Jerry Seinfeld Biography

Jerome Allen 'Jerry' Seinfeld was born on 29 April 1954 in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City to sign maker Kalman Seinfeld and Betty, who were both of Jewish descent.

He grew up in New York and studied at Massapequa high school, before volunteering for a short time in Kibbutz Sa'ar in Israel at the age of 16.

Jerry Seinfeld, straight from graduating in communications and theatre at Queens College, tried out at amateur nights at New York's 'Catch a Rising Star' in 1976. Soon after, he was appearing on a Rodney Dangerfield HBO special.

Seinfeld won a small reoccurring role, as Frankie, on the 'Benson' sitcom in 1979, but was abruptly fired from the show.

A few years later, in May of 1981, Seinfeld made a highly successful appearance on Johnny Carson's 'Tonight Show'. Seinfeld then became a regular on similar shows, like 'Late Night with David Letterman' and the 'Merv Griffin' show.

Seinfeld created 'The Seinfeld Chronicles' with Larry David in 1989, for NBC. The show was later renamed simply 'Seinfeld', and became one of the most popular and successful sitcoms on American television, until the time the show left the air in 1998.

As of 2002, the show was still receiving heavy airplay in syndication. The show also starred 'Saturday Night Live' veteran, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Michael Richards, and Jason Alexander.

After his sitcom went off the air, Seinfeld returned to stand-up comedy, the process of which was chronicled in a 2002 documentary, 'Comedian', directed by Christian Charles.

In 2007, he turned his hand at script-writing and penned animated film 'Bee Movie'. He also voiced the main character Barry B Benson.

Seinfeld was also a regular panelist on the reality show 'The Marriage Ref' in 2010 and 2011.

He has written a few books, mostly archives of past stand-up routines. His most well-known publication is 'Seinlanguage', which became a New York Time's best seller in 1993. Though he has never admitted it, Seinfeld is also widely believed to be the ghost-writer of the popular 'Letters from a Nut' book series.

Seinfeld met his wife Jessica Sklar, a PR executive for Tommy Hilfiger, at the Reebok Sports Club after she had returned from a honeymoon with her first husband, whom she divorced.

They married on 14 November 1998. Daughter Sascha was born in 2000, followed by sons Julian Kal in 2003 and Shepherd Kellen in 2005.