Bill Hader

Bill Hader
Born	William Thomas Hader Jr. 6/7/1978
Birthplace	Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor, comedian, filmmaker
Known for	Saturday Night Live, Barry, Documentary Now!
Children	3
Awards	Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (2018, 2019); Peabody Award

William Thomas Hader Jr. (born June 7, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and director whose career has spanned sketch comedy, film, and prestige television. He first reached a national audience as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2005 to 2013, where his impressions and his recurring "Weekend Update" character Stefon — a flustered, nervously laughing nightclub correspondent — became signature pieces of the era. After leaving the show, Hader expanded into dramatic and creative roles, co-creating and starring in the HBO dark comedy Barry (2018–2023) with Alec Berg, a series for which he won consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. He has also become a recognizable voice in animated film, contributing to several Pixar projects, and has taken supporting and leading roles in features including Superbad (2007), The Skeleton Twins (2014), Trainwreck (2015), and It Chapter Two (2019). Hader's career has been characterized by a gradual move from broad sketch performance toward more interior dramatic work, a transition he has discussed at length in interviews tied to his film and television releases.

Early Life

Hader was born on June 7, 1978, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and grew up there. His father worked in a variety of jobs, and his mother was a dance teacher. He has spoken in interviews about a Tulsa childhood saturated in movies; he developed an early interest in filmmaking and cited directors such as Martin Scorsese as formative influences, and he obsessed over horror and genre films from a young age.

He attended Cascia Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa and has described himself as an indifferent student who was more interested in movies than in coursework. In Oklahoma, he worked an assortment of jobs while trying to figure out his next step, including stints he has recalled in interviews — among them shifts at a movie theater and other service positions — that he has cited as material for later comedic writing.

After high school, Hader briefly attended college in Oklahoma and then in Arizona, but he did not complete a degree. In his early twenties he relocated to Los Angeles with the intention of breaking into film, initially pursuing work behind the camera rather than as a performer. He took on assistant and production-assistant jobs in the film industry while gradually drifting toward comedy and improvisation.

Career

Early work and Second City

In Los Angeles, Hader worked as a production assistant on a variety of projects before pursuing improvisational comedy. He joined the Second City's Los Angeles troupe and performed with the sketch group Animals from the Future, which he has described as a key turning point in his development as a performer. During a performance with the group he was seen by the actress Megan Mullally, who recommended him to Saturday Night Live creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels. The recommendation led to an audition and, in 2005, to Hader being hired for the show's 31st season.

Saturday Night Live (2005–2013)

Hader joined the cast of Saturday Night Live as a featured player at the start of the 2005–06 season and was promoted to repertory status during his tenure. Over eight seasons he became known for a deep roster of impressions — including political figures, entertainers, and journalists — and for his ability to anchor sketches as straight-man and supporting characters.

His best-known recurring character was Stefon, a flamboyant nightlife correspondent who appeared on the "Weekend Update" segment. Stefon was co-written by Hader and the writer John Mulaney, and Hader's habit of laughing while reading new jokes off cue cards — often inserted by Mulaney without warning at the dress rehearsal — became part of the character's appeal. Hader has cited the character as one of the most enjoyable and most stressful elements of his SNL tenure, noting that he found the live broadcast environment increasingly difficult and suffered from anxiety throughout his run.

During his time on the show, Hader received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He left the program at the end of its 38th season in May 2013.

Film roles

Concurrent with his SNL tenure, Hader began taking supporting roles in feature films. He appeared in the comedy Hot Rod (2007) and had a supporting role in Greg Mottola's Superbad (2007), playing a police officer alongside Seth Rogen. Further supporting parts followed in Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008) and Mottola's Adventureland (2009), expanding Hader's profile as a comedic character actor.

He also began voice work for animated features. He voiced the inventor protagonist Flint Lockwood in Sony Pictures Animation's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009), reprising the role in its 2013 sequel. He has provided voices in Pixar's Monsters University (2013), Inside Out (2015), Finding Dory (2016), Toy Story 4 (2019), and Lightyear (2022), as well as in The Angry Birds Movie (2016) and its sequel and Sausage Party (2016).

After leaving SNL, Hader pursued more dramatic film work. He starred opposite Kristen Wiig in Craig Johnson's The Skeleton Twins (2014), playing a depressed gay actor reconciling with his estranged sister. The film and Hader's performance drew positive reviews and were widely cited as evidence of his range beyond sketch comedy. In 2015 he took the male lead in Judd Apatow's Trainwreck, opposite Amy Schumer, playing a sports-medicine doctor. He had a supporting role in Steven Spielberg's The BFG (2016) and later played the adult Richie Tozier in the horror sequel It Chapter Two (2019).

