David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2, 1966) is an American actor and director of television and film. He was born in New York, and when he was two years old, his family moved to Los Angeles. He began his acting career performing in school plays at Beverly Hills High School. In 1988 he graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in theater and speech. After graduating, Schwimmer co-founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company. For much of the late 1980s he lived in Los Angeles as a struggling, unemployed actor.

In 1989 he appeared in the television film "A Deadly Silence." He then appeared in a number of television roles, including "L.A. Law," "The Wonder Years," "NYPD Blue" and "Monty" in the early 1990s. Schwimmer later gained worldwide fame for his role as Ross Geller in the sitcom "Friends." In addition to his television work, he played his first leading film role in "The Pallbearer" (1996), followed by roles in "Kissing a Fool" (1998), "Six Days, Seven Nights" (1998), "Apt Pupil" and "Picking Up the Pieces" (2000). He was then cast as Herbert Sobel in the miniseries "Band of Brothers" (2001).

After the finale of "Friends" in 2004, Schwimmer took the title role in the 2005 drama "Duane Hopwood." Other film roles include the computer-animated film "Madagascar" (2005), the black comedy "Big Nothing" (2006), the thriller "Nothing But the Truth" (2008) and "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" (2008). Schwimmer made his London stage debut in a leading role in the play "Some Girls" in 2005. In 2006 he made his Broadway debut in the play "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial." Schwimmer's feature directorial debut was the 2007 comedy "Run Fatboy Run." The following year he made his Off-Broadway directing debut with the 2008 production "Fault Lines."

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