Jim Rash

Jim Rash
Rash in July 2013
Born	James Rash (1971-07-15) July 15, 1971 (age 50) Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.
Occupation	Actor comedian filmmaker
Years active	1995–present

James Rash (born July 15, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is widely known for his role as Dean Craig Pelton on the NBC sitcom Community (2009–2015), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2012. In that same year, he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and received a Golden Globe nomination as one of the writers of The Descendants.^[1]

Early life[]

Rash was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 15, 1971. Both he and his sister were adopted.^[2] He attended Charlotte Latin School.^[3] After graduating, he spent a post-graduate year at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey.^[3] He was a member of The Groundlings, the improv comedy group based in Los Angeles.

Career[]

Rash played Mr. Grayson/Stitches in the 2005 film Sky High, Fenton on That '70s Show,^[4] and Andrew the "whore house guy" on Reno 911! He appeared in the final episode of Friends, and played Head T.A. Philip in Slackers. From 2009 to 2015, Rash starred on Community as Craig Pelton, the dean of the community college in which the show takes place.

Rash and comedy partner Nat Faxon moved into screenwriting with a pilot in 2005 for a series entitled Adopted, which did not take off.^[2][5] They wrote the screenplay for The Descendants (2011), based on the novel of the same name, which appeared on the 2008 edition of the Black List (the most popular unproduced scripts in Hollywood at that time).^[6] The film was released to critical acclaim,^[1] receiving a Golden Globe nomination and winning the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. However, the final script for the "Descendants" was largely re-written by screenwriters and directors Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor. Payne would go on to direct the film. In an interview with "Vulture", Payne discussed an agreement between Payne/Taylor and Rash/Faxon. During the awards circuit for "The Descendants", Rash/Faxon would deliver the acceptance speeches for all of the awards except the Academy Award; the Academy Award speech would be handled by Payne/Taylor.

Rash and Faxon then co-wrote and co-directed the film The Way Way Back (2013), which received a standing ovation at its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.^[7] Parts of the film are based on Rash's teenage life.^[5]

Since 2017, he has been the official voice actor for Donald Duck universe character Gyro Gearloose in the reboot of DuckTales.

Filmography[]

Film[]

Television[]

Awards and nominations[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jim Rash.

• Jim Rash at IMDb