Jason Alexander
American actor, comedian, director and television host
Jason Alexander is an American actor, comedian and director, born Jay Scott Greenspan on 23 September 1959 in Newark, New Jersey. He is best known as George Costanza on NBC's Seinfeld (1989 to 1998), a role that brought seven consecutive Emmy nominations and a Screen Actors Guild Award. A musical theatre performer first, he originated Joe in Sondheim's Merrily We Roll Along on Broadway in 1981 and won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for Jerome Robbins' Broadway (1989).
Jason Alexander appears in 4 films and 1 TV series in The Rerun, from 1986 to 2009. Most of that work is in drama, comedy and family. Frequent collaborators in The Rerun: Richard Gere (2), Garry Marshall (2).
Known for
- Seinfeld (1989), George Costanza. Played George Costanza from 1989 to 1998, with seven straight Emmy Award nominations.
- Pretty Woman (1990).
- Jerome Robbins’ Broadway (1989). Won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.
- Duckman (1994), Duckman. Voiced the title role in the animated series from 1994 to 1997.
Career
Alexander’s film debut came in the slasher The Burning (1981), but Broadway made his name, culminating in his Tony win in 1989. That year he was cast as George Costanza, the neurotic, scheming best friend in Seinfeld, and played him for all nine seasons. In the same period he played the self-serving lawyer Philip Stuckey in Pretty Woman (1990), appeared in Jacob’s Ladder (1990) and voiced the gargoyle Hugo in Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).
Alongside and after Seinfeld he voiced the title role in Duckman, starred in the short-lived sitcoms Bob Patterson and Listen Up, and played Mauricio in Shallow Hal (2001). He has increasingly returned to the stage, making his Broadway directing debut with The Cottage in 2023.
Where to start
- Seinfeld (1989): the role that defined him, and a lesson in comic desperation.
- Pretty Woman (1990): Alexander plays the film’s sleaziest operator with total commitment.
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996): his voice work as Hugo gives the gargoyle trio its broadest laughs.
Shows
Movies
Quick answers
- What movies and TV shows has Jason Alexander been in?
- Jason Alexander appears in Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (2009), Pretty Woman (1990), Jacob’s Ladder (1990), Seinfeld (1989) and The Mosquito Coast (1986) on The Remote.
- When was Jason Alexander born?
- Jason Alexander was born on 23 September 1959.
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