Zach Galifianakis
His cousin Nicholas Galifianakis is a newspaper cartoonist, and his uncle Nick Galifianakis is a former Democratic U.S. Congressman who also lost a race for an open Senate seat in 1972 against Jesse Helms, launching Helms's career in the Senate.
He was raised Greek Orthodox, but now says he "isn't sure" on the subject of religion. He attended North Carolina State University, pursuing a degree in Communication and Film. He failed a course before graduation and left for New York City in 1992.
His original goal was to pursue acting, although he eventually became a stand-up comic.
Career
Galifianakis got his start on television in 1996, when he played the recurring role of a stoner named Bobby in the short-lived sitcom Boston Common. He has had small roles in Corky Romano, Below, Bubble Boy and Heartbreakers, and has parts in Into the Wild.
He has several films coming out in 2008: G-Force, What Happens in Vegas, Visioneers, Little Fish Strange Pond and The Largo Movie.
Zach performed in episode 15 of season 5 of Comedy Central Presents, first aired 17 September 2001, including a stand-up jokes, a segment with a piano, and concluding with an a cappella group (The Night Owls, introduced as his "12 ex-girlfriends") singing Eternal Flame by The Bangles while he made jokes with flip-charts and pranced around in tights. His next television role was as a coroner named Davis in the FOX drama Tru Calling, which lasted from 2003 to 2005.
He has also appeared many times on Jimmy Kimmel Live and has made three appearances on Reno 911! as "Frisbee".
Galifianakis starred as Alan Finger on the Comedy Central show Dog Bites Man, a fake news program that caught people during candid moments as they acted under the impression that they are being interviewed by a real news crew. He also had a recurring guest role as a doctor on the animated Adult Swim show Tom Goes to the Mayor and appeared in its "follow up" show Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! in the "Gravy Robbers" sketches as Tairy Greene, a deranged gravy-robber mentor, who later appears to be an actor, playing "The Snuggler" in the episode "Forest".
In 2006, Galifianakis was featured in Fiona Apple's music video for the song "Not About Love".
In the video, he is seen lip-synching the lyrics to the song. More recently, Galifianakis performed on a tour called the "Comedians of Comedy" with Brian Posehn, Patton Oswalt, and Maria Bamford.
He will be in the upcoming films G-Force (film) and the dark comedy Visioneers.
In 2008, Zach appeared in a web video series of advertisements for Absolut vodka, along with Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim, playing a character with anger management issues.
.