Joel McHale

Joel Edward McHale (born November 20, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, producer, screenwriter and television host. He is best known for hosting The Soup (2004–2015) and his role as Jeff Winger on the NBC sitcom Community (2009–2015). He has performed in the films Spider-Man 2 (2004), Open Season 2 (2008), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Ted (2012) and The Happytime Murders (2018). He also starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom The Great Indoors (2016–2017), hosted a reboot of Card Sharks (2019–2021), and portrays the superhero Sylvester Pemberton / Starman on the show Stargirl (2020–present). In 2020, he hosted a special aftershow interviewing key subjects from the Netflix documentary series Tiger King. McHale voiced Johnny Cage in the direct-to-video martial arts film Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge (2020), a role he reprised in the sequel Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms (2021). He also voices X-PO in Lego Dimensions (2015–2017) and The Scientist in Fortnite (2021–present).

McHale was born in Rome on November 20, 1971,[1][2] the son of Jack McHale, who worked as the Dean of Students at Loyola University’s Rome Center, and his wife Laurie. His father is American and is from Chicago, while his mother is Canadian and a native of Vancouver.[3] McHale is of Irish and Norwegian descent,[4] and was raised Catholic. He grew up on Mercer Island, Washington, and briefly lived in Haddonfield, New Jersey, before returning to Mercer Island.[5] He attended Mercer Island High School.[6] He received a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Washington in 1995, and was briefly in the Theta Chi fraternity but left it because he “couldn’t stand it.