Zach Galifianakis: More than just a beard
Comedian Zach Galifianakis is best known as Alan, the guy with the beard from “The Hangover.” But before his performance as a satchel-toting, one-man wolf pack helped secure the summer 2009 blockbuster the 2010 Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture- Musical or Comedy and starred in a Kanye West music video, he hosted his own late-night show on VH1 in spring of 2002 and played a serious and socially awkward morgue attendant on a FOX series.The short-lived “Late World with Zach” featured typical late-night talk show elements like monologues set to piano and skits, including one in which he practices stand-up at a preschool sans beard. It aired for nine weeks and then he landed a role as Davis, a sidekick to his psychic morgue co-worker played by Eliza Dushku in “Tru Calling.”Recurring TV roles aside, Galifianakis has also played in several web comedic shorts like his “Between Two Ferns” on FunnyorDie.com, in which he ungraciously interviewers actors while they’re sitting in arm chairs on a stage between two ferns. Past guests include Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron, Jon Hamm and his “Hangover” co-star Bradley Cooper.Perhaps his best example of his raw comedic sit-downs with a piano are on “Zach Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion,” in which he jokes about the trouble he has finding a table for one at Chuck E. Cheese and acts as his high school football coach, fannypack-wearing, twangy southern twin brother in an interview with Brian Unger of NPR.As for current projects, a Todd Phillips film co-starring Robert Downey Jr. called “Due Date” is currently in post-production and set to release in November. Galifianakis plays an aspiring actor whom Downey tags along on a road trip with to make his child’s birth. He’s also set to reprise his role as Alan in “The Hangover 2″ and voice act as Humpty Dumpty in “Puss and Boots.”