He began his career with director and producer Judd Apatow on the television series Freaks and Geeks β and Undeclared β before gaining prominence for his leading roles in various successful comedy films in which he has starred, written, and produced.
Segel's father is Jewish , [ 8 ] [ 9 ] [ 10 ] whereas his mother is of English, Scottish, Irish, and French descent. Matthew's Parish School , a private Episcopal school. Following elementary school and middle school, Segel completed his high school studies at Harvard-Westlake School , where his 6 ft 4 in 1. Segel's first major role was as stoner "freak" Nick Andopolis on the critically acclaimed but short-lived NBC comedy-drama series Freaks and Geeks. The series revolved around a group of suburban Detroit high school students circa Segel personally composed a song for his character, Nick, to sing to the lead female character, Lindsay Linda Cardellini.
He played Marshall Eriksen on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother ; he had previously stated he would move on to other projects in when his contract expired, [ 21 ] but was convinced to finish the series after its ninth season in Segel made his film debut with Can't Hardly Wait in He also appeared in the most prominent scene containing full frontal nudity in the film.
Those cloth creatures were custom-made by the Jim Henson Company , and the experience emboldened Segel to pitch his concept for a Muppets movie. For the comedy Get Him to the Greek , Segel co-wrote most of the soundtrack's music which was performed by the fictional celebrity singer, Aldous Snow, including Infant Sorrow. He played gym teacher and thwarted suitor Russell Gettis.
Disney was unsure on how to take the request, as Segel had just appeared nude in Forgetting Sarah Marshall , but after realizing that he was a fan, the project was approved. Segel stated that he wanted to do the film because the last film in the series to be released in theaters was Muppets from Space in , and he felt that the younger generation was missing out on enjoying one of his childhood favorites. In , Segel revealed he was working on a series of young adult novels, based on a story he conceived when he was In , Segel received praise [ 36 ] [ 37 ] [ 38 ] for his portrayal of the late author David Foster Wallace in the independent biographical drama film The End of the Tour.
