Paul Stephen Rudd (born April 6, 1969) is an American actor. Rudd studied theatre at the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts before making his acting debut in 1991. He was included on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2019, and was named People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" in 2021. The accolades he has received include a Critics' Choice Television Award, alongside nominations for two Actor Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
Born to British parents in New Jersey, Rudd appeared in the films Clueless (1995), Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995), Romeo + Juliet (1996), Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007), I Love You, Man (2009), and This Is 40 (2012). He has played the superhero Scott Lang / Ant-Man in five Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films, from Ant-Man (2015) to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023). He played Gary Grooberson in the Ghostbusters films Afterlife (2021) and Frozen Empire (2024).
Rudd has also appeared in numerous television shows, including the sitcom Friends (2002–2004) as Mike Hannigan, and has featured as a guest host of Saturday Night Live multiple times. He had a dual role in the comedy series Living with Yourself (2019), which earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy. He starred in the miniseries The Shrink Next Door (2021), and featured in the Hulu comedy series Only Murders in the Building (2023–2025), which earned him a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
Paul Stephen Rudd was born on April 6, 1969, in Passaic, New Jersey, to English Jewish parents. His father, Michael Rudd (1943–2008), was a historical tour guide and worked for Trans World Airlines (TWA). His mother, Gloria Irene Granville, was a sales manager at the television station KSMO-TV in Kansas City, Missouri. His father was from Edgware and his mother from Surbiton, both in London. Both were descended from Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants who moved to England from Belarus, Poland, and Russia. His parents were second cousins. Rudd had a bar mitzvah service in Ontario, Canada. Growing up, he loved reading the Scottish comics The Beano and The Dandy, which his uncle sent him from the United Kingdom.
When Rudd was 10 years old, his family moved to Lenexa in Johnson County, Kansas. Because of his father's occupation, they also spent three years in Anaheim, California. In Kansas, Rudd attended Broadmoor Junior High and graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School in 1987. He placed fifth in Humorous Interpretation at the 1987 National Forensics League National Tournament. He attended the University of Kansas, where he majored in theater and belonged to the Sigma Nu fraternity's Nu chapter. He studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts with fellow actor Matthew Lillard. He also spent three months studying Jacobean drama at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford. While at acting school, he worked as a disc jockey (DJ) at bar mitzvahs. After graduation, he had a variety of odd jobs, including glazing hams at the Holiday Ham Company in Overland Park, Kansas.
Rudd made his acting debut in 1991 when he starred in a commercial promoting the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (which he later referenced in a 2025 commercial for the Nintendo Switch 2). Starting in 1992, he had a recurring role on the television drama Sisters as Kirby Quimby Philby. In 1994, he appeared in Wild Oats for six episodes. In 1995, he left Sisters for one season to appear in the comedy film Clueless. Rudd followed Clueless with supporting roles in films such as Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers as Tommy Doyle, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet, The Locusts, Overnight Delivery, The Object of My Affection, and 200 Cigarettes. He was in the cast of the 1999 film The Cider House Rules that received a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.
He played FBI Agent Ian Curtis in the 2000 Hong Kong action film Gen-Y Cops. In 2002, he was cast on the sitcom Friends as Mike Hannigan, who dates and marries Phoebe Buffay. In 2006, he appeared in several episodes of Reno 911! as Guy Gerricault (pronounced "jericho"), the coach of a lamaze class; then portrayed a drug lord in the film Reno 911!: Miami. He guest-starred as a has-been 1990s rock star, Desmond Fellows, on the television series Veronica Mars, in the 2007 episode "Debasement Tapes."
The year 2004 marked the start of Rudd's work with director/producer Judd Apatow, first on the film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy with Steve Carell, produced by Apatow; and again in 2005 in The 40-Year-Old Virgin with Carell, directed by Apatow. He subsequently appeared in 2007's Knocked Up which was written, produced and directed by Apatow. He narrated the 2007 edition of the long-running sports documentary series Hard Knocks, which featured the Kansas City Chiefs, whom he continues to support. It was the only season not to feature the series' regular narrator, Liev Schreiber.
In 2006, Rudd served as a narrator for the television documentary film The Armenian Genocide, broadcast by PBS to spread awareness of the killing of one million Armenians during World War I.
Rudd appeared as John Lennon in the comedy film Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story in 2007 and as a drug-addled surf instructor in Forgetting Sarah Marshall in 2008, both of which Apatow produced. Rudd had uncredited cameos in Year One (2009) and Bridesmaids (2011). In 2012, he starred in and co-produced with Apatow Wanderlust. He starred in the Knocked Up spinoff This Is 40, directed and produced by Apatow, and reprised his role of Brian Fantana in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013).
In 2007, he starred in The Oh in Ohio and The Ten, which reunited him with David Wain and Michael Showalter, and then in Over Her Dead Body the next year. In his next comedy, which he also wrote, Role Models, he and co-star Seann William Scott portray energy drink salesmen forced to perform community service in a child mentoring program.
In 2009, Rudd again appeared with Jason Segel in I Love You, Man where he and Segel play buddies who bond over their shared love for the rock band Rush. Both Rudd and Segel are themselves fans of the band. Also in 2009, Rudd co-created the TV series Party Down with John Embom, Rob Thomas, and Dan Etheridge. He lent his voice to the DreamWorks animated movie Monsters vs. Aliens.
In 2010, Rudd reunited with Carell for the comedy Dinner for Schmucks. In 2012, he had a supporting role in the drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower. He starred in the 2011 comedy-drama film Our Idiot Brother. It was the fifth film that Rudd starred in with Elizabeth Banks. He had previously appeared with her in Wet Hot American Summer (2001), The Baxter (2005), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), and Role Models (2008).
In 2012 and 2015, Rudd appeared in four episodes of NBC's Parks and Recreation as a rival of Amy Poehler's character Leslie Knope, a role for which he won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series. In 2014, he began providing voiceovers for Hyundai television commercials. He also contributed narration to the audiobook recordings of John Hodgman's books The Areas of My Expertise (2005) and More Information Than You Require (2008).
On December 19, 2013, Rudd was officially confirmed as cast in the 2015 Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Ant-Man. He played lead character Scott Lang/Ant-Man. Rudd reprised his role in Captain America: Civil War (2016) as well as Ant-Man's 2018 sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp; he also co-wrote the latter. Rudd returned alongside Evangeline Lilly in Avengers: Endgame (2019), which received critical acclaim and went on to become the highest-grossing film of all time. He reprised his role in 2023 with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and is set to appear in Avengers: Doomsday (2026).