In 2026 it was announced that Linda Cardellini had joined the cast of They Know, a horror film starring Hader and produced by MRC.

Documentary Now!

In 2015, Hader co-created the IFC mockumentary series Documentary Now! with fellow SNL alumni Fred Armisen and Seth Meyers, along with Rhys Thomas. Each episode parodies the style of a different landmark documentary or nonfiction film. Hader served as an executive producer and recurring performer on the series, which ran across multiple seasons through 2022.

Barry

In 2018, HBO premiered Barry, a half-hour dark comedy co-created by Hader and Alec Berg. Hader played the title role of Barry Berkman, a Midwestern hitman who discovers an interest in acting after stumbling into a Los Angeles theater class. In addition to starring, Hader served as co-showrunner, writer, and director on the series, taking on increasing directorial responsibility over its four seasons, which concluded in 2023.

The series earned Hader two consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, in 2018 and 2019, and brought him further nominations as a writer and director on the show. Hader has discussed in interviews how the role and the experience of running Barry marked a deliberate move toward more dramatic, character-driven work and away from the broad sketch performance with which he had begun his career.

Other television

Hader has appeared in numerous television guest roles, including a recurring role on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2022. He has also been a frequent guest on late-night programs.

Writing and influences

Hader has spoken and written extensively about his admiration for filmmakers and writers across genres. In a 2014 interview tied to Mike Sacks's book Poking a Dead Frog, he discussed his approach to comedy writing, the craft of joke construction, and his interest in directors of horror and arthouse cinema. He has cited filmmakers including Scorsese and a wide range of horror directors as influences, and his interest in genre filmmaking has informed both Barry and his subsequent project They Know.

Personal Life

Hader married writer and director Maggie Carey in 2006; the couple had three daughters before announcing their divorce, which was finalized in the years following Hader's departure from Saturday Night Live. He later had a relationship with the actress Rachel Bilson and subsequently with the comedian Ali Wong; People magazine reported in early 2026 that Hader and Wong had separated amicably, with reporting citing the demands of their respective schedules as a contributing factor.

In interviews Hader has spoken openly about experiencing severe anxiety throughout his time on Saturday Night Live, describing the live broadcast format as a continuing source of stress and citing it as one reason he eventually left the program. He has said the experience informed the way he approached production on Barry, where he sought greater control over the working environment.

Recognition

Hader received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series during his tenure on Saturday Night Live, and the show received a Peabody Award during his time as a cast member. For his work on Barry, he received eight Emmy nominations across the categories of acting, writing, and directing, winning consecutive awards for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2018 and 2019.

His film work has also drawn critical attention. The Skeleton Twins was widely noted in 2014 as a showcase for his dramatic capabilities, and reviewers credited the film with broadening industry perceptions of his range. His voice work for Pixar and Sony Pictures Animation has appeared in films that have grossed substantial sums at the international box office, including the Inside Out franchise and the Toy Story series.

In 2022 Hader received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his work on Curb Your Enthusiasm. He has been profiled in publications including Rolling Stone, Esquire, Interview, The New York Times, and Observer, and has appeared in extended career retrospectives on outlets such as Grantland and Indiewire.

Legacy

Hader's career trajectory — from sketch performer and impressionist to writer, director, and dramatic lead — has been cited as a model for other comedians seeking to expand into prestige television and feature filmmaking. In 2026, Stephen Colbert publicly identified Hader's post-SNL transition into showrunning as an influence on his own planned career move following the end of The Late Show.

Within the history of Saturday Night Live, the Stefon character — co-written with John Mulaney — has been regularly included in retrospective lists of the program's most memorable recurring sketches, and Hader's impressions have been the subject of curated playlists by NBC's own retrospective coverage of the program. His directorial work on Barry, which included extended single-take action sequences in later seasons, has been discussed by critics as part of a broader shift in half-hour cable and streaming comedy toward more cinematic and structurally ambitious storytelling.

Hader's voice performances for Pixar and other animation studios have introduced his work to younger audiences who may not have encountered his live-action roles, and the sustained presence of his characters across Inside Out, Finding Dory, Toy Story 4, and Lightyear has made him a recurring contributor to one of the dominant animation slates of the 2010s and 2020s.