McHale was recruited to be on the University of Washington's rowing team but later joined its football team. He was a walk-on as a tight end. He spent two years with the team but did not play in any games. He was on the team that played in the 1993 Rose Bowl.[8][9] He was part of the Almost Live! cast, a local sketch comedy television show produced by Seattle's KING-TV. From 1993 to 1997, he was a member of the improv comedy group at Unexpected Productions, participating in Theatersports! at the Market Theater located in Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle.[10] He received an MFA from the Professional Actors Training Program at the University of Washington.[11]
Career
Hosting
In 2004, McHale began hosting The Soup, a satirical weekly television show on the E! television network. Throughout the show, he takes the audience through the oddities and ridiculous happenings of the week in television. He frequently appears as a co-host on Loveline. He has been a judge on Iron Chef America. McHale made a guest appearance on the finale of Last Comic Standing's sixth season, when he recapped the show's events in his typical format of jokes made popular on The Soup. He made an appearance as a guest judge on RuPaul's Drag Race season 11, episode 4, "Trump: The Rusical".
In January 2018, it was announced that he would be receiving his own talk show on Netflix in February. The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale combined celebrity guests, pre-taped sketches and video clips in a half-hour series that focused on pop culture and news from around the world.[15] On August 17, 2018, it was announced that Netflix had canceled the show after 19 episodes, reportedly due to low viewership.[16]
On April 8, 2019, TVLine reported that McHale would host a revival of the game show Card Sharks for ABC.[17] The revival would premiere on June 12 of that year,[18] running for two seasons and 21 episodes until July 7, 2021. The iteration was canceled in April 2022.[19]
After earning his master's degree in acting, McHale moved to Los Angeles and landed small roles in Diagnosis: Murder, CSI: Miami, and Will & Grace. He played a TV reporter in the biopic Lords of Dogtown. He guest-starred as a cast member on the NBC improv comedy show Thank God You're Here during the pilot episode and had a guest role on an episode of Pushing Daisies. McHale appeared in Spider-Man 2 in a small role as Mr. Jacks, a bank manager.[25]
He was involved in the American version of the British TV show The IT Crowd.[27][28]
McHale starred in the sitcom Community,[29] which premiered in fall 2009, and continued to host The Soup.[30] McHale made an appearance on the first episode of the fifth season of Tosh.0. He played Rex in Ted (2012) and had a short guest stint on the FX show Sons of Anarchy. He played a police officer in the supernatural horror film Deliver Us from Evil.[31] McHale appeared in 3 episodes between the tenth and eleventh seasons of The X-Files in 2016 and 2018, respectively.[32]
McHale played the lead role in the CBS sitcom The Great Indoors, which began airing in the fall of 2016.[33][34] The series was cancelled on May 13, 2017, due to low ratings.[35]
In 2018, McHale was cast in the recurring role of Chris on the second season of the Netflix horror-comedy series Santa Clarita Diet.[36]
In December 2018, it was announced that McHale was cast as Sylvester Pemberton, the Golden Age Starman in the DC Universe and The CW series Stargirl.[37] After sporadic appearances in its first two seasons, he was upgraded to series regular for the third.[38][39]
McHale has been a regular guest panelist on The Masked Singer. He first guested in episode four of the first season, then in two episodes of season 2 and episode 8 of season 3. In season 4, he was a guest panelist in episodes 3 and 4, on his first appearance performing Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" as the "Robin" (wearing a cut-out face of Robin Thicke). He went on to be a guest panelist in the third episode of season 5 and episode 7 of season 6. He was absent in season 7. He later served as a guest panelist alongside the late Leslie Jordan on episode 7 of season 8.
Personal life
McHale married Sarah Williams in July 1996. They have 2 sons. The family currently reside in Studio City after moving from Los Feliz.[40][41][42][43]
In a 2018 interview on Dax Shepard's podcast Armchair Expert, McHale revealed he was dyslexic, having discovered this when his two sons were diagnosed.[44]
McHale, along with several of his Community castmates, made a campaign video in support of Joe Biden in October 2020 titled "Human Beings for Biden."[50]
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