What The 40-Year-Old Virgin Cast Looks Like Today
The year is 2005, and all of a sudden, a writer-director named Judd Apatow is the biggest thing around thanks to his hit comedy "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." Sure, producing "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" the year before helped put Apatow on the map, but the story of a kind but lonely man who hasn't found love after four decades helped really establish Apatow as one of the most important filmmakers of his kind. Led by Steve Carell — who was still at the beginning of his tenure as Michael Scott on "The Office" — "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" is a special movie because it never makes a fool or a joke out of Carell's titular virgin Andy, who's a sweet and well-intentioned guy who simply missed his chance time and time again.
The movie is a certifiable classic and led to more Apatow flicks like "Knocked Up" and "Funny People," which both also approached the emotional and internal workings of its characters with Apatow's characteristic sensitivity and care. Like Apatow's later movies, "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" also featured a star-studded cast alongside Carell. So, what do they look like now?
Steve Carell has become an A-list actor
In the years since "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," Steve Carell has become one of the most beloved and marketable stars on both the big and small screen — which is all the more impressive considering that one of his most famous roles is as a boorish, irritating office manager. Carell plays Andy, who ends up linking up with his coworkers at Smart Tech as they try to help him find a romantic (and physical) connection despite his total lack of experience. Andy is, all things considered, a well-meaning good guy who just wants to settle down with someone and Carell brings a sweet earnestness to the role — even in the film's famous waxing scene. Carell also co-wrote the film alongside Judd Apatow.
Everyone knows Carell played Michael Scott on "The Office" before leaving in Season 7, and after his overwhelming success on television, he pivoted to film. Aside from a string of comedies like "Evan Almighty," "Get Smart," "Date Night," and "Crazy, Stupid, Love," Carell showed off his dramatic chops in "Little Miss Sunshine," "The Big Short," and "Foxcatcher," earning an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for the latter. Carell is still a big-screen fixture in projects like "Vice" and "Asteroid City," but he also returned to television with leading roles in "Space Force," "The Morning Show," and "The Patient."
Catherine Keener has been keeping audiences entertained for years
Just when all seems hopeless for Andy, he meets Trish Piedmont (Catherine Keener), who owns a little business across the street from Smart Tech. After meeting Trish at her store — which prepares items to be sold on eBay — the two go on a date. And after a run-in with Trish's teenage daughter, they decide it's better if they wait 20 whole dates to consummate their relationship. When Andy is still terrified to take that step after those 20 dates, though, Trish is impatient, confused, and even insulted until Andy dramatically tells her that he's only freaked out because he's never had sex before. Upon learning this, Trish tells him this isn't a big deal at all, and the two finally seal the deal on their wedding night.
Keener, a versatile and skilled performer who has basically mastered every genre at this point, followed up the comedy with dramas like "Into the Wild" and "Synecdoche, New York." Her most high-profile role in recent years is almost definitely her supporting turn in Jordan Peele's acclaimed directorial debut "Get Out," where she plays Missy Armitage, the matriarch of a secretly sinister family who tortures her daughter's boyfriend, Chris (Daniel Kaluuya), during a weekend getaway. Keener is consistently delightful and she hits every note as Trish.
Romany Malco has been working steadily since The 40-Year-Old Virgin
The guys who work alongside Andy at Smart Tech are pretty invested in Andy's love life once they learn he's a virgin after an awkward poker night — and Romany Malco's Jay might be the most invested of all. He's definitely not perfect, though. As Malco himself put it in the movie's production notes, "With a title like 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin,' you would think that the main character would be a big freak. But, if anything, Jay is probably the biggest one in the entire film. He constantly runs around sleeping with all these women without ever making a real, quality connection with anyone." Malco definitely isn't wrong, considering that at one point, Jay goes as far as to hire a sex worker to "surprise" Andy. And as fans of the film may remember, this does not go well.
After "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," Malco went on to appear with Mary-Louise Parker on the hit Showtime series "Weeds." He also snagged a supporting role in the Tina Fey-Amy Poehler comedy "Baby Mama," as well parts in "Blades of Glory" and "The Love Guru." Recently, you might have spotted Malco in shows like "A Million Little Things," which wrapped up its run on ABC in 2023.
