Everyone knows Mihcael Cera: Since first hitting the big time in 2003 with the role of George Michael Bluth in the award-winning television series Arrested Development he has been a house hold name with certain geeky associations.
But with his titular role in Scott Pilgrim Vs the World - the new film from British director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead) to be released in UK cinemas August 25th - we’ve been reassessing our opinions.
Surely this super-awesome super-hero can’t be the well known and loved geeky kid who played the indie romance figure in Juno and Superbad? So, in oder to save any confusion this is a quick look at Michael Cera’s vital statistics:
- Born in born on 7th June, 1988 in Ontario, Canada Michael is the son of Linda (a native Quebec-ian) and Luigi, a Sicilian technician. He has two siblings - an older and a younger sister.
- Michael’s first role was an unpaid appearance in a summer camp commerical for Canada’s answer to McDonald’s, which eventually led to a role in a Pillsbury commerical where Cera had the dubious honour of poking the Pillsbury Doughboy in the tummy.
- With a few TV roles under his belt, Michael’s first big film role came in 2002 making his debut alongside big Hollywood names such Sam Rockwell, George Clooney, Drew Barrymore and Julia Roberts when he played a young Chuck Barris (aged 8 and 11) in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
- A year later, in 2003, Michael was offered the role as George Michael Bluth in Arrested Development whose Award Winning humour and style put his feet firmly on the road the road to sucess.
- Not resting on his laurels Michael had a series of smaller and voice roles in a mixture of TV shows during his time on Arrested Development, and also starred in the award winning short film Darling Darling as Harold, for which he was awarded Best Actor at the San Gio Festival in Verona, Italy.
- After writing and starring in a number of video releases on their website Michael and best friend Clark Duke, were signed by CBS to write, direct, produce and act in a short-form comedy series entitled Clark and Michael.
- Following a number of comedy skecthes Mihcael was signed to play alongisde Jonah Hill and Christopher Mintz-Plasse in 2007 hit comedy Superbad, which is the highest US grossing high school comedy of all time and earned Michael his Hollywood stipes.
- Still riding the crest of the Superbad sucess wave, Michael’s thriving 2007 was compounded by the release of critically acclaimed Juno which became Fox Searchlight's first film to surpass $100 million at the box office and won the best Best Original Screenplay category at the Oscars that year.
- Now fully entrenched in Hollywood, Michael followed these films up in 2009 with roles starring alongside the likes of comedy ledgened Jack Black (Year One) and Zach Galifianakis (Youth In Revolt).
- 2010 see’s something altogether different from Michael Cera in the form of Edgar Wright’s Scott Pilgrim Vs the World - a film that priovide a unique blend of action, comedy, romance and fantasy (all in 112 minutes would you belive?!). Another notch on Michael’s impressive resume, it will be itneresting to see where this talented young writer / actor / director goes from here.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World is out now.
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