Kevin Pollak

Early life

Pollak was born on October 30, 1957, in San Francisco. He is the younger son of Robert Pollak and the former Elaine Klein. He has one older brother, Craig, who lives in San Jose, California. He attended high school at Pioneer High School in San Jose. Pollak was raised in Reform Judaism.

Career

Acting

Some of Pollak's early television appearances include Amen, Thirtysomething, and Who's the Boss?. From 1995 to 1996, he had a recurring role as Mr. Bell on the ABC sitcom The Drew Carey Show.

As a film actor, Pollak's roles frequently include the best friend, family member or confidant character to the leading men, such as in Ricochet (1991), A Few Good Men (1992), Wayne's World 2 (1993), Grumpy Old Men (1993) and its sequel Grumpier Old Men (1995), Casino (1995), End of Days (1999), and The Wedding Planner (2001). However, he has also played a wide variety of parts, such as a comical brownie in Willow (1988), the philandering brother of Sarah Jessica Parker in Miami Rhapsody (1995), a criminal in The Usual Suspects (1995), a father in She's All That (1999), a gangster in The Whole Nine Yards (2000) and its sequel The Whole Ten Yards (2004), a lawyer in Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), and Cupid in The Santa Clause 2 (2002) and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006). His most substantial role to date was in Deterrence (1999), in which he played the main character, a vice president who must take over for a deceased President and deal with a nuclear crisis.

Pollak briefly hosted Celebrity Poker Showdown in its first season. In December 2006, he played Karl Kreutzfeld in the Sci Fi Channel miniseries The Lost Room. Through 2008, he had a recurring role as a district attorney on the television series Shark. In March 2008, Pollak played himself in the web series The Writers Room on Crackle. In 2010, he portrayed Sheriff Tom Wagner in Choose.

In early 2010, Pollak was scheduled to host Our Little Genius on FOX, but the series was pulled before it could air on television. Pollak was then seen hosting Million Dollar Money Drop for FOX at the end of that year; the show ran for 12 episodes.

In 2014, Pollak began a recurring role as Alvin Biletnikoff on the CBS sitcom Mom. His time on the show ended with the death of his character. Starting in 2016, Pollak played the role of Marion in the FX series Better Things. His character was recurring throughout all five seasons.

In 2017, Pollak joined the cast of the Golden Globe–winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, an original series from Amazon, as Moishe Maisel, the main character's father-in-law. In 2019, Pollak appeared in five episodes of the fourth season on Showtime's Billions, as Douglas Mason.

Directing

Pollak's directorial debut was on the horror web series Vamped Out, featured on the internet television platform Babelgum. Jason Antoon, Seana Kofoed, Samm Levine and Pollak all acted in the ensemble cast. The screenbook was based on a simple joke that Antoon and Pollak had between them. Pollak's feature film directorial debut, the comedy documentary Misery Loves Comedy, premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The film sold North American rights to Tribeca Film, a US distribution company.

Pollak directed the comedy film The Late Bloomer, starring Johnny Simmons, which was released in 2016.

Stand-up

As a comedian, Pollak's most famous work was his 1991 HBO special Stop with the Kicking, directed by fellow comedian David Steinberg and produced by comedy writer Martin Olson. In 2010, The Littlest Suspect, his most recent comedy special, was aired on Showtime. Comedy Central named Pollak one of the Top 100 Comedians of All Time.

Celebrity impressions

• Woody Allen
• Alan Arkin
• Albert Brooks
• Gabriel Byrne
• Johnny Carson
• Christopher Lloyd
• Robert De Niro
• Peter Falk
• Richard Kind
• Dudley Moore
• Eddie Murphy
• Liam Neeson
• Jack Nicholson
• Al Pacino
• Paul Reiser
• Arnold Schwarzenegger
• William Shatner
• Sylvester Stallone
• Jason Statham
• Christopher Walken
• Robin Williams
• Larry King

Podcasting

In 2009, Pollak partnered with Jason Calacanis on a weekly Internet talk show, Kevin Pollak's Chat Show. Guests for the show include film directors Kevin Smith and Mike Binder, comedians Jimmy Pardo and Bill Burr, and actors Nia Vardalos, Illeana Douglas, Bryan Cranston, Dana Carvey, Billy West, John DiMaggio, Matthew Perry, Jon Hamm, Paul Rudd, Adam Carolla, Anthony Cumia, Jason Alexander, Seth MacFarlane, Tom Hanks, Larry David and Jason Lee.

