Steve Carell has no shortage of iconic characters. Whether he’s delivering the weather forecast as Brick Tamland in the Anchorman movies, enacting a world-dominating plot as Gru in the animated Despicable Me franchise, or lovingly terrorizing his Dunder Mifflin employees as Michael Scott in The Office, Carell has played a role for every kind of comedy lover. He’ll add another to his portfolio in the new series Rooster, in which he plays a professor, author, and struggling father.
After getting his start as a cast member on The Dana Carvey Show and a correspondent on The Daily Show, Carell starred as paper company middle manager Michael Scott for seven seasons of the workplace sitcom The Office, for which he won a Golden Globe. The series launched Carell into the comedy stratosphere, and he’d go on to lead flicks like Evan Almighty; Get Smart; Date Night; and Crazy, Stupid, Love (more on that below). But the actor also has his fair share of more serious roles in movies like Little Miss Sunshine; Foxcatcher (for which he was nominated for an Oscar); The Big Short; Beautiful Boy; and Mountainhead, as well as in series like The Morning Show and The Patient. Keep reading to learn more about Carell’s movies and series on Netflix.
Based on the 1981 film of the same name by writer-director Alan Alda, The Four Seasons follows three couples — Nick and Anne (Carell and Kerri Kenney-Silver), Kate and Jack (Tina Fey and Will Forte), and Danny and Claude (Colman Domingo and Marco Calvani) — as they vacation together through each season of the year. When their longtime friend group undergoes a major shift, they’re forced to take a closer look at both their romantic and platonic relationships.
This two-season workplace comedy stars Carell as General Mark R. Naird, chief of operations for Space Force, the sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces. One year into his tumultuous tenure, Mark and his team, including prickly chief scientist Dr. Adrian Mallory (John Malkovich) and excitable social media director F. Tony Scarapiducci (Ben Schwartz), are working to launch a new satellite, Epsilon 6, into orbit. When their plans quickly go awry, the group is forced to think on their feet — with potentially disastrous consequences. Can Mark make this fledgling operation work, or will his political opponents and other naysayers shut everything down before they’ve really begun? Diana Silvers (The Abandons), Tawny Newsome (True Story), Jimmy O. Yang (Love Hard), Don Lake (Mascots), Tim Meadows (Hubie Halloween), and Lisa Kudrow (No Good Deed) also star.
Gru (Carell) is an infamous supervillain with the ego to match. So when he’s bested by an adversary on his latest, nefarious mission, he hatches a new plan that’s sure to capture the world’s attention: He’s going to steal the moon. As Gru prepares to carry out this wicked feat with the help of his simple-minded, eternally loyal Minions, his plot hits a snag when three orphaned girls — Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Elsie Fisher) — decide he’d make the perfect dad. Jason Segel (The Discovery), Russell Brand (Trolls), Kristen Wiig (How to Train Your Dragon), Will Arnett (BoJack Horseman), Danny McBride (30 Minutes or Less), Jack McBrayer (Unfrosted), and Julie Andrews (Bridgerton) round out the all-star voice cast.
This animated comedy’s sequels, Despicable Me 2 and Despicable Me 3, are also available to watch on Netflix.
Cal Weaver (Carell), a middle-aged, middle-class husband and father, has lost his spark. His wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), is divorcing him and dating her colleague, David (Kevin Bacon), and his kids are unimpressed by his attempts to connect. His future feels hopeless until he meets Jacob (Ryan Gosling), a handsome, charming womanizer who takes pity on Cal. Jacob — who was recently, uncharacteristically rejected by Hannah (Emma Stone) — offers to take Cal under his wing and up his game with the ladies. But not all change is good, and the group’s unexpectedly interconnected love stories soon overlap with potentially life-altering consequences. John Carroll Lynch (The Founder) and Marisa Tomei (A Different World) also star in this rom-com written by Dan Fogelman (Danny Collins).
When a charming raccoon (voiced by Bruce Willis) accidentally destroys a hibernating bear’s (Nick Nolte) stockpiled food, he’s forced to replace it by any means necessary. So he recruits a crew of woodland animals to help him pilfer food from a nearby suburban neighborhood. Shenanigans ensue as they go up against security systems, a determined exterminator (Thomas Haden Church), and — maybe worst of all — the president of the local homeowners association (Allison Janney). Carell voices Hammy, a hyperactive, energy drink–chugging squirrel who undertakes a dangerous backyard mission. Catherine O’Hara (Extinct), Eugene Levy (Best in Show), Garry Shandling (What Planet Are You From?), Wanda Sykes (The Upshaws), and William Shatner (Masters of the Universe: Revolution) also provide voices.
This part live-action, part-animated drama, directed by Robert Zemeckis (Cast Away), is inspired by Jeff Malmberg’s 2010 documentary Marwencol and stars Carell as Mark Hogancamp, a reclusive artist who creates his own world to escape the horrors of his real life. Suffering from PTSD after he’s beaten nearly to death by a group of neo-Nazis, Mark fashions a toy village called Marwen in order to cope. The tiny town — which is inhabited by dolls, one of whom is a version of Mark — is plagued by assailants but protected by women, many of whom are inspired by real people in Mark’s life, including a veteran he meets in physical therapy (Janelle Monáe) and his kind new neighbor (Leslie Mann). As Mark is forced to face his attackers during their trial, he leans on his art and his growing community to try and make it through. Diane Kruger (The Infiltrator), Merritt Wever (Godless), Eiza González (3 Body Problem), and Gwendoline Christie (Wednesday) also star.
