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Producer · Actor · Director · Writer

1962-10-22 · Naperville, Illinois, USA · Male

71 series in the catalog

Robert John Odenkirk (; born October 22, 1962) is an American actor, screenwriter, comedian, and producer. His accolades include two Primetime Emmy Awards (out of 18 nominations) and three Critics' Choice Television Awards, in addition to nominations for five Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award.

Odenkirk started his career writing for Saturday Night Live (1987–1991), going on to write and act in The Ben Stiller Show (1992), winning an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series in 1989 and 1993. He also wrote for Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1993–1994) and acted in a recurring role as Agent Stevie Grant in the HBO comedy series The Larry Sanders Show (1993–1998). He created and starred in the seminal HBO sketch comedy series Mr. Show with Bob and David (1995–1998) with David Cross. Odenkirk and Cross reteamed for the Netflix sketch series W/ Bob & David (2015).

As a dramatic actor, Odenkirk gained recognition and acclaim for playing Saul Goodman/Jimmy McGill on Breaking Bad (2009–2013) and its spin-off Better Call Saul (2015–2022). For the latter, he received six nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. He also starred as Bill Oswalt in the first season of the FX anthology series Fargo (2014) and earned a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his role in The Bear (2024).

Odenkirk made his directorial feature debut with Melvin Goes to Dinner (2003) followed by Let's Go to Prison (2006), and The Brothers Solomon (2007), and also wrote Run Ronnie Run! (2002), and Girlfriend's Day (2017). He took supporting roles in films such as Nebraska (2013), The Post (2017), Incredibles 2 (2018), and Little Women (2019). He starred in the action films Nobody (2021) and its sequel, Nobody 2 (2025), both of which he also produced. On stage, he received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play with his Broadway debut in Glengarry Glen Ross (2025).

Early life and education

Robert John Odenkirk was born in Berwyn, Illinois, then raised in Naperville. He is the second oldest of seven siblings born to Walter Henry Odenkirk (1930–1986), who was employed in the printing business, and Barbara Mary (née Baier) Odenkirk (1936–2021), Catholics of German and Irish descent. His parents divorced in part due to Walter's alcoholism, which influenced Bob's decision to avoid alcohol as much as possible. He describes his father as "remote, fucked-up, and not around". Odenkirk later said that he grew up "hating" Naperville as a 15-year-old because "it felt like a dead end, like Nowheresville. I couldn't wait to move into a city and be around people who were doing exciting things." Walter Odenkirk died of bone cancer in 1986. Odenkirk's younger brother Bill Odenkirk is also a comedy writer, and helped Bob's early career.

Odenkirk attended Naperville North High School and graduated at 16; he was "tired of high school", and because he had enough credits, he was able to leave high school when he was still a junior. Because he was so young and thought he would be awkward at any college, he decided to attend the local College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. After a year, he went to Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, then transferred to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, "honing his sketch-writing and performance skills with live shows on both colleges' radio stations". He began his foray into comedy writing as a radio DJ for WIDB, the local non-broadcast college station at SIU. At WIDB he created a late-night (midnight to 4 am) radio comedy show called The Prime Time Special. After three years of college, Odenkirk was three credits short of graduating when he decided to try writing and improv in Chicago. He completed the credits at Columbia College Chicago and received his bachelor's degree in communications from SIU in 1984. First studying with Del Close, Odenkirk attended the Players Workshop where he met Robert Smigel, and they began a collaboration that would last for years and take Odenkirk to Saturday Night Live. He also performed at the Improv Olympic alongside future Saturday Night Live cast members Chris Farley and Tim Meadows.

Odenkirk sharpened his stand-up and improv skills at Elmhurst's now defunct Who's on First comedy club, then part of The Steve and Leo Show.

Odenkirk visited Chicago's Second City Theater at the age of fourteen. He said his strongest comedic influence was Monty Python's Flying Circus, primarily due to its combination of cerebral humor and silliness, which Odenkirk characterized as "laugh-out-loud" humor. Other influences included radio personality Steve Dahl, SCTV, Steve Martin's Let's Get Small, Woody Allen, The Credibility Gap, and Bob and Ray.

Career

1987–1999: Saturday Night Live and Mr. Show

Odenkirk was hired as a writer at Saturday Night Live in 1987 and worked there through 1991. Working alongside Robert Smigel and Conan O'Brien, he contributed to many sketches they created but felt uncertain of the efficacy of his writing at the show. When SNL took its 1988 summer break, Odenkirk returned to Chicago to perform a stage show with Smigel and O'Brien, titled Happy Happy Good Show. The following summer he did a one-man show, Show-Acting Guy, directed by Tom Gianas. During his final summer hiatus, he wrote and acted in the Second City Mainstage show, Flag Burning Permitted in Lobby Only. In that particular show, he wrote the character "Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker" for Chris Farley, which would later be reprised on SNL.

He acted in several small roles on the show, most visibly during a 1990 parody commercial for Bad Idea Jeans. During his final year at SNL, he worked alongside Adam Sandler, David Spade, Chris Rock and Chris Farley, but eventually he decided to leave the show in order to pursue performing. He has credited SNL with teaching him many lessons about sketch writing, from senior writers like Jim Downey and Al Franken, as well as his friends Smigel and O'Brien. In 1991, Odenkirk relocated to Los Angeles and was hired to write for the TV show Get a Life, which starred Late Night with David Letterman alumnus Chris Elliott. He wrote for The Dennis Miller Show.

Odenkirk's friendship with Ben Stiller, with whom he briefly shared an office at SNL, would lead to his being hired for the cast of The Ben Stiller Show in 1992. Working as both a writer and actor on the show, he created and starred in the memorable sketch "Manson Lassie", and helped the show win an Emmy Award for writing. However, the show had already been canceled by the time it won the award. Odenkirk served as a writer on Late Night with Conan O'Brien for the show's 1993 and 1994 seasons. Odenkirk met David Cross at Ben Stiller; shortly afterward, the pair began performing live sketch shows, which eventually evolved into Mr. Show with Bob and David. In 1993, Odenkirk began a recurring role on The Larry Sanders Show as Larry Sanders' agent, Stevie Grant. He would continue the character through 1998. Also in 1993, he had brief acting roles on Roseanne and Tom Arnold's The Jackie Thomas Show. Odenkirk's first movie roles were very minor parts in films such as Wayne's World 2, The Cable Guy, Can't Stop Dancing and Monkeybone. Odenkirk briefly attempted a stand-up career in the mid-1990s, but abandoned it soon after, admitting he "hated telling the same joke twice."

Created by Odenkirk and David Cross, Mr. Show ran on HBO for four seasons. The series featured a number of comedians in the early stages of their careers, including Sarah Silverman, Paul F. Tompkins, Jack Black, Tom Kenny, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Brian Posehn and Scott Aukerman. While nominated for multiple Emmy awards in writing and generally well-liked by critics, it never broke out of a "cult" audience into larger mainstream acceptance due to being a premium cable show. After Mr. Show, Bob and David and the writers from the staff wrote the movie…