The guest interviews are very in-depth and typically longer than an hour in duration, sometimes exceeding two hours. Common topics include the guests' childhoods, how they got into the business they are in (typically show business), how they got inspired to start certain creative endeavors, and unique experiences they have had while working. Viewers can interact via chat room during the show, and sometimes questions for the guest posed in the chat room are answered live.

The show's self-described "Paul Shaffer" is actor Samm Levine.

Recurring segments and bits on the show include:

• "The Larry King Game", which requires the guest to do a bad Larry King impression, reveal something about oneself (in the persona of Larry King) and then go to the phones and say a funny-sounding city
• "Tweet Five", where Pollak reads the guest five questions from a Twitter user, usually in a this-or-that style
• "Who Tweeted", in which a host (typically Samm Levine) reads tweets from the Twitter accounts of three female celebrities (the list of actresses varies, but typically includes Demi Moore (or, more recently, Justin Bieber), Tyra Banks, and Paris Hilton) and Pollak and his guest compete against each other game-show-style to guess who authored each tweet.
• "You're Not Buffering", in which Pollak freezes mid-statement during his interview as though the show has paused due to internet lag, but he's actually still live. He then breaks his pause and says, "You're not buffering."

In 2012, Pollak began a new podcast called Talkin Walkin in which he spends an hour or more with a new guest in character as Christopher Walken. After three episodes, the show was rated in the top 5 of all comedy podcasts by iTunes.

He is the only person to ever go "2 for 2" (two exact matches), as a guest on the Sklar Brothers/Daniel Van Kirk podcast Dumb People Town, in the "Guess the Age" game. The feat was completed on the episode released on April 2, 2018.

In 2018, Pollak began hosting a comedy improvisation podcast called Alchemy This, on the network iHeartRadio. It features a regular cast of 5 members, Craig Cackowski, James Heaney, Chris Alvarado, Vanessa Ragland, and Joey Greer, as well as several guests.

Poker

Pollak is an avid poker player. He finished 134th out of 6,598 entrants in the 2012 World Series of Poker and won $52,718. He also hosts weekly home games with Hollywood celebrities.

Personal life

In 1995, Pollak married comedian Lucy Webb. They separated in 2005 and divorced in 2008.

Filmography

Film

Television

Web

Awards and nominations

Book

References

References

1. "JUF : Tweens : Celebrities : Kevin Pollak".
2. "Mercury News: Search Results".
3. Miller, Gerri. (November 21, 2018). "'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' Is Back in Time for Hanukkah".
4. (March 31, 2008). "Fresh Chicken and Roadents Populate New Comedy Site". TV Guide.
5. (February 5, 2010). "You Have 60 Seconds to 'Choose' Who Dies: Your Mom or Dad?". Bloody Disgusting.
6. "Kevin Pollak (I)". [[IMDb]].
7. "Vamped Out – Babelgum".
8. (August 29, 2012). "Maniac (2012) – Dread Central".
9. (August 25, 2015). "Johnny Simmons Starring in Kevin Pollak's 'The Late Bloomer'".
10. (February 2020). "Dumb People Town: Kevin Pollak – Hold On Loosely".
11. (October 11, 2018). "Introducing Alchemy This".
12. (October 11, 2018). "Meet the Fab 5".
13. "KEVIN POLLAK — WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA, United States — WSOP.com". World Series of Poker.
14. (October 2010). "Kevin Pollak files for divorce". Yahoo! News India.
15. "Archived copy".
16. (July 21, 2021). "DC's 'Injustice' Sets Cast for Animated Movie (Exclusive)".
17. Lang, Brent. (October 11, 2022). "Briarcliff Entertainment Buys ''Sweetwater'', Drama About Pioneering African American NBA Player (Exclusive)".
18. (December 10, 2013). "Kevin Pollak to Play Anna Faris' Father on CBS' 'Mom' (Exclusive)". TV Guide.
19. Schwartz, Ryan. (October 17, 2023). "Santa Clauses Season 2 Trailer: Eric Stonestreet's Mad Santa Is Out for Revenge — Plus, Tracy Morgan's Easter Bunny Makes His Debut".
20. "Kevin Pollak – Awards". IMDb.