Keir O'Donnell

Keir O'Donnell (born 8 November 1978) is an Australian-born American actor, best-known for his roles in the comedy films Wedding Crashers and Paul Blart: Mall Copas well as numerous television appearances. Early life O'Donnell was born on 8 November 1978, in Sydney, Australia to an Australian father of Irish descent and an English mother. He grew up in the suburb of St. Ives, outside of Sydney. When he was eight years old he and his family moved to Harvard, Massachusetts, United States. He has one sibling, a brother, Patrick, who is eighteen months older. O'Donnell attended high school at The Bromfield School in Harvard, Massachusetts. The Bromfield School has a renowned drama department, and he was involved in numerous productions both on the festival circuit and in community theater. In 1996 he was awarded a Massachusetts High School Drama Guild Acting Scholarship. Upon graduation he joined the first class of the newly created four-year classical theatre acting conservatory at The Hartt School in Hartford, Connecticut. The Hartt School of Theatre was established by Malcolm Morrison and Alan Rust (North Carolina School of the Arts). At the Hartt School he performed in numerous plays including Three Sisters, Lysistrata, Twelfth Night, Philadelphia Here I Come, and played Romeo in Romeo and Juliet opposite Hannah Mello, founder of B.Mello Productions. He graduated in 2000 and was promptly accepted into the prestigious Hartford Stage Co. Regional Theatre under the tutelage of Michael Wilson. While there he appeared in Macbeth and A Christmas Carol. In early 2001, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue work in film and television. In the fall of 2001 he was cast as a lead in the US premiere of The Man Who Never Yet Saw Woman's Nakedness by Moritz Rinke, at The Odyssey Theatre in West Los Angeles. Feature films After several student and independent films, O'Donnell landed the role of Todd Cleary in Wedding Crashers. The film went on to become the highest grossing R-Rated comedy of all time. Not long after Crashers, Vince Vaughn invited O'Donnell to join him on the road for his Wild West Comedy Tour, a tour that hit 30 cities in 30 days across the country. O'Donnell would appear on stage with Vaughn as a special guest doing improv skits. The tour was filmed and can be seen as the documentary: Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show.