Jay Chandrasekhar

Jay Chandrasekhar
Born	Jayanth Jambulingam Chandrasekhar (1968-04-09) April 9, 1968 (age 56) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Education	Lake Forest Academy
Alma mater	Colgate University Loyola University (withdrew)
Occupations	Actor comedian writer director editor
Years active	1996–present
Known for	Broken Lizard
Spouse	Susan Clarke ​ (m. 2005)​
Children	3
Relatives	Sendhil Ramamurthy (cousin)
Website	jay-chandrasekhar.com

Jayanth Jambulingam Chandrasekhar (born April 9, 1968) is an American comedian, film director, screenwriter, actor and editor. He is best known for his work with the sketch comedy group Broken Lizard and for directing and starring in the Broken Lizard films Super Troopers, Club Dread, Beerfest and Super Troopers 2. Since 2001, he has also worked frequently as a television director on many episodes of Community and The Goldbergs, among dozens of comedy series.^[1] He has also occasionally worked as a film director outside of Broken Lizard projects, most notably on the 2005 film The Dukes of Hazzard.

Early life and education

Chandrasekhar was born in Chicago to parents who lived in the adjacent suburb of Oak Park, Illinois. Both his father, Arcot Jambulingam "AJ" Chandrasekhar,^[2] and his mother, Hema Chandrasekhar,^[3][4] are physicians of Tamil origin and are originally from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.^[5] The hospital where he was born, old Cook County Hospital, was where his parents worked.^[4] Chandrasekhar has an older sister as well as a younger sister named Sandhya Chandrasekhar, who are both lawyers.^[6]

Chandrasekhar lived in Oak Park until his family moved farther west from Chicago to the suburb of Hinsdale. He graduated from the boarding high school Lake Forest Academy.^[4] He graduated from Colgate University with a major in European history and a minor in philosophy.^[4] During college he spent a semester at Chicago's Loyola University.^[4]

Career

Broken Lizard comedy troupe

Chandrasekhar formed Broken Lizard with former members of comedy troupe Charred Goosebeak and Beta Theta Pi, people he met during college at Colgate University.^[1] Chandrasekhar said he found his path to comedy after acting in high school and college. He did some open mic standup comedy work in Chicago and founded a sketch group called "Charred Goose Beak" at college. After moving to New York, the group was renamed Broken Lizard.^[1]

Chandrasekhar began making shorts featuring the troupe, then made the self-funded movie Puddle Cruiser in 1996.^[7] The film made it into the Sundance Film Festival in 1997.^[8] Then in 2001, they made Super Troopers as an independent movie, which Harvey Weinstein helped to develop at Miramax Films, but did not end up distributing.^[9]

Directing

In 2005, Chandrasekhar directed The Dukes of Hazzard.^[10] The action comedy film based on the 1970s American television series of the same name was the debut of pop singer Jessica Simpson as an actress. While financially successful, the film was met with negative reviews from critics. He has become an established television comedy director, directing episodes of Undeclared, Happy Endings, Chuck, Community, Psych, New Girl, and Arrested Development.^[1] He says that the earlier a director joins a show, the more impact he or she will have on its look and feel.^[1]

In 2012, Chandrasekhar made the movie The Babymakers.^[11] He directed several episodes of Blue Mountain State. Amazon released a pilot in the 2014 Amazon Original Series that he wrote and directed called Really.^[12]

Between 2014 and 2018, he directed 16 episodes of The Goldbergs.

In June 2018, the filmmaker revealed that he is in discussions with Marvel Studios to direct one of their upcoming movies.^[13]

In February 2021, Chandrasekhar was announced as the director of the family comedy Easter Sunday, starring Jo Koy.^[14]

Acting

Chandrasekhar guest starred alongside his cousin Sendhil Ramamurthy in a 2009 episode of Psych,^[15] which Chandrasekhar also directed. He appeared as the cab driver in the "Terror Taxi" skit from Jackass: Number Two. He appeared as racist comedian Gupta Gupti Gupta in the episode "Basic Email Security" of Community, which Chandrasekhar also directed.

Stand-up

Chandrasekhar often does stand-up comedy, sometimes touring with fellow Broken Lizard friends, Steve Lemme and Kevin Heffernan.^[16] His stand-up is a mix of jokes and stories.