Seth Rogen is a writer, actor, and producer
Alongside Jay, Seth Rogen's Cal is also a key part of the Smart Tech gang, and he's perhaps the kindest and least erratic of the bunch. Despite being a total womanizer, like the rest of his friends, Cal is kind and supportive towards Andy, and he's the one who tells Andy that he just needs to be confident and happy with who he is.
Rogen is an obvious addition to the movie considering his previous relationship with Judd Apatow — the two worked together on the cult classic TV series "Freaks and Geeks" — and it definitely helped jumpstart his film career. Two years after "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," Rogen had a banner year in 2007 when he starred in Apatow's follow-up "Knocked Up" with Katherine Heigl and co-wrote "Superbad" with his creative partner, Evan Goldberg. Both movies were huge hits in every respect, and Rogen hasn't slowed down in the years since, writing and starring in movies like "Pineapple Express" and "This is the End" and showing up in unexpected wins like "Steve Jobs," "Long Shot," and "The Fabelmans." Rogen still works with Goldberg for nearly all of his self-made projects, and throughout his career, he's become somewhat of a Hollywood staple. So, we can all thank Apatow for giving him his earliest job.
Paul Rudd is an ageless superstar
Rounding out the Smart Tech core crew is David, played perfectly by Judd Apatow's regular collaborator, Paul Rudd. David is well-meaning but also wildly depressed after an awful break-up, so he spends a lot of the movie more or less telling Andy that pursuing women is a pointless venture and he shouldn't even bother. Luckily, Andy doesn't listen to him and finds his happy ending with Trish.
Seeing that this piece focuses on what the stars of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" look like today, it's important to note that Paul Rudd has, somewhat infamously, looked basically the same for years. He's also one of the biggest movie stars on the planet at this point. Rudd had already co-starred in "Anchorman" by the time he played David, and he kept his streak going with "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." Rudd later co-starred opposite Seth Rogen in "Knocked Up," worked with Apatow and Jason Segel in "I Love You, Man," and reprised his "Knocked Up" persona Pete in "This is 40." Rudd is also, of course, Ant-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and has led two standalone "Ant-Man" films.
Elizabeth Banks shines in front of and behind the camera
As he tries to put himself out there and meet women, Andy encounters Beth — played by Elizabeth Banks — at a local bookstore, and his strategy of only asking questions about her instead of revealing anything about himself totally works. Beth is smitten, and more to the point, Beth is pretty weird. After Andy and Trish fight, he seeks Beth out again, only to realize he may have bitten off more than he can chew when it comes to this specific paramour.
Banks wasn't quite as well-known when she appeared in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," but her career certainly took off from there. Banks joined the cast of "Scrubs" as Dr. Kim Briggs, the love interest to Zach Braff's Dr. John "J.D." Dorian, and then played one of Ryan Reynolds' three ex-wives in the romantic comedy "Definitely, Maybe." High-profile roles like Effie Trinket in "The Hunger Games," Avery Jessup on "30 Rock," and Gail Abernathy-McKadden in the "Pitch Perfect" franchise followed, at which point Banks pulled double duty and started stepping behind the camera. She ultimately directed "Pitch Perfect 2," co-produced "Pitch Perfect 3," directed and starred in a "Charlie's Angels" remake, and took a pretty impressive career leap when she directed the absurd 2023 thriller "Cocaine Bear."
Kat Dennings led a sitcom and joined the MCU
Dating as a single parent can be hard, and Trish's daughter Marla (Kat Dennings) definitely shows just how tricky that situation can be. After she walks in on Trish and Andy trying to do the deed early on — leading to the couple's 20-date deal — Marla is openly hostile towards Andy until he finally wins her over. When she announces to Trish that she's ready to lose her virginity, Andy volunteers to take her to a sexual health clinic to learn more, and everyone there makes fun of Marla for still being a virgin. Andy tells the room that he's one too, and Marla is far more understanding and sympathetic toward her mom's boyfriend as a result.
Dennings starred in the 2008 romantic comedy "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" with Michael Cera, following that up with her MCU debut in the first "Thor" movie. From there, she and Beth Behrs led the Chuck Lorre-produced sitcom "2 Broke Girls" for six seasons, and Dennings has returned to the MCU for projects like "Thor: The Dark World," "Thor: Love and Thunder" and "WandaVision." She also starred in the (unfortunately) short-lived Hulu original series "Dollface" and popped up in the ensemble film "Friendsgiving."
