Michael Showalter

Shortly after leaving his hometown of Princeton, New Jersey to attend New York University, Michael Showalter quickly found his crew. He met up with like-minded budding comedians including David Wain, Thomas Lennon and Michael Ian Black and formed the comedy group The State. Even though Showalter wound up transferring to Brown University, he still remained close with his friends at The State, as he was a part of the gang's big break in 1993, when they started sketch comedy show "The State" (MTV 1993-95).

While the show was short-lived, it kicked off Showalter's career. Throughout the rest of the '90s, Showalter appeared in small roles in film and TV before he worked with Wain to write cult classic "Wet Hot American Summer" (2001), which he also starred in. He followed that with another barrage of small roles, including a guest role on "Sex and the City" (HBO 1998-2004). He made his directorial debut with "The Baxter" (2005), and also returned to TV regularly with "Stella" (Comedy Central 2005), another comedy show also starring Wain and Black.

For the next few years, Showalter focused more on his stand-up career, releasing a comedy album and going on tour with Black, Janeane Garofalo, and more. He returned to Comedy Central with the metafictional sitcom "Michael and Michael Have Issues" (Comedy Central 2009), which also starred Black. In 2014, Showalter worked with Wain on the Paul Rudd-starring romantic comedy parody "They Came Together" (2014), and wrote and directed his first dramatic feature, the Sally Field-starring "Hello, My Name Is Doris" (2015).

The following year, Showalter and Wain brought together the cast of their first big movie to create the eight-part prequel "Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp" (Netflix 2015).