Christopher Guest

Christopher Guest has acted, written, and composed for theater, radio, television, and film. From the late 1960s until 1975 he worked as a stage actor in New York. Concurrently, he began writing for National Lampoon magazine and contributing to the National Lampoon Radio Hour, making five albums, three of which were nominated for Grammys, as well as cowriting and performing in the stage show Lemmings. His television credits include The TV Show (with Rob Reiner), The Chevy Chase Special, The Lily Tomlin Show (for which he received an Emmy Award), and Saturday Night Live as a writer, director, and cast member.

Guest directed his first feature film in 1989, The Big Picture, starring Kevin Bacon, and went on to do Attack of the 50 Foot Woman with Daryl Hannah (1992), Waiting for Guffman (1997), Almost Heroes (1998), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003)—for which he, Eugene Levy, and Michael McKean won a Grammy Award—and For Your Consideration (2006).

Along with Harry Shearer and Michael McKean, Guest has toured the world with the band Spinal Tap as well as the Folksmen. At Carnegie Hall, the Folksmen actually opened for Spinal Tap, which was either meglomania in its purest form or merely overreaching.

Guest has acted in more than a dozen films including A Few Good Men, The Long Riders, The Princess Bride, Little Shop of Horrors, and This Is Spinal Tap. He was most recently seen in Stephen Frears's Mrs. Henderson Presents with Judi Dench.

Guest is married to Jamie Lee Curtis, and they have two children.