Jay Baruchel
☼ Born on 9 December 1982, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Biography
Jay Baruchel was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and was raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He is the son of Robyne (Ropell), a freelance writer, and Serge Victor Baruchel, an antiques dealer. He has a younger sister who also acts. He started acting in 1995 when he made his first of three appearances on the hit show Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1990). He was also in more localized shows such as My Hometown (1996) and Popular Mechanics for Kids (1997).
Baruchel had spent some downtime and finally got a chance to be in a classic film called Almost Famous (2000) in 2000. He played "Vic", a devout fan of Led Zeppelin. Judd Apatow soon had a show in the works and Baruchel played "Steven Karp" on Undeclared (2001). He also had the chance to star alongside actors such as Ian Somerhalder and James Van Der Beek as "Harry" in The Rules of Attraction (2002). Things began to slow down a bit after a couple more failed shows. He came back as the courageous "Danger Barch" in Million Dollar Baby (2004). He has also appeared in many independent films, such as Fetching Cody (2005), Just Buried (2007) and Real Time (2008).
He was also in many successful American comedy films. He was the lead in She's Out of My League (2010) and played one of Seth Rogen's best friends (which he really is) in the movie Knocked Up (2007). He also made his mark in family-friendly films such as How to Train Your Dragon (2010), playing the unlikely "Viking Hiccup" and also played the title role in The Sorcerer's Apprentice
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(2010) alongside his newly found kindred spirit, actor Nicolas Cage.
Baruchel lived his dream as he worked on the hockey comedy Goon (2011), and is working on many other films that are what he considers to be passion projects.
In the role of actor
The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal – TIFF 2024 (06/09/2024)
The nearly four-decade long career of The Tragically Hip is told in an all-emcompassing docuseries in The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal. The Tragically Hip consisting of Gord Downie, Rob Baker, Johnny Fay, Paul Langlois and Gord Sinclair were five alumni of KCVI high school in Kingston, Ontario. Signed to MCA records in the late-1980s, […]
Humane (26/04/2024)
An estranged family has to choose which one of them has to enlist in a government Euthanasia program in Humane. A catastrophic global ecological collapse has given humanity one year to reduce the Earth’s population. Retired newsman Charles York (Peter Gallagher) invites his children Jared (Jay Baruchel), Noah (Sebastian Chacon), Ashley (Alanna Bale), and Rachel […]
Canadian Shorts After Dark – Toronto After Dark 2023 (30/10/2023)
Here are our capsule reviews of the Canadian Shorts After Dark line-up. Canadian Shorts After Dark Showcase Night Drives: Campfire in the Sky Co-workers gossip about their latest camping trip, and one gets decidedly weird. Created with rotoscoped animation, this short, which is part of a more extensive series, is all about the matter-of-fact way […]
BlackBerry (14/05/2023)
The story of the rise and fall of the world’s first smartphone is told in BlackBerry. Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Douglas Fregin (Matt Johnson) are business partners in the upstart Waterloo, Ontario, technology company Research In Motion. The two make a pitch to Harvard-educated businessman Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton) of Sutherland-Schultz Ltd for their […]
The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks – Hot Docs 2022 (05/05/2022)
The members of the iconic and groundbreaking comedy troupe reminisce about their 40 year career in The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks. The Kids in the Hall were formed in the early 1980s when Calgary comedy duo Bruce McCulloch and Mark McKinney joined up with Toronto’s Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald to form a […]
We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel) – Hot Docs 2022 (30/04/2022)
Actor Jay Baruchel hosts a docuseries exploring various apocalyptic scenarios in We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel). There are many ways for humanity to come to an end and Jay Baruchel has made it his mission to explore which one has the greatest chance of ever happening. Over the course of this six-part series, […]
Random Acts of Violence (31/07/2020)
The creator of a horror comic finds out that a serial killer is copying his work in Random Acts of Violence. Todd Walkley (Jesse Williams) is the creator of “Slasherman,” the number one R-rated comic, which is inspired from the I90 serial killer from three decades prior. Struggling to find an ending for the final […]
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (21/02/2019)
The adventures of Hiccup and his dragon Toothless conclude in How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. A year after being made chieftain of Berk, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), along with Astrid (America Ferrera), Snotlout (Jonah Hill), Fishlegs (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig), and Tuffnut (Justin Rupple), have set it among themselves to rescue dragons from hunters and bring them back home […]
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (17/06/2014)
The dragon-riding Vikings return in Dreamworks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon 2. It has been five years since the village of Berk have made peace with the dragons that roam the land. Having come of age, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) has been asked by his father, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler), to succeed him as […]
RoboCop (2014) (17/02/2014)
The recent 1980s remake trend continues with this new reboot of RoboCop. Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman), one of the only decent cops remaining on Detroit’s police force, is severely injured after an attempt on his life, via a car explosion. This is the perfect opportunity needed by OmniCorp CEO Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton), who wants […]
This is the End (12/06/2013)
Seth Rogen and his longtime writing parter Evan Goldberg make their directorial debuts with the apocalyptic horror/comedy This is the End. The film is an expansion of a 2007 short they wrote entitled Jay and Seth versus the Apocalypse. The film features an allstar cast of actors, all playing themselves, who have become popular in […]
Goon (01/03/2012)
In its most simple description, Goon is hockey film for people who don’t really like hockey films. It could also be described as a film for people who prefer the violent nature of hockey, as opposed to the sport itself. The film stars Seann William Scott as a completely dumb, yet kindhearted, brute of a guy […]
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (25/07/2010)
You would never expect Disney to make a live action film based on a classic Mickey Mouse cartoon, but then again you could probably say the same thing about films based on their theme park rides. Other than scene that pays homage, this film is really related to the cartoon in name only. It instead […]
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (05/09/2008)
I find it quite a coincidence that I received an advance screening pass for this film today, while it is going to be shown at the Toronto Film Festival tomorrow. I found I quite liked this film. All the events take place over an entire night, so it can be compared to films like Dazed […]
Tropic Thunder (13/08/2008)
Who would have thought that in the end it would be Simple Jack that generated controversy? In a film that features Robert Downey Jr. playing an Australian actor, who darkens his skin to play an African American sergeant, the biggest complaint about this film involves a subplot, where Ben Stiller’s character plays a mentally disabled […]
Knocked Up (04/06/2007)
There was a time, not so long ago, when I would have not felt comfortable seeing R-rated comedies like this one. However, films like Wedding Crashers and The 40-Year Old Virgin (a film I was initially freaked out about, but quietly went to see anyway) showed me that those films tend to be the more […]
In the role of director
We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel) – Hot Docs 2022 (30/04/2022)
Actor Jay Baruchel hosts a docuseries exploring various apocalyptic scenarios in We’re All Gonna Die (Even Jay Baruchel). There are many ways for humanity to come to an end and Jay Baruchel has made it his mission to explore which one has the greatest chance of ever happening. Over the course of this six-part series, […]
Random Acts of Violence (31/07/2020)
The creator of a horror comic finds out that a serial killer is copying his work in Random Acts of Violence. Todd Walkley (Jesse Williams) is the creator of “Slasherman,” the number one R-rated comic, which is inspired from the I90 serial killer from three decades prior. Struggling to find an ending for the final […]