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Kevin Pollak

Kevin Pollak has captured the attention of audiences worldwide with his range of both dramatic and comedic roles. He has appeared in over sixty films, as well as countless television projects, and has established himself as one of the few stand-up comedians to have a successful dramatic film career. In addition to his acting talents, he has also proven himself as both a writer, producer and recently a director and a talk show host.

Pollak first started performing stand-up comedy at the age of ten. He became a touring professional stand-up at age twenty. In 1988, shortly after Kevin shot his first HBO stand-up special, he landed a role in "Willow," directed by Ron Howard and produced by George Lucas. In 1989, he got his first dramatic acting role in Barry Levinson’s "Avalon," but it was Pollak’s role in Rob Reiner’s "A Few Good Men," opposite Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson and Demi Moore, that proved his ability to stand out while sharing the big screen with dramatic heavyweights. Not too soon after, Kevin was co-starring with icons Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon in "Grumpy Old Men" and its’ sequel, "Grumpier Old Men." In 1994, Kevin was offered a plum role opposite Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Spacy and Bennicio Del Toro in a little indy film called "The Usual Suspects" for director Bryan Singer and writer Christopher McQuarrie. The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival and won two Academy Awards, as well as the Best Ensemble Cast award from The National Board of Review. That same year, the call came from Martin Scorsese for Kevin to join Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesce and Sharon Stone in his Vegas epic, "Casino." The film has become known as one Scorsese's classics.

As the 20th century came to a close, Variety named it's top 10 hardest working film actors, the criteria of which was that said actors had to have done at least 3 films per year, each year of the 1990's. Kevin was on the list.

As the millennium began, Kevin returned to his first love, stand-up comedy. He began touring the country in '01 and continues to tour sporadically here and abroad. Of course, his film career continued as he has co-starred in 33 films since 2000.

In March of 2009, Kevin began hosting his own internet talk show, called Kevin Pollak's Chat Show. It streams live every Sunday, 3pm, PDT at http://www.Kevinpollakschatshow.com. Archived episodes are available there, as well as on iTunes. The show has garnered as much as 85,000 people watching live and over a million downloads in a single month. The show received the 2010 Streamy Award for Best Live Production of a Web Series. In 2012 it launches on hulu.com.

In 2010, Pollak co-starred in Kevin Smith's "Cop Out," with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. Also that hear, Kevin co-starred with Luke Wilson, Giovanni Ribisi and James Caan in George Gallo's "Middle Men" and "Columbus Circle," which Kevin wrote with the film's director, George Gallo. This film stars Jason Lee, Selma Blair, Amy Smart, Giovanni Ribisi and Kevin. Kevin finished the year co-starring with Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson in the "The Big Year" for director David Frankel ("The Devil Wears Prada"). Kevin can also be seen in "Red State," written and directed by Kevin Smith, "Summer at Dog Dave's," with Morgan Freeman and Virginia Madsen, directed by Rob Reiner and "Chez Upshaw," a dark comedy Kevin stars with Illeana Douglas in, written and directed by Bruce Mason.

As a producer, current projects are: the film version of the New York Times Bestseller "Three Nights In August," written by Pulitzer Prize winner Buzz Bissinger ("Friday Night Lights") and St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony LaRussa, as well as the acquiring the life rights to boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard. Kevin, Tony, Buzz and new partner Academy Award winner Billy Bob Thorton have spent the last year developing the screenplay. Recently, Kevin gained the exclusive production rights to the novel, "Lost in Las Vegas," by Avery Cardoza, which is due out in October from Simon and Shuster.

As a director, Kevin's debut was a comedy web series "Vamped Out," which debuted in 2010. Kevin co-created and co-wrote the series with Jason Antoon, which earned rave reviews such as “Curb Your Enthusiam for the undead” and “Arrested Development” for the web.” Next up, Kevin will direct the feature film "Waiting for Helen," from his own origianal screenplay. Billy Bob Thorton has agreed to play one of the leads in this contemporary film noir, which Kevin will also co-star in. At present, a search for the "perfect Helen" is underway. More on this exciting venture as it develops. 

Pollak starred in two of his own HBO stand-up comedy specials and was named by Comedy Central as one of the Top 100 Comedians of all Time. His two Live Stand-Up CDs, "A Little Off the Top" and "What Are the Chances" are available at Kevinpollak.tv or on iTunes.

Kevin’s latest One Hour Stand-up Comedy Special, "The Littlest Suspect," currently plays on Showtime and is also available here and at Amazon.com. Kevin just released his first memoir, “How I Slept My Way to the Middle,” a hilarious telling of never-before-heard stories featuring A-list entertainers with fan favorites and Kevin’s own thoughts about how he made it.