Bob Odenkirk

Odenkirk was hired as a writer at Saturday Night Live in 1987 and worked there through 1991. Working alongside Robert Smigel and Conan O'Brien, he contributed to many sketches they created, but felt uncertain of the efficacy of his own writing at the show.[12]

He acted in several small roles on the show, most visibly during a 1990 parody commercial for Bad Idea Jeans.[13]

During his final year at SNL, he worked alongside Adam Sandler, David Spade, Chris Rock and Chris Farley, but eventually he decided to leave the show in order to pursue performing.[12] He has credited SNL with teaching him many lessons about sketch writing, from senior writers like Jim Downey and Al Franken, as well as his friends Smigel and O'Brien.[11]

When SNL took its 1988 summer break, Odenkirk returned to Chicago to perform a stage show with Smigel and O'Brien, titled Happy Happy Good Show. The following summer he did a one-man show, Show-Acting Guy, directed by Tom Gianas. During his final summer hiatus, he wrote and acted in the Second City Mainstage show, Flag Burning Permitted in Lobby Only. In that particular show, he wrote the character "Matt Foley, Motivational Speaker", for Chris Farley, which would later be reprised on SNL.[11]

In 1991, Odenkirk was hired to write for the TV show Get a Life, which starred Late Night with David Letterman alumnus Chris Elliott.[14] He wrote for The Dennis Miller Show.[15]

Odenkirk's friendship with Ben Stiller, with whom he briefly shared an office at SNL, would lead to his being hired for the cast of The Ben Stiller Show in 1992. Working as both a writer and actor on the show, he created and starred in the memorable sketch "Manson Lassie", and helped the show win an Emmy Award for writing. However, the show had already been canceled by the time it won the award.[1] Odenkirk served as a writer on Late Night with Conan O'Brien for the show's 1993 and 1994 seasons.[16]

Odenkirk met David Cross at Ben Stiller; shortly afterward, the pair began performing live sketch shows, which eventually evolved into Mr. Show with Bob and David.[16] In 1993, Odenkirk began a recurring role on The Larry Sanders Show as Larry Sanders' agent, Stevie Grant. He would continue the character through 1998.[16] Also in 1993, he had brief acting roles on Roseanne[17] and Tom Arnold's The Jackie Thomas Show.[18]

Created by Odenkirk and David Cross, Mr. Show ran on HBO for four seasons. The series featured a number of comedians in the early stages of their careers, including Sarah Silverman, Paul F. Tompkins, Jack Black, Tom Kenny, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Brian Posehn and Scott Aukerman. While nominated for multiple Emmy awards in writing and generally well liked by critics, it never broke out of a "cult" audience into larger mainstream acceptance due to being a premium cable show. After Mr. Show, Bob and David and the writers from the staff wrote the movie Run, Ronnie, Run. The film was an extension of a sketch from the first season of the show. However, the studio took production control away from Cross and Odenkirk during the editing stages, and the pair disowned the final product.

Odenkirk holding a producer credit for The 1 Second Film in January 2005

Odenkirk starred in numerous television shows and some films. He has written and produced many TV pilots, including The Big Wide World of Carl Laemke and David's Situation, but none have made it to air or been picked up as a series.[19]

In 2004, Odenkirk received an unsolicited package including the work of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim. Inspired by their unique voice, he connected with them and helped them develop a semi-animated show for Adult Swim called Tom Goes to the Mayor. He assisted Tim and Eric with the development of their second series, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job. He had a number of small featuring roles on TV shows, including Everybody Loves Raymond, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, Seinfeld, NewsRadio, Just Shoot Me!, Joey, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Arrested Development, Entourage, Weeds, and How I Met Your Mother.[16]

Odenkirk was considered for the role of Michael Scott in the pilot of The Office, a role that ultimately went to Steve Carell.[20] Odenkirk finally guested in the final season of The Office as a Philadelphia manager strongly reminiscent of Michael Scott.[21]

In 2009, Odenkirk joined the cast of AMC's Breaking Bad as corrupt lawyer Saul Goodman. Writer Peter Gould as well as several others had been quickly drawn to Odenkirk for this role based on his Mr. Show performances. The Goodman role was only intended to only cover a three-episode guest spot in the second season, but Odenkirk's performance led Gould and Vince Gilligan to extending the character as an ongoing role. Odenkirk became a series regular as Goodman for the show's third through fifth and final season.[22]

In 2011, Odenkirk wrote and developed Let's Do This! for Adult Swim, starring as Cal Mackenzie-Goldberg a "two-bit movie mogul and head of Cal-Gold Pictures as he leads a collection of crazy, fame-hungry strivers chasing Hollywood dreams". The pilot can be seen on Adult Swim's website.[23]

Odenkirk executive produced the sketch comedy show The Birthday Boys which starred the comedy group of the same name. Odenkirk also appeared in and directed a number of the sketches on the show as well.[24] It premiered on IFC on October 18, 2013. In 2014, Odenkirk played Police Chief Bill Oswalt in FX's miniseries Fargo.

In fall of 2014, Odenkirk played Dr. Stork, a podiatrist who specializes in cutting off people's toes, in Adult Swim's anthology series Tim & Eric's Bedtime Stories.[25]

Odenkirk currently stars in the title role of Better Call Saul, a Breaking Bad spinoff. Primarily set in 2002, six years before the character's debut in Breaking Bad, the series follows lawyer Saul Goodman's journey from court-appointed defense attorney origins to his eventual status as a successful, though unscrupulous, criminal defense lawyer. He is also credited as a producer for the series.[26]

The first season consists of 10, 47 minute-long episodes, with a second and third season of 10 episodes following in early 2016 and 2017 respectively.[27] The fourth season is available on Netflix as of February 9, 2020, and the fifth season premiered on AMC on February 23, 2020. The show will have a final sixth season, which started production in February 2020 but has been delayed due to COVID-19, it is expected to air mid 2021.

Odenkirk has been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for four of the series' five seasons.

In April 2020, with the end of Better Call Saul in sight, Odenkirk established his own production company Cal-Gold Pictures and signed a first-look deal with Sony Pictures Television. Odenkirk, with Cal-Gold, plans to develop stories that are unique with dynamic characters and social relevance. Former Comedy Central vice president Ian Friedman will serve as Cal-Gold's head of television.[28]

It was reported in April 2015 that Odenkirk was teaming with former co-star David Cross to produce a new sketch comedy series based on their previous production, Mr. Show, called W/ Bob and David. The series was commissioned by Netflix with the first season having been released in November 2015, featuring four, 30 minute-long episodes along with an hour-long behind the scenes special. Odenkirk and Cross both write, star in and produce the show.[29]

Odenkirk has expressed interest in doing more seasons.[30]

Odenkirk co-wrote, produced and starred in Girlfriend's Day, a Netflix original film. This film noir comedy about a greeting card writer was directed by Michael Stephenson and influenced by Chinatown. It was a movie Odenkirk had wanted to make for 16 years, after Mr. Show writer Eric Hoffman sent him the original script and they began developing it.[30]

Odenkirk's first roles were very minor parts in films such as Wayne's World 2, The Cable Guy, Can't Stop Dancing and Monkeybone. In 2003, Odenkirk directed Melvin Goes to Dinner and played the role of Keith. The film received positive reviews from critics and won the Audience Award at the SXSW Film and Music Festival. It was later self-released in five cities, then distributed on DVD by Sundance.

In 2006, Odenkirk directed Let's Go to Prison, which was written by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, and starred Will Arnett, Dax Shepard and Chi McBride. The film received a 12% "All Critics" score from the website Rotten Tomatoes[31] and had a total box office gross of a little more than US$4.6 million.[32] The following year Odenkirk directed The Brothers Solomon, written by Will Forte and starring Forte, Will Arnett and Kristen Wiig. The film received a 15% "All Critics" score from Rotten Tomatoes[33] and had a total box office gross of approximately $1 million.[34]

After starring in Breaking Bad, Odenkirk began to have more prominent roles in critically successful films, such as Little Women, The Post, The Disaster Artist, The Spectacular Now, which received the Special Jury Award for Acting at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, and the Alexander Payne-directed Nebraska, which was nominated for a Palme d'Or at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.[35][36]