Will Forte

Early life

Orville Willis Forte IV was born on June 17, 1970, in Alameda, California, a suburb of San Francisco. His mother Patricia was an artist and former schoolteacher; his father Orville Willis "Reb" Forte III was a financial broker. He is of Italian and Irish descent. Forte grew up in Moraga before the family moved to Lafayette when he was 13. He went by "Billy" in his early years until he was teased at school for it also being a girl's name. At that point, he chose to be known as "Will." Forte described himself as having been a "really happy little boy", whose parents were "wonderful" and created a "very loving environment." He was interested in comedy from a young age, growing up idolizing comedians Peter Sellers, David Letterman, and Steve Martin as well as the sketch-comedy television series Saturday Night Live. He often pulled pranks on his parents, and would record himself performing imaginary radio shows. He did not aim to be a comedian, but initially wanted to become a football player.

Forte was "a laid-back teen with a lot of friends." He was a member of the varsity football and swim teams at Acalanes High School in Lafayette, where he graduated in 1988. He served as freshman class president and was voted "Best Personality" by his graduating class.

• David Nadelberg, The Mortified Sessions (2011-2012), TV interview (Dec 13, 2011), Sundance Channel
• He had no ambitions for a television or film career, though his mother noticed a "creative streak" in him.

After high school, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and completed a degree in history. Forte wanted to become a financial broker like his father at Smith Barney Shearson, but felt "miserable" there. During that period, he co-wrote a feature-length script. Later he said that he discovered he loved writing "more than anything [he] had ever done in [his] life". During his time as an undergraduate, he had been encouraged to attempt comedy; he decided to change his career to do so.

Career

Forte began taking classes at The Groundlings in Los Angeles, an improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school, while tutoring children to make ends meet. His first successful foray into comedy was 101 Things to Definitely Not Do If You Want to Get a Chick, a comic book he produced about incompetent men. The comics landed him his first professional job writing for The Jenny McCarthy Show, a short-lived variety show starring Jenny McCarthy. Shortly thereafter, he was asked to submit a packet to the Late Show with David Letterman and was told Letterman responded favorably to animation. After only nine months at Letterman, he was "let go" from the job. He recalled his stint on the program as unpleasant, noting that he did not have enough experience in writing. "What an honor to work at that show but I don't think I was fully mentally prepared. [...] I always wonder what it would be like if I'd had a couple more years of experience before going there."

Forte left New York and returned to Los Angeles, where he began performing with the Groundlings' Main Company, with Cheryl Hines, Jim Rash, and Maya Rudolph. He tried stand-up comedy three times, mostly at open mic nights, but quit after being voted into the Main Company. He joined the writing teams of two failed sitcoms, including The Army Show and Action. Forte got jobs writing for 3rd Rock from the Sun and That '70s Show. He loved writing and had mostly given up on acting, aside from acting with the Groundlings. While performing with the troupe in 2001, he was spotted by Lorne Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live (SNL). Forte felt his confidence was higher than usual, as That '70s Show had been picked up for two more years. He was invited to audition for SNL, which he regarded as unexpected.

At his audition for SNL, he performed multiple original characters, including Tim Calhoun, a speed reader, a prison guard, in addition to impressions of singer Michael McDonald and actor Martin Sheen. His final character was an older piece from his days with the Groundlings, in which he portrays a gold-painted street performer who performs fellatio to pay for his face paint, which devolves into a song needlessly uttering the words "cock" and "face paint" dozens of times. He felt his time to shine as a performer was already over, as he was in his thirties when he auditioned. To his surprise, he was offered a chance to be on the show, but declined, opting instead for the financial stability of his work at That '70s Show. He felt working for SNL could not live up to the idealized version he had dreamed of, but he later realized he would be making a mistake.

After Will Ferrell left Saturday Night Live the following spring, Forte joined the cast, premiering at the beginning of the show's twenty-eighth season in the autumn. He was promoted to repertory player after his first year. His early years on the program were characterized by stage fright and an inability to properly interpret sketches that he did not write himself. He had to "re-learn" how to perform after years as a writer, and later felt his natural tendency to "overthink" things improved his performance. He was particularly uncomfortable portraying President George W. Bush, as he felt he was not the best impressionist and it paled in comparison to Ferrell's impersonation of Bush. His only role was often Bush, leaving him no chance for more "absurd" pieces he favored. He was nearly fired from the program following his third season (2004–05), but after two three-week extensions to decide his fate, he was brought back. Forte estimated it took five seasons for him to feel fully comfortable performing on the show. He made his film debut in Around the World in 80 Days.