Personal life

Chandrasekhar has been married to actress Susan Clarke since 2005.^[17] They have twin daughters and a son.^[18] Chandrasekhar's middle name, Jambulingam, is in honor of his grandfather, and is also his son's middle name.^[5] He used the name Jumbulingam for his editorial credits.^[5]

Chandrasekhar's cousin is the actor Sendhil Ramamurthy, who played the role of Mohinder Suresh in the NBC superhero drama Heroes and also appeared in the Broken Lizard film The Slammin' Salmon.^[19] His mother-in-law is Mary Pat Clarke, the first woman to serve as president of the Baltimore City Council.^[20]

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Credited as				Role	Notes
		Director	Writer	Actor	Editor
1996	Puddle Cruiser	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Zach
1999	Los Enchiladas!	No	No	No	Yes	—
	Two Ninas	No	No	No	Yes	—
2001	Super Troopers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Arcot "Thorny" Ramathorn
2004	Club Dread	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Putman
2005	The Dukes of Hazzard	Yes	No	Yes	Additional	Arcot "Thorny" Ramathorn
2006	Beerfest	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Barry Badrinath
	Jackass Number Two	No	No	Yes	No	Himself/Terror Taxi host
2008	Held Up	Yes	No	No	No	—	TV movie
2009	I Love You, Man	No	No	Yes	No	Party Guest
	The Slammin' Salmon	No	Yes	Yes	No	Nuts/Zongo
	The 2 Bobs	No	No	Yes	No	Spam King
2010	Broken Lizard Stands Up	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Self
2012	The Babymakers	Yes	No	Yes	No	Ron Jon	Also co-producer
	Freeloaders	No	No	Yes	No	Porn Director
2018	Super Troopers 2	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Arcot "Thorny" Ramathorn
2021	Plan B	No	No	Yes	No	Pharmacist
2022	Easter Sunday	Yes	No	Yes	No	Nick
2023	Quasi	No	Yes	Yes	No	King Guy/Blouin

Television

Director

Year	Title	Episode
2001–2002	Undeclared	"Hal and Hillary" "Hell Week" "Rush and Pledge"
2003	Andy Richter Controls the Universe	"Saturday Early Evening Fever"
2004	Oliver Beene	"Kissing Babies"
	Cracking Up	"Grudge Match"
2003–2004	Arrested Development	"Justice is Blind" "Altar Egos" "Beef Consommé" "My Mother The Car"
2006–2007	The Loop	"The Dutch" "CSI: Donut Idol Bowl" "The Rusty Trombone" "The Tiger Express"
2007	Human Giant	"Ta Da" "Lil 9-11" "Let's Go"
2008	Lipstick Jungle	"Chapter 4: Bombay Highway" "Chapter 17: Bye, Bye Baby"
2008–2009	Knight Rider	"Knight of the Hunter" "Fly by Knight"
2010–2011	Blue Mountain State	"Superstition" "The Peak" "Riot" "Drunk Tank" "Marathon Monday"
2008–2012	Psych	"Let's Doo-Wop It Again" "Chivalry Is Not Dead... But Someone Is" "Bollywood Homicide" "The Greatest Adventure in the History of Basic Cable"
2008–2012	Chuck	"Chuck Versus the Ex" "Chuck Versus the Suburbs" "Chuck Versus the Living Dead" "Chuck Versus the Balcony" "Chuck Versus Sarah"
2009–2012	Royal Pains	"The Hankover" "A Guest House Divided" "Hank and the Deep Blue Sea" "Am I Blue?"
2010–2015	Community	"Mixology Certification" "Intro to Political Science" "Applied Anthropology and Culinary Arts" "The First Chang Dynasty" "Advanced Documentary Filmmaking" "Introduction to Teaching" "Basic Story" "Basic Email Security" "Basic RV Repair and Palmistry"
2011–2012	Happy Endings	"The Girl with the David Tattoo" "Meet the Parrots" "You Snooze, You Bruise" "More Like Stanksgiving"
2011–2012	Up All Night	"First Night Away" "Baby Fever"
2012	Warehouse 13	"No Pain, No Gain"
	Animal Practice	"Dr. Yamamazing"
	Ben & Kate	"Career Day"
2014	Really	"Pilot" (Also wrote and produced)
2014–2018	New Girl	"Sister III" "The Crawl" "Jeff Day" "Mario" "The Cubicle"
2014–2021	The Goldbergs	23 episodes
2015–2016	The Grinder	"The Curious Disappearance of Mr. Donovan" "A System on Trial" "Full Circle"
2016	Crazy Ex-Girlfriend	"When Will Josh See How Cool I Am?"
2017–2019	Fresh Off the Boat	"A League of Her Own" "Workin' the Ween" "TMI: Too Much Integrity"
2018	The Mayor	"The Lockdown"
	Instinct	"Long Shot"
	Us & Them	"Corn & Cancer"
2019	Lethal Weapon	"Dial M for Murtaugh"
	Single Parents	"That Elusive Zazz"
2019–2020	Schooled	"Tamagotchis and Bells" "CB Likes Lainey" "The Rudy-ing of Toby Murphy" "FeMellor"
2019-2023	Good Trouble	"In The Middle" "New Moon" "Baby, Just Say Yes" "About Damn Time"
2021	Resident Alien	"Birds of a Feather" "Love Language"
2022	Monarch	"About Last Night"
	The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers	"Trade Rumors" "Summer Breezers"
2023	Home Economics	"Gallon of Milk, $4.35"
2023–2024	Animal Control	"Dogs and Bears and Minks" "Cows and Raccoons" "Peacocks and Pumas" "Dogs and Chickens"

