Ed Helms

The Fake News Correspondent

Edward Parker Helms was born in Atlanta in 1974 and spent his early professional years in New York editing commercial videos. In 2002, he landed a correspondent job on The Daily Show alongside Jon Stewart. There he learned to handle the pace of political comedy during four years of constant satire.

In 2006, he joined the cast of The Office to bring Andy Bernard to life. The character was designed to appear in only eight episodes (a short subplot for the third season). But his talent for physical comedy and endearing pathos convinced the writers to keep him until the series finale in 2013.

Success was no accident.

Helms didn't just contribute writing; he also brought his own passion for the banjo into the Scranton office storyline. In 2011, he starred in Cedar Rapids and proved he could carry an independent film. Soon his name was making the rounds at major studio offices in California.

A Hole in the Teeth in Las Vegas

In 2009, the project that permanently changed his bank account came along. In The Hangover, he played Stu Price (the dentist dominated by his partner who loses a tooth during a night of chaos). On set, no special effects were used for that physical detail because Helms has no natural lateral incisor since his teenage years.

And the gamble paid off.

The film grossed four hundred and sixty-seven million dollars worldwide. This success led to two sequels in 2011 and 2013, which brought in massive profits despite negative reviews of the last installment. In 2015, he took on the challenge of continuing the Vacation franchise, playing an adult Rusty Griswold, but the film barely recouped its costs in the domestic market.

But Helms decided to diversify his income and founded his own production company, Pacific Electric Picture Company. In 2017, he appeared in The Clapper alongside Amanda Seyfried (a small project that flew largely under the radar of the general public). After that commercial slump, he turned to animated voice work, lending his voice to Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie.

Producing and Writing in Maturity

In 2021, he co-created the series Rutherford Falls for Peacock. On this project, he not only acted but also served as writer and executive producer, tackling themes of cultural identity and Native American rights. The series was canceled in 2022 after its second season due to a lack of global audience.

In 2023, he starred in Family Switch alongside Jennifer Garner, directed by McG. This body-swap comedy was shot entirely in Los Angeles on an estimated production budget of seventy million dollars.