Paul Rudd

Comedy, film, Judd Apatow, Anchorman, Shawnee Mission West High School, University of Kansas

 

 

 

“People call me the Bry man; I’m the stylish one of the group. I know what you’re asking yourself and the answer is yes. I have a nick name for my penis. It’s called the Octagon, but I also nick named my testes – my left one is James Westfall and my right one is Doctor Kenneth Noisewater. You ladies play your cards right you just might get to meet the whole gang.”

-Paul Rudd as Brian Fantana in “Anchorman”

 

Chances are, if you live in or around Kansas City, you know the name Paul Rudd. Chances are, if you’ve seen a comedy film in the last 10 or so years, you know the name Paul Rudd. He’s a regular in writer/producer Judd Apatow’s films, appearing in insta-cult-classics like “The 40-Year Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up” and “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.”

 

Paul Rudd first captured my heart in “Clueless,” as the sweet character Josh – sporting a KU hat (but I’m a bit biased). He’s since performed in movies like “Forgetting Sarah Marshall (another Apatow production),” “Wet Hot American Summer,” “Role Models,” “I Love You, Man” and made a rare stray to the non-comedic in the film-adaptation of Stephen Chbosky’s “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” for which he won a Critic’s Choice Movie Award. Also owner of a few MTV Movie Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award, Rudd has become a comedy-audience favorite.

 

Before  Hollywood and his successes, from the age of 10 Paul grew up in Overland Park, Kans., a suburb outside of Kansas City, Mo. He attended Shawnee Mission West High School in Overland Park, and then the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kans. He’s a die-hard Kansas City sports fanatic for both the Chiefs and the Royals. After the 2014 game four sweep, when the Royals secured Major League Baseball’s American League Championship title, Rudd, who had attended the game, jokingly invited Kansas Citians to celebrate at his mom’s house.