Acting roles

Year	Title	Role	Note
2004	The 100 Scariest Movie Moments	Himself	TV special
2007	Attack of the Show	Co-host
	Welcome to the Parker		Episode 1
2009	Psych	Jawaharlal 'Jay' Singh	Episode "Bollywood Homicide"
2012	Royal Pains	Jake	Episode "A Guesthouse Divided"
2013	Call Me Crazy: A Five Film	Joey	TV movie
	Franklin & Bash	JD Altero	Episode "Gone in a Flash"
2014	Really
2015	Community	Gupta Gupti Gupta	Episode "Basic Email Security"
2016	Family Guy	Indian Man / Census Taker	Episode "Road to India"
2018	Nailed It	Guest judge	Episode 6: "In Your Face!"
2018	Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Himself	Episode NutriBoom

References

1. Rozeman, Mark (May 14, 2013). "Catching Up with Jay Chandrasekhar". Paste. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
2. "Arcot Jamulingam Chandrasekhar – Illinois, Northern District (Eastern Division), Naturalization Index, 1926–1979". FamilySearch. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
3. "Hema Varadan Chandrasekhar – Illinois, Northern District (Eastern Division), Naturalization Index, 1926–1979". FamilySearch. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
4. Sotonoff, Jamie; Gire, Dann (August 7, 2012). "Hinsdale's Jay Chandrasekhar: A Broken Lizard makes good – Chandrasekhar's suburban upbringing serves him well in Hollywood, he says". Daily Herald. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
5. Pais, Arthur J. (August 5, 2005). "Jay Chandrasekhar is big!". Rediff. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
6. "Sandhya P. Chandrasekhar". Latham & Watkins. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
7. Kelly, Brendan (October 27, 1996). "Review: 'Puddle Cruiser'". Variety. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
8. "Puddle Cruiser". Sundance Film Festival. 1997. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
9. Neumyer, Scott (April 18, 2014). "Altered State Police: An Oral History of 'Super Troopers'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
10. "IGN Interviews Jay Chandrasekhar". IGN. August 3, 2005. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
11. Chandrasekhar, Jay (August 2, 2012). "Things Have Changed Since Super Troopers". HuffPost. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
12. "Really 1 Season 2014". Amazon. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
13. "Super Troopers Director Met With Marvel About An MCU Movie". Screen Rant. June 5, 2018. Retrieved October 6, 2018.
14. Kit, Borys (February 16, 2021). "Jay Chandrasekhar to Direct Family Comedy 'Easter Sunday' for Amblin (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
15. Psych (Season 4, Episode 6: Bollywood Homicide) [first aired September 18, 2009]
16. Greenberg, Ruth (August 28, 2014). "'Super Troopers' star Jay Chandrasekhar slings jokes at the Arlington Cinema & Drafthouse". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
17. "The Jay Chandrasekhar File". Chai Time. January 2011. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
18. Chhabra, Aseem. "'We wanted to top Borat in The Babymakers'". Rediff.
19. @jaychandrasekha (April 22, 2013). "My cousin Sendhil joined Twitter. Late, ya bastard. He was the movie star in Slammin' Salmon. So if you want to follow him: @Sendhil_Rama" (Tweet). Archived from the original on June 12, 2021. Retrieved April 23, 2013 – via Twitter.
20. "J. Clarke Obituary (2024) - Baltimore, MD - Baltimore Sun". Legacy.com. Retrieved November 11, 2024.

External links

• Jay Chandrasekhar at IMDb