His humor at SNL has been described as bizarre, and he became known for many "10-to-1" sketchespieces that were considered odd, placed at the very end of the show. He was also well known for his characters Tim Calhoun, Greg Stink, and the Falconer. Forte's favorite sketch on the show was one in which he played a motivational coach alongside football star Peyton Manning. He also co-starred with Andy Samberg in the first SNL Digital Short, "Lettuce". He often spent long hours crafting his sketches for the program, missing deadlines, but his pieces were usually received warmly at table reads. During his time at the show, he co-starred in and wrote the 2007 film The Brothers Solomon. The film was originally a pilot for Carsey-Werner, and its creation was an extension of his agreement to terminate his contract to appear on SNL.

Forte's best-known character on SNL was MacGruber, a special operations agent who is tasked in each episode with deactivating a ticking bomb but becomes distracted by personal issues. The sketches were based on the television series MacGyver. It was created by writer Jorma Taccone, who relentlessly pitched the idea to Forte. He was initially reluctant to commit to the sketch, deeming it too dumb, but accepted after persuasion from Taccone. The first sketch aired in January 2007, and led to multiple more segments in the following years. In 2009, the sketches were spun off into a series of commercials sponsored by Pepsi premiering during Super Bowl XLIII which featured the actor behind MacGyver, Richard Dean Anderson, as MacGruber's father. The advertisements led the character and sketches to receive a wider level of popularity. After the success of the advertisements, creator Lorne Michaels approached Forte, Taccone, and writer John Solomon with the idea to produce a MacGruber film.

Regarding his experiences on SNL, Forte remarked, "Looking back, the experience is something I'll never forget. I still miss it, and I'll always miss it. That's my family." His celebrity impressions included George W. Bush, Tom DeLay, John Edwards, Timothy Geithner, Newt Gingrich, Chad Lowe, Zell Miller, David Petraeus, Harry Reid, Brian Williams, and Hu Jintao.

In the summer of 2009, MacGruber was shot on a tight schedule for four weeks in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was written while simultaneously producing the weekly episode of SNL, and the show's production process left the trio deprived of sleep. Forte was positive regarding the film, saying, The film was released in May 2010 and received mixed reviews. It fared worse at the box office, where it failed to recoup its budget and was pulled from theaters after its third week. Forte found the failure tolerable, commenting, "When you make something that you're really proud of and it doesn't do well, you can live with it." The film has since seen more of a positive reception and has been dubbed a cult classic.

Forte left Saturday Night Live shortly before the beginning of the show's thirty-sixth season in 2010. He felt it was the "right time to go", considering his eight-year tenure there, his expansion into film with MacGruber, and his age. In addition, his sister had just had children and he wanted to move to the West Coast to be closer to them. He soon regretted the decision, calling the following year an "emotionally trying period", as he felt "devastated" that he would no longer be on the program. He assumed his shot at a film career was ruined, and he imagined that if acting did not work out, he would return to mostly writing. Afterwards he entered what he has called a "lost period" and had small supporting roles, such as Rock of Ages, That's My Boy, and The Watch, none of which were successes. The only commercial successful film which he worked on was Grown Ups 2, where he made a cameo as a male cheerleader. He also took a role as Paul L'astnamé, the cross-dressing boyfriend of Jenna Maroney on the critically acclaimed sitcom 30 Rock.

Forte took his first dramatic role for the 2013 film Run & Jump. Director Steph Green offered him the part, and Forte imagined it a "fun thing to try", though he noted that she had more confidence in him than he had himself. Later, he sent an audition tape to Alexander Payne for a role in his next film, Nebraska. He equated his casting in the film to his fear of joining SNL a decade prior, noting that he was "terrified" to begin working on it. He felt scared initially, but followed Bruce Dern's acting advice to "look for the truth" in each scene—in other words, "In every scene, you're just trying to play it as honestly and as real as you can."

Forte began working on The Last Man on Earth, a sitcom, with longtime collaborators Phil Lord and Christopher Miller in 2013. Though it was the duo's idea, Forte attached himself to the concept, crafting a treatment over a weekend. The series was pitched around Hollywood to positive responses and was picked up in 2014 by Fox. Forte served as the series' creator, a writer, the lead role, and showrunner for the first season. He felt odd being in charge of its writing team (composed of longtime friends), and awkward at delegating tasks, so much so that he would end up doing the work himself. Being a showrunner "truly was an amount of work I never knew existed," he said, which involved him working a "minimum of 12 hours" daily. The series premiered in 2015 to positive responses, and was renewed for three further seasons.

