Jay Chandrasekhar

Broken Lizard comedy troupe

Chandrasekhar formed Broken Lizard with former members of comedy troupe Charred Goosebeak and Beta Theta Pi, people he met during college at Colgate University.^[1] Chandrasekhar said he found his path to comedy after acting in high school and college. He did some open mic standup comedy work in Chicago and founded a sketch group called "Charred Goose Beak" at college. After moving to New York, the group was renamed Broken Lizard.^[1]

Chandrasekhar began making shorts featuring the troupe, then made the self-funded movie Puddle Cruiser in 1996.^[7] The film made it into the Sundance Film Festival in 1997.^[8] Then in 2001, they made Super Troopers as an independent movie, which Harvey Weinstein helped to develop at Miramax Films, but did not end up distributing.^[9]

Directing

In 2005, Chandrasekhar directed The Dukes of Hazzard.^[10] The action comedy film based on the 1970s American television series of the same name was the debut of pop singer Jessica Simpson as an actress. While financially successful, the film was met with negative reviews from critics. He has become an established television comedy director, directing episodes of Undeclared, Happy Endings, Chuck, Community, Psych, New Girl, and Arrested Development.^[1] He says that the earlier a director joins a show, the more impact he or she will have on its look and feel.^[1]

In 2012, Chandrasekhar made the movie The Babymakers.^[11] He directed several episodes of Blue Mountain State. Amazon released a pilot in the 2014 Amazon Original Series that he wrote and directed called Really.^[12]

Between 2014 and 2018, he directed 16 episodes of The Goldbergs.

In June 2018, the filmmaker revealed that he is in discussions with Marvel Studios to direct one of their upcoming movies.^[13]

In February 2021, Chandrasekhar was announced as the director of the family comedy Easter Sunday, starring Jo Koy.^[14]

Acting

Chandrasekhar guest starred alongside his cousin Sendhil Ramamurthy in a 2009 episode of Psych,^[15] which Chandrasekhar also directed. He appeared as the cab driver in the "Terror Taxi" skit from Jackass: Number Two. He appeared as racist comedian Gupta Gupti Gupta in the episode "Basic Email Security" of Community, which Chandrasekhar also directed.

Stand-up

Chandrasekhar often does stand-up comedy, sometimes touring with fellow Broken Lizard friends, Steve Lemme and Kevin Heffernan.^[16] His stand-up is a mix of jokes and stories.

Films

Television