Andy Samberg life and biography

David Andrew "Andy" Samberg is an American actor, comedian, rapper and writer best known as a member of the comedy group The Lonely Island and as a cast member on Saturday Night Live. On Saturday Night Live, he and The Lonely Island have been credited with popularizing the Emmy-winning SNL Digital Shorts, the comical short films and music videos starring Samberg and other members of the SNL cast.

As a film actor, Samberg has appeared in Hot Rod, Space Chimps, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, I Love You, Man and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

Born August 18, 1978, in Berkeley, California. Andy Samberg grew up in a middle-class Jewish household with his father, photographer Joe Samberg, and his mother, elementary school teacher Margi Samberg. Andy Samberg attended Willard Junior High School in Berkeley, where he met his two best friends, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer. Together they invented and performed off-the-wall comedy sketches to entertain their friends and classmates. According to Schaffer, there was a practical motive behind their middle school antics. "There was some value in being funny," he says. "It's good for not getting beat up."

The trio continued on to Berkeley High School, but upon graduating in 1996 they went their separate ways for college. Samberg initially followed Schaffer to the University of California at Santa Cruz, but after one year he transferred to New York University to study film. The laid-back northern California native says he initially found life in the Big Apple rather shocking. Samberg lived with three friends in a cramped, rodent-infested two-bedroom apartment. "There were rats and mice everywhere," he recalls. "I grew up in the Bay Area, so I'm fairly 'at one' with nature, but this was different. California nature is lovely. New York nature is disgusting. At first, I was really grossed out by it." Nevertheless, Samberg stuck it out in Manhattan, graduating from NYU with a BFA in film in 2000.

In 2001, after all three had graduated from college, Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone reunited in Los Angeles. Schaffer recalls, "After college we reconvened, moved to L.A. and lived in an apartment. And any dudes who live in an apartment will usually give it a name—ours was called 'The Lonely Island.'" The roommates soon formed a three-man comedy troupe named "The Lonely Island" after their apartment. With nothing more than a video camera, the trio began filming brief comedy sketches—which they called "digital shorts"—and posting them on the Internet. Taccone recalls, "We were putting up our stuff on [the Internet] when we didn't have jobs ... we were just using our [digital] shorts as an excuse to not work."

Their hilarious digital shorts, including underground hits such as "White Power," "Regarding Andy," and "Awesometown," soon gained notoriety on the Internet, and in 2005 the trio were invited to write for the MTV Movie Awards. The host that year was Jimmy Fallon, who was so impressed by the three writers that he decided to introduce them to Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels. Michaels recalls, "Jimmy Fallon was hosting, and we were talking, and he said, 'There are these guys writing on the [awards show] who are very funny. They're the first ones in and last to leave. I think they're really original.'" Michaels offered all three of them an audition and decided to cast Samberg while bringing Taccone and Schaffer on as writers.

Since their 2005 debut, the Lonely Island's Digital Shorts, such as "Iran So Far Away," "Laser Cats" and "Lazy Sunday," have become a widely beloved feature on SNL. Samberg shot to nationwide fame in 2007 when he teamed up with Justin Timberlake to film the lewd but hilarious spoof music video, "D*** in a Box," which garnered a shocking Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music & Lyrics. "That's about as surprising as it gets," Samberg said before the awards show. "I can't tell if the process was more exciting—or the idea that someone's gonna have to do that engraving if we win."

Since then, Samberg has continued to achieve an astonishing level of mainstream success with his absurdist and sometimes vulgar brand of humor. He has been nominated for two further Emmy Awards (in 2009 for "Mother Lover" featuring Justin Timberlake and in 2010 for "Shy Ronnie" featuring Rihanna), and in 2010 Samberg's collaboration with R&B singer T-Pain, "I'm on a Boat," received an unlikely Grammy nomination for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. In addition to his work on SNL, Samberg also boasts blossoming film and music careers. In 2007, he starred in the movie Hot Rod, which co-starred Taccone and was directed by Schaffer, and in 2009, he starred opposite Paul Rudd in the popular comedy I Love You, Man. Also in 2009, The Lonely Island released its first album, Incredibad, which became the first comedy album ever to reach the No. 1 spot on iTunes.

Samburg is currently dating singer/songwriter Joanna Newsom.

Although Samberg's career as a comedian, actor and singer appears to be only just taking off, he says that he has already achieved his career goals. "If it never gets better than this, I'll be happy," Samberg says. "Making this movie with my buddies, and working on SNL, those were my dreams. Those two things are all I ever wanted out of my career, and now they've happened. So everything from this point on is icing." Asked in a recent interview whether he and The Lonely Island ever meant to take a break from comedy and record a more serious record, Samberg answered, "I hope not. None of us can sing anyway, and the worst thing that could happen is that we would try to do a serious rap album. So if I do, remind me that I said I wouldn't."

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