Steve Carell didn’t just discover his comedic voice during his time at The Second City — he also met his wife. Like Carell, Nancy Walls is originally from Massachusetts and moved to Chicago to study comedy at The Second City. While in Chicago, she met Carell while taking classes and was later hired to perform in the theater’s Touring Company. Walls and Carell married in 1995, the same year Walls was hired as a performer on “Saturday Night Live.”
One of Carell’s breakout movie roles was playing weatherman Brick Tamland in Adam McKay’s — another of The Second City’s many alumni — 2004 comedic blockbuster, “Anchorman.” However, before his big star turn, Carell jump-started his career with a series of fake reporter roles. Carell served as a correspondent on the Jon Stewart version of “The Daily Show” for six years, where he had a segment debating his former SC castmate, Stephen Colbert. In 2003, he was cast in his first major movie, “Bruce Almighty” as Evan Baxter, a news reporter, and Bruce Nolan’s (Jim Carrey) chief rival.
While Carell’s performing career has taken up most of his adult life, as a child, he considered a career as a professional ice hockey player. Carell told ESPN he started playing when he was 8 years old and had a “Mighty Ducks” moment when his team won the National Championships in the “Squirt” level. In high school, Carell debated training for a spot in a Division I college, but ultimately decided to attend Denison, an NCAA Division III school, where he could play for fun.
