Jason Segel

Born: January 18 1980
Where: Los Angeles, California, USA

The writer and actor entered the Hollywood top draw after penning and starring in the comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

Produced by comedy maestro Judd Apatow, the movie starred Segel as a dumped composer who heads off to Hawaii only to find his ex-girlfriend there with Russell Brand.

Raised in Pacific Palisades, Segel - although Jewis - attended a Christian and graduated from Harvard-Westlake School.

Early acting experience included school plays and performances in local theatre productions at Palisades Playhouse.

A 16-year-old Segel was recommended by a high school teacher after he was spotted by a casting executive at Paramount during a school production.

He made his screen debut in 1998 as "the watermelon man" in the high school graduation comedy Can't Hardly Wait.

In the same year he was cast as a doomed student in the black comedy Dead Man on Campus and also appeared alongside Matthew Lillard inthe comedy SLC Punk!.

The following year saw him starring in the Kelsey Grammar comedy New Jersey Turnpikes but he hit paydirt when he was cast as Nick Andopolis in Freaks and Geeks.

The short-lived series about a group of suburban Detroit high school students in 1980 was a cult hit and Segel also dated co-star Linda Cardellini.

(unfounded rumours suggested that she had dumped him for putting on twenty pounds).

In 2002, Segel starred in the student comedy Slackers and went on to land a recurring role in the American TV series Undeclared.

He starred in actress Jenna Fischer's self-directed comedy Lollilove and also played the character of Neil Jansen in the drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

In 2007, he starred in the Judd Apatow hit Knocked Up as Jason and was also slated to play Evan opposite Seth Rogen in Superbad.

Recent he took th lead role in the comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which was directed by Freaks and Geeks producer Apatow.