When Saturday Night Live comes to mind, many names may go through the average person’s head, but one of them is most certainly Adam Sandler. Adam Richard Sandler was born September 9, 1966 in Brooklyn, NY to a middle-class Jewish family headed by Stan and Judy Sandler. His family moved to Manchester, NH when he was five years old. The New Hampshire way of life, along with his family’s Jewish traditions, would be paramount to helping him form his signature act.

After graduating from Manchester Central High School, where he excelled more at his extra-curricular activities more than his academic pursuits, he attended New York University. In 1988, Sandler graduated from the University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama and a small part in “The Cosby Show”. This inspired him to do stand-up comedy in Los Angeles, where he was spotted at The Improv Theatre by Dennis Miller. This stroke of luck got him a job on the Saturday Night Live cast and writing team in 1990.

Over the next five years, Sandler’s appeal to the American media audience exploded. By 1993, he had a Grammy-nominated album, “They’re All Gonna Laugh at You”, and a number of films in the works, including “Airheads” and “Coneheads”, with famous Saturday Night Live alumni. Arguably, his breakout film was “Billy Madison”, where he took the lead and used his extensive talents to imitate an overgrown child.

Other celebrated films for Sandler came after “Billy Madison”, including “Happy Gilmore” and “The Wedding Singer”. Adam Sandler capitalized on these films and started his own production company, appropriately named Happy Madison Productions. Altogether, Sandler has been involved with the production of 30 films in his career. He currently resides in New York with his wife and two children.