Larry David

Comedian

Larry David is the creator and star of the cable television comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm. A former stand-up comedian from New York, he struggled through the 1970s and '80s, working occasionally in television (including a two-year stint on the ABC sketch series Fridays, 1980-82). With fellow comedian Jerry Seinfeld he developed the sitcom Seinfeld (1990-98), and for seven seasons he worked as head writer and executive producer. The success of Seinfeld led to an HBO special for David in 1999, which was then turned into the series Curb Your Enthusiasm the next year. In the show David plays Larry David, a successful sitcom producer. Shot in a "mockumentary" style and reliant on improvisation, Curb Your Enthusiasm depicts David as a graceless sourpuss, a characterization he claims is an improvement on his real self.

Extra credit: The Seinfeld character George Costanza, played by Jason Alexander, is said to be inspired by David... David was married to producer Laurie David (neé Lennard) from 1993 to 2007 (she produced the 2006 Al Gore movie An Inconvenient Truth)... Joining David on ABC's Fridays in the early '80s was Michael Richards, who went on to co-star in Seinfeld... David worked as a writer for Saturday Night Live in 1983, where he met future Seinfeld co-star Julia Louis-Dreyfus.