Jane Lynch is still one of the funniest performers in Hollywood
Beyond Andy's group of coworkers-turned-friends at Smart Tech, there's also Jane Lynch's Paula, the store's manager who oversees all of the boys' antics. Paula is, to put it lightly, strange. At one point, she breaks into song as she remembers an old flame, and she also offers to, well, take care of Andy's "problem" for him any time he likes. Andy does not take Paula up on this offer at any point.
The reason Paula is one of the funniest parts of the entire film, though, is that she's played by Jane Lynch. A comedic performer who cut her teeth on roles in Christopher Guest's improvised comedies like "Best in Show" and "For Your Consideration," Lynch later originated the now-iconic — and heavily memed — role of Coach Sue Sylvester on the Ryan Murphy series "Glee." Between "The L Word," "The Good Fight," "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," and movies like "Julie and Julia" and "Role Models," it's easier to pin down projects in which Lynch doesn't appear at some point. The actress also played a vital recurring role in the Hulu original series "Only Murders in the Building" until the end of Season 3, where she's gunned down after an unknown assailant assumes she's Steve Martin's character, Charles-Haden Savage.
Jonah Hill is an Oscar-nominated actor several times over
Did you forget that Jonah Hill was even in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin?" It's understandable if that's the case because, frankly, Hill is barely in it at all. He has a small cameo as a strange customer at Trish's store who really, really wants to buy a pair of sparkly platform boots with goldfish in the platforms, not understanding that the things in Trish's store aren't actually for sale.
Obviously, Hill's career took off after this tiny cameo, thanks in large part to Seth Rogen. In 2007, he played the character based on Rogen in "Superbad" and worked with the whole Apatow gang again in "Knocked Up," catapulting him to fame. Hill later picked up scene-stealing roles in Apatow-produced projects like "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Get Him to the Greek."
Hill scored his first Oscar nomination for 2011's Moneyball — which he lampooned in the Seth Rogen-Evan Goldberg film "This is the End" in 2013 — and his second for 2013's "Wolf of Wall Street." However, the star still found time to film silly, over-the-top comedies like 2012's "21 Jump Street." Hill's role in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" is pretty tiny, but it clearly aligned him with a ton of future collaborators.
Mindy Kaling is a multi-talented showrunner and best-selling author
Remember how Paul Rudd's David is going through a life-changing, earth-shattering breakup? Well, that breakup was with Mindy Kaling's Amy, and when the two run into each other at a speed dating event, all hell briefly breaks loose. Amy has absolutely no love left for David, who first offers to whisk her away to Paris and then berates her from across the table until she simply gets up and leaves. David also tells Andy, at one point, that Amy cheated on him, so they were definitely never on totally solid ground.
Kaling wrote for and starred as Kelly Kapoor in "The Office" when "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" was being filmed, so it stands to reason that her connection to Steve Carell probably landed her a small role in this film. From there, Kaling's star rose steadily, and after "The Office" ended, she created and starred in her own sitcom, "The Mindy Project." Kaling has shown up in projects like "The Five-Year Engagement," "No Strings Attached," "Ocean's 8," and "A Wrinkle in Time," but at this point, she's probably best known for her work as a writer and showrunner. Kaling's two books — "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)" and "Why Not Me?" — both hit the New York Times Bestseller list. The writer-producer has created shows like Max's comedy "The Sex Lives of College Girls."
Leslie Mann's career is more than just Judd Apatow movies
To say that Andy's first attempt to pick up a woman at a bar is a disaster is a severe understatement. Out with his friends, Andy meets fun-loving Nicky (Leslie Mann), who seems great until she offers to drive them to her place (Andy bikes rather than driving) and has him blow into a breathalyzer to start the car. Nicky, who is extraordinarily drunk, takes them on a harrowing ride until they almost crash, at which point she pukes all over Andy's face and blames it on some bad seafood.
Mann is a staple of Judd Apatow's filmography for a simple reason: she's his wife. Alongside their children, Maude and Iris Apatow, Mann has appeared in everything from "Knocked Up" to "Funny People" to "This is 40," but she also works steadily outside of her husband's films. Mann is a ridiculously gifted comedic actor and has led movies like "The Other Woman," "How to be Single," and "Blockers." The point is, though, if you're watching a Judd Apatow movie, you can pretty much guarantee that Mann will be involved in one way or another.