Joel McHale

The Athlete Who Preferred Office Jokes

Joel McHale was born in Rome in 1971 by a twist of fate. His father worked at the University of Washington's study center in Italy, but the family soon returned to Seattle. There, McHale enrolled in History and ended up rowing on the college team before switching to American football.

In 1992, he won a Rose Bowl with the Washington Huskies. But sports were never his real goal. He enrolled in a master's program in acting and started making a living in local sketch comedy shows, where he honed the dry style that defines him.

Nobody expected that tall, blond guy to be so acerbic.

In 2004, he signed with E! to host The Soup. The format was simple but risky, since it meant tearing apart the most absurd reality TV shows on American television. McHale fronted the show until 2015 and recorded more than 600 episodes of pure cynicism in front of a green screen.

During that period, he perfected the art of looking into the camera with feigned contempt. And audiences bought the concept right away. The show averaged millions of viewers while McHale mocked the Kardashians or the castaways of any remote island.

Television is a cruel business.

The Fake Greendale Lawyer

In 2009, Dan Harmon was looking for someone who could play an egomaniac with a hidden human side. That's how he landed the role of Jeff Winger in Community. The show took time to take off, but it became a cult phenomenon that defied every rule of traditional comedy.

McHale played a disbarred lawyer who must return to public university to regain his license. On set, tensions with Chevy Chase were constant and public. But McHale kept his cool and served as the natural leader of a cast that included Donald Glover and Alison Brie.

The group's chemistry saved the series from cancellation on several occasions. NBC canceled the series in 2014 after five seasons, before Yahoo! Screen rescued it for a final sixth season in 2015.

And the bet only paid off partially.

His film career has been more erratic. In 2004, he had a tiny role in Spider-Man 2 as a bank employee. Later, in 2009, Steven Soderbergh gave him a chance in The Informant! alongside Matt Damon, where he proved he could handle drama without blinking.

In 2012, he appeared in Ted by Seth MacFarlane, playing a sleazy, unpleasant boss. McHale seems comfortable in these elegant antagonist roles that don't need shouting to make an impression. Yet most of his film projects have been relegated to supporting or high-profile supporting parts.

In 2016, he tried to regain success on broadcast television with The Great Indoors. The CBS series pitted an old-school reporter against a newsroom of digital natives. Critics tore it apart, and the network decided not to renew it after a single season of 22 episodes.

In 2020, he returned to Netflix with a special episode of Tiger King to interview the stars of the documentary. It was a quick assignment to take advantage of the global lockdown during the pandemic. That special was recorded entirely from his home with a minimal technical crew.

In 2023, he premiered the comedy Animal Control on Fox, playing an animal control officer with a cynical past. The series was renewed for a third season, confirmed in early 2024. Filming for the Community movie is scheduled to begin in late 2024 after years of logistical delays.

The estimated production budget for the film is around $20 million.