Bio
Andy Samberg is an American comedian, singer, rapper, actor and writer best known for being a cast member on Saturday Night Live and a member of the comedy group The Lonely Island.
He also has a starring role as Detective Jake Peralta, a talented but childish detective who is told he must grow up and respect the badge by his new, no-nonsense captain, in the television sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
His breakthrough performance for the veteran comedy showcase Saturday Night Live was the music video Lazy Sunday, a performance collaboration with SNL alum Chris Parnell. Lazy Sunday was an undeniable online phenomenon that amassed over five million hits on YouTube.com within a few days and sparked its own legion of Internet imitations.
The controversy surrounding the legal ramifications of online video content thrust the story into the media spotlight, highlighting Samberg as the poster child for a new generation of DIY filmmakers and comics.
The following season, Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone again made waves with the short video D**k in a Box, starring Samberg and Justin Timberlake in a spoof on early '90s R&B.
The song reached unprecedented levels of popularity both online and in print, culminating in Samberg joining Timberlake on stage at Madison Square Garden in February 2007 and performing the song live for more than 18,000 fans.
Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone, collectively known as The Lonely Island, have been friends since junior high school in Berkeley, California. In 2000, the trio began writing, directing, and producing their own brand of comedy and showcasing it on their website thelonelyisland.com.
With a diverse range of comedic talents, Samberg has emerged as a captivating and hilarious leading man on screens both big and small. As an Emmy award-winning writer, Samberg is achieving as much success behind the scenes as he is on screen.
Samberg appears in Sean Anders' I Hate You, Dad, co-starring Adam Sandler and James Caan, Maggie Carey's The To Do List, co-starring Rachel Bilson and Bill Hader, and Celeste and Jesse Forever, written by and co-starring Rashida Jones. He also worked on Genndy Tartakovsky's Hotel Transylvania, co-starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James.
Samberg, along with his Lonely Island partners Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, released their sophomore, Emmy-nominated album Turtleneck and Chain in 2012. The second time around, the trio upped the ante, teaming up with even more of the music industry's biggest heavy hitters and A-list celebrities, including Akon, Justin Timberlake, Nicki Minaj and Rihanna.
The album received three Emmy nominations in the category of Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for I Just Had Sex (feat. Akon), Jack Sparrow (feat. Michael Bolton) and 3-Way (The Golden Rule) (feat. Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga).
Turtleneck and Chain was the highly anticipated follow up to The Lonely Island's first album Incredibad, which included the Emmy-winning sensation D*** In A Box, featuring superstar Justin Timberlake.
Incredibad also featured the follow-up gold record J**z In My Pants, which has over 100 million views on YouTube and the Grammy-nominated, third single I'm On A Boat, which went platinum and catapulted the album into over 350,000 copies sold and made it the number one selling comedy album in 2009 and 2010.
Samberg hosted the 2009 MTV Movie Awards, which was the highest rated Movie Awards since 2004. Samberg was also nominated for a 2009 Emmy award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for his song Motherlover, performed alongside Justin Timberlake.
Other film credits include Will Gluck's Friends With Benefits opposite Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis; Mark Mylod's What's Your Number? opposite Chris Evans and Anna Faris; John Hamberg's I Love You, Man opposite Paul Rudd and Jason Segel; Phil Lord and Chris Miller's animated feature Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs with Bill Hader, Anna Farris and James Caan; and Akiva Schaffer's Hot Rod, starring Jorma Taccone, Ian McShane, Sissy Spacek, Isla Fisher, and Bill Hader.
Prior to joining Saturday Night Live, Samberg performed stand-up comedy in both New York and Los Angeles for seven years and was featured on Comedy Central's Premium Blend in 2005.
Samberg attended college at UC Santa Cruz and graduated from NYU's Tisch School for the Arts with a film degree in 2000. He lives in New York City.