Ty Burrell

Ty Burrell
Burrell in February 2014
Born	Tyler Gerald Burrell (1967-08-22) August 22, 1967 (age 54)[1] Grants Pass, Oregon, U.S.
Education	Hidden Valley High School
Alma mater	Southern Oregon University University of Oregon Pennsylvania State University (MFA)
Occupation	Actor, comedian
Years active	2000–present
Spouse(s)	Holly Burrell ​ (m. 2000)​
Children	2

Tyler Gerald Burrell (born August 22, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. He had several roles in Broadway shows, including Macbeth and the off-Broadway plays Corners, The Blue Demon, Burn This, and Show People. Burrell played Phil Dunphy on the ABC sitcom Modern Family, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2011 and 2014 (from 8 consecutive nominations) and five Screen Actors Guild Awards: one for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series in 2013 and four consecutive awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series shared with the cast from 2011 to 2014.

His first feature film role was in 2001's Evolution. He also appeared in Black Hawk Down, Dawn of the Dead, Muppets Most Wanted and Marvel's The Incredible Hulk as Doc Samson. He has since voiced characters in animated films Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Finding Dory and Storks. Burrell had starring roles on the television series Out of Practice and Back to You.

Early life[]

Burrell was born in Grants Pass, Oregon,^[1][2] the son of Sheri Rose (née Hauck), a teacher, and Gary Gerald Burrell (1940–1989), a family therapist.^[3][4][5][6] He is mostly of English and German descent. According to the television series Finding Your Roots, Burrell is also of African descent through his great-great-grandmother Susanna Weeks (the daughter of slaver Colonel Dudley Byron Mask and 13-year-old Penelope "Nellie" Ellender Mask), an enslaved girl from Tennessee who became a homesteader in Oregon. Burrell grew up in the small southern Oregon town of Applegate, near the California border.^[7][8]

He attended Hidden Valley High School^[1] in Grants Pass, where he played football and was a lineman for the Hidden Valley Mustangs. After graduating, he enrolled at Southern Oregon University in Ashland,^[8] and graduated with a bachelor's degree in theatre arts in 1993;^[7] he was the school's commencement speaker in 2008.^[9] While in college, he worked as a bartender at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.^[7]

During this time, Burrell attended the University of Oregon and became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity.^[10] He continued his education at Penn State University, where he earned an MFA and was a member of the Theatre 100 Company along with Keegan-Michael Key.^[7][11][12] In 1999, Burrell worked as a festival actor at the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

Burrell has also stated that for a period of time in graduate school, he lived out of his van to save money.^[13]

Film and television career[]

Burrell with Ariel Winter at the Australian premier of Mr. Peabody and Sherman

Burrell's first credited film roles were 2001's Evolution and Black Hawk Down. He subsequently appeared in the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, and in several stage roles (like 2000's Broadway production of Macbeth, and the off-Broadway plays Corners, The Blue Demon, Burn This, and Show People).

He was a co writer and actor in the original production of the offbeat comedy The Red Herring O' Happiness directed by Russell Dyball. Burrell's stage work also includes writing and working in the off Broadway play Babble with his brother, Duncan. He has also made an appearance as a New Jersey prosecutor in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

After that, Burrell was cast as Oliver Barnes, a shallow but well meaning plastic surgeon, on the CBS sitcom Out of Practice (2005–06), also created by screenwriter Christopher Lloyd. The show was canceled in May 2006, with eight episodes remaining unaired in the United States. After the show's cancellation, he played Allan Arbus in the film Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus.

In 2007, he had a small role in the film National Treasure: Book of Secrets as the curator of the White House followed by a starring role in the sitcom Back to You on Fox later that same year. On the show, created by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, Burrell played a field reporter (alongside Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton). The show was canceled in 2008.

In the 2008 Marvel film adaptation of the comic The Incredible Hulk, Burrell played Leonard Samson (without superpowers), who had a short relationship with Betty Ross.

He had a large role as realtor Phil Dunphy in the acclaimed ABC situation comedy Modern Family which is also created by Christopher Lloyd and Steve Levitan. For his performance, he received eight consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (2010–2017), winning the award twice in 2011 and 2014.^[14]

He also received nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series for his role, sharing the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series with his co stars. He was the recipient of the individual SAG award in 2014, defeating Alec Baldwin, who had previously won the award seven years in a row.^[15]

Burrell also appears as Phil in commercials for National Association of Realtors.^[16]

In November 2014, Burrell signed an overall deal with 20th Century Fox Television to develop his own comedy projects.^[17] In July 2020, his overall deal with 20th Century Fox continued with the establishment of his own production company, Desert Whale Productions.^[18]

His web series Boondoggle, loosely based on Burrell's own life, debuted in June 2016 on ABC.com and ABCd.^[19] He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series in July 2017.^[20]

Personal life[]

Burrell and his wife, Holly, married on August 18, 2000. They resided in New York City until moving to Salt Lake City^[21] in 2008.^[7] They still own a two-bedroom apartment in the Astoria, Queens neighborhood that they rent out.^[22] The couple have since relocated to Southern California for Burrell's work on Modern Family. In March 2010, Burrell said he and his wife had adopted a baby girl.^[23] Two years later, they adopted another girl.^[24]

Burrell is a self-described lifelong fan of the Oregon Ducks, Portland Trail Blazers, New York Mets and St. Louis Rams (now known as the Los Angeles Rams after their relocation to California).^[25]

Burrell owns The Eating Establishment, a restaurant in Park City, Utah, as well as two bars in Salt Lake City – Bar X and Beer Bar, located next to each other with interconnecting doors.^[26]

Philanthropy[]

When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down Salt Lake City's bars and restaurants in March 2020, Burrell and his wife used $100,000 of their own money to create "Tip Your Server," a crowd-sourced online fund to help out-of-work wait staff in Utah, which the Burrells continue to regard as their home.^[27]

Filmography[]

Film[]

Television[]

Awards and nominations[]

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ty Burrell.

• Ty Burrell at IMDb
• Ty Burrell at AllMovie
• Ty Burrell at Emmys.com