The Rise Of Will Ferrell & Zach Galfianakis

by Helen Earnshaw | 19 January 2013

Will Ferrell & Zach Galfianakis in The Campaign

We know him as famous Anchor Ron Burgundy, Ice Skating champion Chazz Michael Michaels and most recently congress man Cam Brady, yes it’s Will Ferrell! The United States Of America’s answer to ’improv comedy’.

Ferrell started out in improvisational comedy group called ‘The Groundlings’ He joined The Groundlings after he wasn’t well received as a stand up comedian but realised he had a talent in Improvisations and impersonations.

In 1995 Saturday Night Live head hunted Ferrell and asked him to audition for a role as a permanent cast member. After seven blissful years as part of the SNL cast plus writing and starring in his own film ‘A night at the Roxbury’ it came time for Ferrell to pack up his routines and characters and conquer the rest of the world.

2003 saw the birth of ‘Anchorman: The legend of Ron Burgundy’ A tongue in cheek, spoof comedy detailing the work and life of an American news team in the 1970’s. The film took at total of $90,574,188 in the Box Office and became a cult classic across the world. A huge success for Ferrell who both wrote and starred in the film.

This film saw the first collaboration of Ferrell and director Judd Apatow, a duo that would go on to have several more successful productions such as ‘Talladega nights: The ballad of Ricky Bobby’ and most recently ‘Anchorman: The legend continues’.

Throughout his career Ferrell has kept quite a close group of fellow comedian acquaintances with whom he likes to work with on a regular basis, such as: John C Reilly, Vince Vaughn and Ben Stiller.

The launch of his video streaming website Funny or die saw his first time collaboration with Zach Galifianakis, his now fellow co star in Warner Brother’s latest political spoof ‘The Campaign’

We know him as Alan Garner, the lovable basket case you don’t want on your stag Do but who is the real Zach Galfianakis?

Galifianakis started out in television playing small part recurring roles. From 1999 onwards he played bit part roles in small films such as ‘Heartbreakers’ and ‘Bubble boy’.

As an observational/musical comedian he was perfect breed for Saturday night live and won a place as a writer for the series in early 2000, however due to bad ratings he was let go after two weeks.

He then went on to find success in several Comedy Central productions such as ‘The Tim and Eric show’ and ‘Dog bites man’ He also performed in his own stand up show, ‘Live at the purple onion’.

From 2009 onwards he started to get mainstream success in the film industry most famously ‘The Hangover’ Directed by Todd Phillips. A film which sent Galfianakis’ popularity and success sky rocketing. The film took at total of $467,483,912 and won a Golden Globe for best Motion Picture-Musical or comedy.

After the success of ‘The Hangover’ Galifianakis’ film career really took off with big parts in ‘Up in the air’ and ‘Due date’. Similar to Ferrell, Galifianakis is a fan of working closely with other famous acquaintances on more than one project.

One acquaintance being Todd Phillips who cast Galifianakis as a supporting actor in his remake of ‘planes, trains and automobiles’ entitled ‘Due Date’ alongside Robert Downey Jr.

Phillips Also brought Galifianakis back for ‘The Hangover part II’ and the upcoming ‘part III’.

‘The campaign’ sees the first ever acting collaboration of Ferrell and Galifianakis and has a been a long time coming. Even though Galifianakis had a segment on Funny or die, the two have never showcased their talents in a feature film.

The Campaign is a political spoof comedy where Congressmen Cam Brady (Ferrell) and Marty Huggins (Galifianakis) go head to head in a political battle to end all battles. Nothing but hilarity can ensue.