---
name: "Larry Charles"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/larry-charles"
fi1m_id: "larry-charles"
imdb_id: "nm0153078"
tmdb_id: 6767
wikidata_id: "Q722115"
roles: ["Director","Producer","Writer"]
born: "20 February 1956"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 6
average_fi1m_score: 76
average_as: "director"
average_over: 4
updated: "2026-10-05T01:04:22.559842+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Larry Charles

## Identity

Larry Charles

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/larry-charles
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** larry-charles
- **IMDb ID:** nm0153078
- **TMDB ID:** 6767
- **Wikidata ID:** Q722115
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Charles, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q722115, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0153078/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6767

Director and producer. Born 20 February 1956 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Producer, Writer
- **Born:** 20 February 1956, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
- **Active:** 1989–2011
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 6: 4 directing, 2 writing
- **Frequently works with:** [Alec Berg](https://film.one/person/alec-berg.md), [Jeff Schaffer](https://film.one/person/jeff-schaffer.md), [Andy Ackerman](https://film.one/person/andy-ackerman.md), [Anthony Hines](https://film.one/person/anthony-hines.md), [Craig Zisk](https://film.one/person/craig-zisk.md), [Dan Attias](https://film.one/person/dan-attias.md), [Dan Mazer](https://film.one/person/dan-mazer.md), [David Mandel](https://film.one/person/david-mandel.md)
- **Primetime Emmy Awards:** 1 Emmy (1 won)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 76, as director, over 4 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1980s 90 (1), 2000s 72 (4), 2010s 80 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 76 to 76 across 4 titles
- **Score spread:** 3 at 80+, 0 at 60–79, 1 under 60
- **Genres:** Comedy 4
- **Screen time:** 3 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $401m across 2 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Charles, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q722115, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0153078/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/6767

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*Curb Your Enthusiasm*](https://film.one/tv/curb-your-enthusiasm.md) (84), [*Entourage*](https://film.one/tv/entourage.md) (63)
- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan*](https://film.one/film/borat-cultural-learnings-of-america-for-make-benefit-glorious-nation-of-kazakhstan.md) (81), [*Brüno*](https://film.one/film/bruno.md) (58)
- **Netflix:** [*Seinfeld*](https://film.one/tv/seinfeld.md) (90)
- **Disney+:** [*New Girl*](https://film.one/tv/new-girl.md) (80)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Larry Charles

> Larry Charles favours comedy in which an awkward encounter is allowed to get worse. We rate his character-led television work highly, but his move towards provocation comes with a risk: shock can become a substitute for a joke.

In *Seinfeld* (1989), the listener’s disbelief can be funnier than the line that prompted it. Larry Charles contributed as a writer, helping to develop Kramer and giving the comedy some of its darker stories. We rate the series highly for its plotting and ensemble acting, which make these selfish people worth spending an evening with. The opening episodes are tentative, but the selfish quartet reward the patience.

The craft around Charles’s writing matters. Cinematographers Robert Berry and Charles W. Short make the listener worth watching, while editors Robert Souders and Bill Lowe give objections and interruptions room. Production designer David Sackeroff keeps the surroundings ordinary enough for petty arguments to feel at home. Jonathan Wolff’s music gives the characters’ self-satisfaction a suitably cheeky accompaniment. Charles’s writing is one part of a shared achievement.

With *Curb Your Enthusiasm* (2000), Charles moved into directing and a more improvisational way of working. Larry David’s everyday disputes give that interest in difficult behaviour plenty of room. We laughed at David’s persistence because the supporting cast know how long to let him talk himself into further disagreement. The repeated quarrels can become wearing, though, and we would take the programme an episode at a time.

*Borat* (2006) takes that appetite for awkwardness into encounters with unsuspecting people, with Sacha Baron Cohen as the performer. Charles’s skill here is leaving room for reactions that neither director nor performer can entirely predict. *Brüno* (2009) continues the collaboration, while *Religulous* (2008), with Bill Maher, pursues his interest in provocative non-fiction comedy. Having moved away from sitcom construction, he makes the uncertainty of an encounter part of its appeal.

