American actor David Lawrence Schwimmer was born 56 years ago in New York city, is divorced and has a daughter. He is also a comedian, producer and director.
At the age of 10, David acted for the very first time in a ‘Cinderella’ play and 3 years later, attended a ‘Shakespeare’ workshop. He also participated in a ‘Shakespeare’ festival for 3 consecutive years and won first prize twice.
In high school, he excelled in maths and science and was thinking of becoming a doctor. David took drama classes and also attended a summer acting programme, after being encouraged by his drama teacher. After graduating, he went to university and studied theatre and succeeded in obtaining a theatre and speech degree. David also created a non-profit theatrical company.
David had his first acting role in the film for TV ‘A Deadly Silence’ and subsequently starred in TV sitcoms like ‘The Wonder Years’ and ‘Monty’. But it was in 1994 that David made a career breakthrough, after he was offered the role of Ross Geller in the much-loved sitcom ‘Friends’, which ran for almost 10 years until 2004.
During those 10 years of acting in ‘Friends’, David starred in several films namely ‘The Pallbearer’, ‘Kissing a Fool’, ‘Six Days, Seven Nights’ and ‘Picking up the Pieces’, amongst others. After the popular sitcom ended, Schwimmer performed in several stage productions as well as voiced a character in the animated film ‘Madagascar’.
Then in 2007, David made his debut as a director of the movie ‘Run fatboy Run’. In the years that followed, he directed theatrical productions, acted in TV series or films and again voiced the same character in the 2 sequels of ‘Madagascar’.
David is also an active philanthropist and supports a centre which helps victims of child abuse and violence against children.
During his career, Schwimmer starred in around 60 productions, spread amongst movies, theatrical performances and TV programmes, as well as directed about 15. He also won a Screen Actors Guild Award in 1996 for his role in ‘Friends’.