Paul Feig is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer. He started his career as a TV and film actor in the late 1980's and began his transition to a director roughly a decade later. Feig is now best known as a director of female-driven comedies.

Early Life
Born on 17 September, 1962 in Mount Clemens, Michigan, USA, Paul Feig's birth name is Paul Samuel Feig. He was raised as a believer of Christian Science by his parents Sanford William Feig and Elaine Elizabeth. Feig says that he used to prefer hanging around with girls as a child as he used to often get insulted and beaten up by boys in school. On completing his schooling from Chippewa Valley High School Class in 1980, Feig attended the Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. However, he quit in a year and moved to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he studied film and television. He was extremely interested in the entertainment industry and started working as a tour guide at Universal Studios Hollywood whilst simultaneously trying to make it as a comedian.

Personal Life
Paul Feig got married to Laurie Karon on 23 September, 1994. Laurie Karon works as Paul Feig's manager. The actor-turned-director is extremely well respected in the film industry. He is a strong believer in gender equality and claims that women are just as talented and funny as men and should be given equal opportunities in the film industry.

Television Career
Paul Feig landed his first acting role in 1986 with The Facts of Life. Over the next few years, he featured in shows like Dirty Dancing, The Jackie Thomas Show, The Louie Show, and Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. In 1999, Paul Feig and Judd Apatow created the show Freaks and Geeks, which garnered a devoted following in spite of it airing only 12 of its 18 episodes. However, due to popular demand, the remaining episodes were aired as well. In 2007, Time Magazine listed Freaks and Geeks on their “100 Greatest Shows of All Time” list. Paul Feig, who produced, wrote, and directed the show, was nominated twice for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series at the Emmy Awards, for the show's pilot episode and season finale. It was around this time that Feig made the transition from being a TV actor to a TV director, although he still continued to feature as an actor in several shows, usually playing minor roles. Paul Feig believes he is more cut out to be a director rather than an actor, “I realized soon enough that I was more comfortable behind the camera, guiding actors, than being one.”

The year 2005 saw Feig direct multiple episodes of the sitcom, The Office. It was around that time that he also directed several episodes of Arrested Development. In 2007, the actor-turned-director directed an episode of the award-winning show Mad Men as well as one episode of the hit show 30 Rock.

Movie Career
A year after breaking into the TV industry, Paul Feig made his acting debut in a feature film with Zombie High (1987). After a rather unmemorable few years playing small roles in movies like Ski Patrol (1990) and Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult (1994), Feig was seen in the Ben Stiller-starrer Heavyweights (1995). The actor then featured in minor roles in films like My Fellow Americans (1996), Bad Dog (2000), and Stealing Harvard (2002). Feig made his directorial debut in 2003 with the movie I Am David. Although it was a commercial failure, the movie won the Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival and the award for Queens Festival's Best Feature Film. After directing the poorly-received Christmas comedy Unaccompanied Minors (2006), Paul Feig took a break from directing feature films.

During his brief hiatus, Feig was seen acting in movies like Knocked Up (2007) and Bad Teacher (2011). The year 2011 saw him direct the rom-com Bridesmaids, which was nominated for two Oscars and won Best Comedy at the Critic's Choice Movie Awards as well as Favorite Comedy Movie at the People's Choice Awards. The film made over 288 million USD worldwide and helped launch the career of actress Melissa McCarthy, who Paul Feig would continue to work with. Their next collaboration came in the 2013 cop comedy film The Heat, which also starred Sandra Bullock. Paul Feig not only directed the film but also made a cameo appearance. The Heat won Favorite Comedic Movie at the People's Choice Awards. In 2015, Paul Feig directed, wrote, and produced the action spy comedy film Spy, once again starring Melissa McCarthy, this time alongside Rose Byrne, Jason Statham, and Jude Law. Spy was widely appreciated by audiences and critics alike and won Best Comedy at the Empire Awards. Paul Feig then directed and wrote the movie Ghostbusters (2016), a supernatural comedy. A reboot of the old Ghostbusters franchise which was created in the 1980's, the movie boasts a female-dominated cast of Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones.