Jay Chandrasekhar

Jayanth Jambulingam Chandrasekhar (born April 9, 1968) is an American comedian, film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is best known for his work with the sketch comedy group Broken Lizard and for directing and starring in the Broken Lizard films Super Troopers, Club Dread, Beerfest and Super Troopers 2. Since 2001 he has also worked frequently as a television director, directing many episodes of Community and The Goldbergs, among dozens of other comedy series.[1] He has also occasionally worked as a film director outside of Broken Lizard projects, most notably on the 2005 film The Dukes of Hazzard.

Jay Chandrasekhar
Born
Jayanth Jambulingam Chandrasekhar

(1968-04-09) April 9, 1968
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationLake Forest Academy
Alma materColgate University
Loyola University (withdrew)
OccupationActor, comedian, writer, director
Years active1996–present
Known forBroken Lizard
Spouse(s)
Susan Clarke
​
(m. 2005)​
RelativesSendhil Ramamurthy (cousin)
Websitejay-chandrasekhar.com

Early life and education

Chandrasekhar was born in Chicago to parents who lived in the adjacent suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. Both his father, Arcot Jambulingam "AJ" Chandrasekhar,[2] and his mother, Hema Chandrasekhar,[3][4] are physicians of Tamil origin and are originally from Chennai, India.[5] The hospital where he was born, old Cook County Hospital, was where his parents worked.[4] Chandrasekhar has an older sister as well as a younger sister named Sandy Chandrasekhar, who are both lawyers.[6]

Chandrasekhar lived in Oak Park until his family moved farther west from Chicago to the suburb of Hinsdale. He graduated from the boarding high school Lake Forest Academy.[4] He graduated from Colgate University with a major in European history and a minor in philosophy.[4] During college he spent a semester at Chicago's Loyola University.[4]

Career

Broken Lizard comedy troupe

Chandrasekhar formed the troupe Broken Lizard with other former members of the comedy troupe, Charred Goosebeak, and Beta Theta Pi, people he met during college at Colgate University.[1] Chandrasekhar said he found his path to comedy after acting in high school and college. He did some open mic standup comedy work in Chicago and founded a sketch group called "Charred Goose Beak" at college. After moving to New York, the group was renamed Broken Lizard.[1]

Chandrasekhar began making shorts featuring the troupe, then made the self-funded movie Puddle Cruiser in 1996.[7] The film made it into the Sundance Film Festival in 1997.[8] Then in 2001, they made Super Troopers as an independent movie, which Harvey Weinstein helped to develop at Miramax Films, but did not end up distributing.[9]

Directing

In 2005, Chandrasekhar directed The Dukes of Hazzard.[10] The action comedy film based on the 1970s American television series of the same name was the debut of pop singer Jessica Simpson as an actress. While financially successful, the film was met with negative reviews from critics. He has become an established television comedy director, directing episodes of Undeclared, Happy Endings, Chuck, Community, Psych and Arrested Development.[1] He says that the earlier a director joins a show, the more impact he or she will have on its look and feel.[1]

In 2012, Chandrasekhar made the movie The Babymakers.[11] He directed several episodes of Blue Mountain State. Amazon released a pilot in the 2014 Amazon Original Series that he wrote and directed called Really.[12]

Between 2014 and 2018, he directed 16 episodes of The Goldbergs.

In June 2018, the filmmaker revealed that he is in discussions with Marvel Studios to direct one of their upcoming movies.[13]

Acting

Chandrasekhar guest starred alongside his cousin Sendhil Ramamurthy in a 2009 episode of Psych[14] which Chandrasekhar also directed. He appeared as the cab driver in the "Terror Taxi" skit from Jackass: Number Two. He appeared as racist comedian Gupta Gupti Gupta in the episode "Basic Email Security" of Community.

Stand-up

Chandrasekhar often does stand-up comedy, sometimes touring with fellow Broken Lizard friends, Steve Lemme and Kevin Heffernan.[15] His stand-up is a mix of jokes and stories, which are usually pretty dirty.

Personal life

Chandrasekhar has been married to actress Susan Clarke since 2005.[16] They have three children, an older son and twin daughters. Chandrasekhar's middle name, Jambulingam, is in honor of his grandfather, and is also his son Will's middle name.[5] During an interview with Stephen Colbert in 2017, Chandrasekhar stated that the name Jambulingam translates literally in English as "as a euphemism for power" in reference to the Hindu deity Shiva.[17]

Chandrasekhar's cousin is the actor Sendhil Ramamurthy, who played the role of Mohinder Suresh in the NBC superpower drama Heroes and also appeared in the Broken Lizard film The Slammin' Salmon.

Filmography

Films

Television (as director)
  • 2001–2002: Undeclared – "Hal and Hillary", "Hell Week" "Rush and Pledge"
  • 2003: Andy Richter Controls the Universe – "Saturday Early Evening Fever"
  • 2004: Oliver Beene – "Kissing Babies"
  • 2004: Cracking Up – "Grudge Match"
  • 2003–2004: Arrested Development – "Justice is Blind", "Altar Egos", "Beef Consommé, "My Mother The Car"
  • 2007: Human Giant – "Ta Da", "Lil 9-11", "Let's Go"
  • 2006–2007: The Loop – "The Dutch", "CSI: Donut Idol Bowl", "The Rusty Trombone", "The Tiger Express"
  • 2008: Lipstick Jungle – "Chapter 4: Bombay Highway", "Chapter 17: Bye, Bye Baby"
  • 2008–2009: Knight Rider – 2008 TV series; "Knight of the Hunter", "Fly by Knight"
  • 2010–2011: Blue Mountain State – "Superstition", "The Peak", "Riot", "Drunk Tank", "Marathon Monday"
  • 2008–2012: Psych – "Let's Doo-Wop It Again", "Chivalry Is Not Dead... But Someone Is", "Bollywood Homicide", "The Greatest Adventure in the History of Basic Cable"
  • 2008–2012: Chuck – "Chuck Versus the Ex", "Chuck Versus the Suburbs", "Chuck Versus the Living Dead", "Chuck Versus the Balcony", "Chuck Versus Sarah"
  • 2009–2012: Royal Pains – "The Hankover", "A Guest House Divided", "Hank and the Deep Blue Sea", "Am I Blue?"
  • 2010–2015: Community – "Mixology Certification", "Intro to Political Science", "Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts", "The First Chang Dynasty", "Advanced Documentary Filmmaking", "Introduction to Teaching", "Basic Story", "Basic Email Security", "Basic RV Repair and Palmistry"
  • 2011–2012: Happy Endings – "The Girl with the David Tattoo", "Meet the Parrots", "You Snooze, You Bruise", "More Like Stanksgiving"
  • 2011–2012: Up All Night – "First Night Away", "Baby Fever"
  • 2012: Warehouse 13 – "No Pain, No Gain"
  • 2012: Animal Practice – "Dr. Yamamazing"
  • 2012: Ben & Kate – "Career Day"
  • 2014: Really – also wrote and produced
  • 2014–2018: New Girl – "Sister III", "The Crawl", "Jeff Day", "Mario", "The Cubicle"
  • 2014–2019: The Goldbergs – 20 episodes
  • 2015–2016: The Grinder – "The Curious Disappearance of Mr. Donovan", "A System on Trial" "Full Circle"
  • 2016: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – "When Will Josh See How Cool I Am?”
  • 2017–2019: Fresh Off the Boat – "A League of Her Own", "Workin’ the Ween", "TMI: Too Much Integrity"
  • 2018: The Mayor – "The Lockdown"
  • 2018: Instinct – "Long Shot"
  • 2018: Us & Them – "Corn & Cancer"
  • 2019: Lethal Weapon – "Dial M for Murtaugh"
  • 2019: Single Parents – "That Elusive Zazz"
  • 2019-2020: Schooled – "Tamagotchis and Bells", "CB Likes Lainey", "The Rudy-ing of Toby Murphy", "FeMellor"
  • 2019: Good Trouble – "In The Middle"

Television (as actor)

References
  1. Rozeman, Mark (May 14, 2013). "Catching Up with Jay Chandrasekhar". Paste. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  2. "Arcot Jamulingam Chandrasekhar – Illinois, Northern District (Eastern Division), Naturalization Index, 1926–1979". FamilySearch. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  3. "Hema Varadan Chandrasekhar – Illinois, Northern District (Eastern Division), Naturalization Index, 1926–1979". FamilySearch. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  4. Sotonoff, Jamie; Gire, Dann (August 7, 2012). "Hinsdale's Jay Chandrasekhar: A Broken Lizard makes good – Chandrasekhar's suburban upbringing serves him well in Hollywood, he says". Daily Herald. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  5. Pais, Arthur J. (August 5, 2005). "Jay Chandrasekhar is big!". Rediff. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  6. "Sandhya P. Chandrasekhar". Latham & Watkins. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  7. Kelly, Brendan (October 27, 1996). "Review: 'Puddle Cruiser'". Variety. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  8. "Puddle Cruiser". Sundance Film Festival. 1997. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  9. Neumyer, Scott (April 18, 2014). "Altered State Police: An Oral History of 'Super Troopers'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  10. "IGN Interviews Jay Chandrasekhar". IGN. August 3, 2005. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  11. Chandrasekhar, Jay (August 2, 2012). "Things Have Changed Since Super Troopers". HuffPost. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  12. "Really 1 Season 2014". Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  13. "Super Troopers Director Met With Marvel About An MCU Movie". June 5, 2018. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
  14. Psych (Season 4, Episode 6: Bollywood Homicide) [first aired September 18, 2009]
  15. Greenberg, Ruth (August 28, 2014). "'Super Troopers' star Jay Chandrasekhar slings jokes at the Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  16. "The Jay Chandrasekhar File". Chai Time. January 2011. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  17. "Jay Chandrasekhar Hung Out (Carefully) With Willie Nelson". Retrieved April 3, 2017 – via YouTube.
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