In 2016, Forte played Hulka, a low-level weed dealer, in the comedy Keanu, starring Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key. In 2018, he played National Lampoon magazine co-founder Douglas Kenney in the Netflix biographical film A Futile and Stupid Gesture. The film was directed by David Wain and features Domhnall Gleeson as co-founder Henry Beard. Forte voiced Shaggy Rogers in the Scooby-Doo film Scoob!. In 2021, Forte starred in Sweet Tooth, reprised his role as MacGruber in a TV series on Peacock, and began voicing Wolf Tobin in the animated sitcom The Great North. In 2022, it was announced that Forte had a leading role for Disney and Pixar's first animated television series Win or Lose. It premiered on Disney+ in 2025. He voiced an older version of the titular character in Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. In 2024, Forte was announced in the main role of Martin in Sunny Nights.

Personal life

Forte dated his Last Man on Earth co-star January Jones in 2015. He and Olivia Modling met in 2018 and started seeing each other. They became engaged in 2019. They have two daughters, Zoe Douglas Forte, born in February 2021, and Cecilia, born approximately 18 months later. While making MacGruber, he and Modling married on 31 July 2021 "in the back of Jorma Taccone's house" in New Mexico. They lived in a modestly sized Craftsman home in Santa Monica, California. Forte had bought the house in 2002, two weeks before joining the cast of Saturday Night Live. That action required him to move to New York City but he kept the house. He admitted later that "it was not the greatest timing."

Forte's mother, Patricia, has visited every film set on which he has worked. She made an appearance on a Mother's Day episode of SNL, in which he sang a song to her on Weekend Update. Forte officiated his sister Michelle's wedding; he also filmed the births of his niece and nephew.

Forte has discussed and joked about his OCD tendencies. He recounted listening to only one song in his office at SNL for an entire year because he wanted to challenge himself. During an interview with Larry King, he discussed his OCD as a challenge he had to overcome but not one he wished he did not have, as it is a part of his personality. In a February 2015 article on Grantland, the writer of the article said that Forte mentioned OCD often but it was not clear if he had ever been formally diagnosed. Forte related how he and a former girlfriend had answered an OCD questionnaire based on his typical actions; it concluded that Forte "should immediately talk to someone about this."

Forte is an avid gamer. While filming A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy, he achieved one of the world's highest scores on the arcade version of Donkey Kong.

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos

Video games

Web

Crew work

Awards and nominations

References

References

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2. (June 5, 2023). "Celebrity birthdays for the week of June 11–17".
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4. (April 8, 2020). "[[Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (American game show)".
5. (February 27, 2020). "Will Forte gets 'Extra Ordinary,' Dan Scanlon moves 'Onward'". [[The San Francisco Examiner]].
6. (April 18, 2019). "SNL alum Will Forte on growing up in Lafayette: 'I feel like I was my best self in high school'". [[The San Francisco Chronicle]].
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8. "Alumni". Lambda Chi Alpha at UCLA.
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33. (March 16, 2016). "Will Forte to Star as 'National Lampoon' Co-Founder in Netflix Movie (Exclusive)".
34. Fleming, Mike Jr.. (April 4, 2016). "Domhnall Gleeson To Play National Lampoon Co-Founder In Netflix Film 'A Futile And Stupid Gesture'".
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54. Kroll, Justin. (2018-05-22). "Jason Sudeikis, Lisa Kudrow, Will Forte, Others Join Olivia Wilde's ''Booksmart'' (EXCLUSIVE)".
55. Fleming Jr., Mike. (2018-10-09). "Netflix Commits To Panama Papers Drama ''The Laundromat''; David Schwimmer Joins Soderbergh, Oldman, Streep, Banderas".
56. Ramos, Dino-Ray. (2018-11-06). "Netflix Unveils ''The Willoughbys'', ''Maya And The Three'', & More In Animated Slate".
57. Kit, Borys. (March 2, 2019). "Will Forte, Gina Rodriguez and Tracy Morgan to Star in Animated Scooby-Doo Movie (Exclusive)".
58. Milici, Lauren. (2022-08-29). "Daniel Radcliffe is a rock n roll sex god in new ''Weird: The Al Yankovic Story'' trailer".
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65. "Coyote vs. Acme Lives, Will See Theatrical Release from Ketchup Entertainment".
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72. (August 4, 2013). "Mumford and Sons release hilarious Hopeless Wanderer video".
73. (May 12, 2022). "Arkells Team Up with Cold War Kids and Will Forte for 80s Pop Anthem Past Life".