Seinfeld Bios
JASON ALEXANDER AS GEORGE COSTANZA
For Jason Alexander, nine seasons as hapless schlep George Costanza on the blockbuster hit comedy Seinfeld crown a 25-plus-year career on stage, screen and television. While George could be – at turns -- pitiful, nasty, charming, devious and unscrupulous, the critics and audiences loved him. Alexander's portrayal was honored with six Emmy Award nominations and four Golden Globe nominations, an American Television Award, two American Comedy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
This fall, Alexander re-visits his stage training in a heralded return, taking on the role of the ever-scheming Max Bialystock in the Los Angeles production of “The Producers.” Recently, he also starred in the feature film “Shallow Hal” with Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow and directed the coming-of-age feature “Just Looking” with Gretchen Mol.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Alexander won his first professional job at 16 when, spotted in a children's theater group, he was invited to perform on a local New York children's show. Two years later, he landed his first film, “The Burning,” while studying acting at Boston University. Since then, Alexander's diverse slate of film credits include portraying Richard Gere's villainous attorney in the box-office hit “Pretty Woman,” as well as “The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle,” “North,” “Brighton Beach Memoirs,” “Mosquito Coast,” “The Paper,” “Jacob's Ladder,” “White Palace,” “Coneheads,” “Blankman,” “Love! Valour! Compassion!,” “I Don't Buy Kisses Anymore,” “Dunston Checks In” and the Academy Award®-nominated live-action short “Down on the Waterfront.”
He made his Broadway debut in the Hal Prince/Stephen Sondheim musical “Merrily We Roll Along,” and later starred in “Accomplice,” Neil Simon's “Broadway Bound,” “Promises, Promises,” and “The Rink,” with Liza Minnelli. In 1989, his work in “Jerome Robbins' Broadway” won him Tony, Outer Critics and Drama Desk Awards. For his performance in the Los Angeles production of the one-man play “Give ‘Em Hell, Harry,” he received a Drama-Logue Award.
Alexander's other television work includes guest starring on the hit HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Dream On,” for which he was nominated for an Emmy; regular roles on the series “Bob Patterson” and “Everything's Relative”; the mini-series “Favorite Son”; and the made-for-television musicals “Bye, Bye Birdie,” with Vanessa Williams, and Rodgers and Hammerstein's “Cinderella,” with Whitney Houston and Brandy.
He has also often been heard as a frequent contributor to several animated features and television series. For four seasons, he starred in the prime-time animated series “Duckman” and has been featured in such Disney movies, videos and animated series as “Aladdin,” “The Return of Jafar,” “Hercules,” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
Behind the camera, Alexander was nominated for a DGA award for an episode of “Seinfeld” he helmed. His other directing efforts include the romantic comedy “For Better or Worse” and AMC's acclaimed radio station-set series “Remember WENN.”