The weakness is an overreliance on shock, which helps explain why *The Dictator* (2012) feels uneven. Making somebody uncomfortable does not necessarily give us much to watch once the first surprise has passed. We would start with *Seinfeld*, where a character need only object to something trivial to be worth watching.

## Biography

Larry Charles is an American screenwriter, director and producer. He was a staff writer for the sitcom *Seinfeld* for its first five seasons, from 1991 to 1994.

Charles directed 19 episodes of the HBO series *Curb Your Enthusiasm* beginning in 2000. He has also directed the films *Borat* (2006), *Religulous* (2008), *Brüno* (2009) and *The Dictator* (2012).

He began his career writing for the sketch series *Fridays* in the early 1980s and later worked on *The Arsenio Hall Show* and *Mad About You*.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (6)

### Directed (4) — the average rests on these

- *New Girl* (2011), Fi1m 80, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/new-girl.md)
- *Brüno* (2009), Fi1m 58, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/bruno.md)
- *Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan* (2006), Fi1m 81, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/borat-cultural-learnings-of-america-for-make-benefit-glorious-nation-of-kazakhstan.md)
- *Curb Your Enthusiasm* (2000), Fi1m 84, Executive Producer, Consulting Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/curb-your-enthusiasm.md)

### Wrote (2)

- *Entourage* (2004), Fi1m 63, Writer, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/entourage.md)
- *Seinfeld* (1989), Fi1m 90, Producer, Writer — [page](https://film.one/tv/seinfeld.md)

## Complete filmography (22)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Unexpurgated: Slavoj Zizek* (2024), Director
- *Dicks: The Musical* (2023), Director, Producer
- *Larry Charles' Dangerous World of Comedy* (2019), series, Director
- *Army of One* (2016), as Interviewer · Director
- *The Comedians* (2015), series, Executive Producer
- *The Dictator* (2012), Director
- *New Girl* (2011), series, Director — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/tv/new-girl.md)
- *Brüno* (2009), Director — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/film/bruno.md)
- *Religulous* (2008), Director
- *A Little Inappropriate* (2008), series, Director, Creator
- *Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan* (2006), Director — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/borat-cultural-learnings-of-america-for-make-benefit-glorious-nation-of-kazakhstan.md)
- *Seinfeld: How It Began* (2004), Actor
- *Entourage* (2004), series, Audition Producer, Writer, Executive Producer — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/tv/entourage.md)
- *Masked and Anonymous* (2003), Writer, Director
- *The Tick* (2001), series, Producer, Writer
- *Curb Your Enthusiasm* (2000), series, Executive Producer, Director, Consulting Producer — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/curb-your-enthusiasm.md)
- *Dilbert* (1999), series, Story, Teleplay, Writer, Executive Producer, Creator
- *Mad About You* (1992), series, Writer, Executive Producer
- *Seinfeld* (1989), series, as Unresponsive Man, Man in Hallway, Stinky Man, Man on Raft #2 · Writer, Producer — Fi1m 90, [page](https://film.one/tv/seinfeld.md)
- *Monsters* (1988), series, Writer
- *Fridays* (1980), series, Writer
- *Tarzana* (1978), Second Assistant Director

## Gallery

- ![Larry Charles](https://film.one/media/person/61637/gallery-281e19a7aba4.jpg) Larry Charles — Jeff Karpala from Brampton, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Larry_Charles_TIFF_2008_-_Religulous.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Borat Director and Seinfeld Writer Larry Charles talks with the Fans at Ryerson University Theater outside of the Tiff '08 Premiere of His new documentary, Reli (2008)](https://film.one/media/person/61637/gallery-ea2e7e1d4862.jpg) Borat Director and Seinfeld Writer Larry Charles talks with the Fans at Ryerson University Theater outside of the Tiff '08 Premiere of His new documentary, Reli (2008) — christopherharte, www.christopherharte.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Larry_Charles_talks_with_fans_outside_TIFF_premiere_of_Religulous.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)

## Awards

### Primetime Emmy Awards — 1 won

- 1992: Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series (won), for *Seinfeld*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/larry-charles