a Fool, Six Days, Seven Nights, Apt Pupil (all 1998), and Picking Up the Pieces (2000).

For much of the late 1980s, he lived in Los Angeles as a struggling, unemployed actor, until he starred in the television movie A Deadly Silence in 1989 and appeared in a number of television roles in the early 1990s, including L.A. Law, The Wonder Years, NYPD Blue, and Monty.

While still acting in Friends, his first leading film role was in The Pallbearer (1996), followed by roles in Kissing a Fool, Six Days, Seven Nights, Apt Pupil (all 1998), and Picking Up the Pieces (2000).

She is invited by her boyfriend Frank (David Schwimmer) to spend a week holidaying with him on the island paradise of Makatea, in the South Pacific.

In 1988, he graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in theater and speech.

Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre Company, for example, which began life in the Great Room in Jones Residential College, was founded in 1988 by several alumni, including David Schwimmer; in 2011, it won the Regional Tony Award.

Schwimmer 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.

Ross Eustace Geller, Ph.D., is one of the six main fictional characters of the NBC sitcom Friends portrayed by David Schwimmer.

He was then cast in the miniseries Band of Brothers (2001) as Herbert Sobel.

Furthermore, in the same year he voiced Melman, a hypochondriac giraffe, in the computer animated film Madagascar (2005).

It was directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath (the latter in his directional debut) from a screenplay by Mark Burton, Billy Frolick, Darnell, and McGrath, and features the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, and Jada Pinkett Smith, with Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, and Andy Richter voicing secondary characters.

He was cast as the title character in the 2005 drama film Duane Hopwood, and voiced Melman the Giraffe in the computer-animated Madagascar film franchise, acted in the dark comedy Big Nothing (2006), and the thriller Nothing But the Truth (2008).

Yet Rachel steadfastly defends the principle of confidentiality, a position that eventually estranges her husband Ray (David Schwimmer), alienates her young son Timmy (Preston Bailey), and costs her embattled newspaper millions of dollars in fines and legal fees.

He was offered a role to star alongside Tommy Lee Jones in the 1997 science-fiction comedy Men in Black after Chris O'Donnell turned down the role, but turned it down because of a prior commitment to direct his first film with his theatre company friends starring before the role was given to Will Smith.

Schwimmer 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.

He made his feature film debut in Flight of the Intruder (1991), had a recurring role as a lawyer-turned-vigilante in NYPD Blue before auditioning, unsuccessfully, for a series pilot called Couples.

Later that year he portrayed Yitzhak Zuckerman in the war drama Uprising, based on the true events of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943.

The rudiments of resistance are planned by Mordechai Anielewicz (Hank Azaria) together with Yitzhak Zuckerman (David Schwimmer) and laid the foundation for the Jewish Combat Organization, Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ZOB).