Judd Apatow Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Judd Apatow is an American writer, actor, director, producer, screenwriter, comedian, and more.

Born December 6, 1967, Judd founded Apatow Productions. He has won awards for his work, including a Primetime Emmy Award, a Hollywood Comedy Award, and an AFI Award. His movies have been nominated for Grammys, Golden Globes, Academy Awards, Writers Guild of America Awards, and PGA Awards.

He is well known for his comedic and popular films, which include Anchorman, Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Talladega Nights, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Step Brothers, Funny People, Pineapple Express, Trainwreck, This Is 40, The King of Staten Island, and many more. He is also recognized for his television series Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared.

He was born the middle of three children. His father was a real-estate developer and his mother ran a record label. Judd was born in Queens and grew up on Long Island in Syosset, New York. He was twelve years old when his parents divorced and was first exposed to live stand up comedy when his mother worked at a comedy club for a summer. He would later wash dishes at the Long Island East Side Comedy Club to get proximity and exposure to the scene. He also created a radio program called Comedy Club so that he could meet and learn more from comedians he looked up to.

He was 17 when he started doing stand up comedy and would become an associate editor of Laugh Factory Magazine. When he graduated in 1985 from high school, he moved to L.A. and signed up for a University of Southern California screenwriting program. At USC, he would organize and host Comedy Night Events. He also volunteered for and would later produce Comic Relief benefit concerts for HBO and doing his own stand up at Hollywood’s the Improv, later dropping out of college and sharing an apartment with Adam Sandler.

Not long after, he was hired to write the 1991 Grammy Awards. He would produce comedy specials for other comedians. He appeared on 15th Annual Young Comedians Special in 1992, then co-creating and executive producing The Ben Stiller Show on Fox. After that was canceled, he then joined The Larry Sanders Show as writer and consulting producer, earning six Emmy nominations. He also worked for animated show The Critic during this time.

He co-wrote Heavyweights in 1995, then hired to do an uncredited rewrite of The Cable Guy script. During pre-production on this film, he met Leslie Mann, who was to become his future wife. He also did uncredited rewrites for Liar Liar and Bruce Almighty, as well as Happy Gilmore and The Wedding Singer. He would create the sitcom Sick in the Head in 1999, which was not picked up by Fox and led to the title being free for a future book as well as to Apatow being able to executive produce Freaks and Geeks. Apatow then produced Undeclared, which was also canceled.

In 2004, he produced Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy. It was successful and he would co-produce Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues. He directed The 40-Year-Old Virgin to make his directorial debut in 2005. Apatow also went on to co-write Fun with Dick and Jane. Knocked Up came out in 2007 to critical acclaim.

From there, Apatow kept coming out with hits. He produced Superbad, he got the ball rolling on Pineapple Express, he produced Talladega Nights, produced and co-wrote Walk Hard, produced Drillbit Taylor, produced Forgetting Sarah Marshall, was co-writer of You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, attempting to keep the projects low budget. He would go on to produce Year One and release the movie Funny People, which he wrote and directed. He would also produce Get Him to the Greek, Bridesmaids, and the television show Girls, as well as Wanderlust and The Five-Year Engagement. He then directed This Is 40 and later produced Begin Again.

Apatow would go on to create the television series Love, produced the film Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, made the documentary Doc and Darryl, produced The Big Sick, starred in Judd Apatow: The Return, directed The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling, produced Bros, and worked on Bob & Don: A Love Story.

He is married to actress Leslie Mann, who he first met on the set of The Cable Guy. They were married in Los Angeles in 1997 and share daughters Maude and Iris. His wife has appeared in much of his work.

Apatow was given the ACLU Bill of Rights Award in 2017 for being an advocate for women in the arts. He does stand up regularly and was awarded the Generation Award in 2016 at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal.

Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy is a nonfiction book by Judd Apatow. The book sends its benefits to the 826 LA organization. If you love Judd’s work or comedy or are just looking for something interesting to read, this is the book for you.

Prior to being one of Hollywood’s most successful film makers, Judd was just a nerd about comedy. He even washed dishes just to be closer to stand up and watch it for free, learning all he could. At sixteen he hosted a show for his high school radio station, one that was made up of question and answer sessions with comedy heroes where they talked about everything.

Years later, Apatow interviews funny people about comedy and more, turning these conversations into interesting collections that he shares with the reader. These include talks with everyone from Mel Brooks to Steve Martin, Spike Jonze, Sarah Silverman, and more. Many different subjects and topics are explored. This book feels like a VIP look into the life and mind of Judd Apatow, and it is! There are tons of insights and stories in this book that you won’t want to miss out on. Grab a copy of Sick in the Head to find out for yourself.

Sicker in the Head: More Conversations About Life and Comedy is another nonfiction book by Judd Apatow and a sequel to the first. Check out this New York Times bestseller to get access to an entirely new collection of conversations with some of the top names in comedy.

Judd knows comedy, from interviewing huge comics to writing and producing television and movies. He has lived and breathed comedy for as far back as people can remember. Now he sits down with all new names such as David Letterman or Will Ferrell, John Mulaney and Bowen Yang, and more, to have honest and intimate personal conversations about comedy and themselves.

They talk about staying up late to watch comedy, being high school nerds, and the right amount of confidence required to make it in the industry. Along the way, they tackle truths about society, people who helped them on their journey, and look forward to the future of comedy as well as Hollywood.

With curiosity, insight, and humor, the author looks into creativity, ambition, vulnerability and more, all featuring some of his (and your) favorite comics. Check out this book to see what you think!