Born on April 29, 1954, in Brooklyn, N.Y., Jerry Seinfeld decided early on that he wanted to be funny like his father, a sign maker who was also a closet comedian. By age 8 Seinfeld was putting himself through a sort of comic training, watching television day and night to study the technique of every comedian he saw. Shortly after graduating from Queens College in New York in 1976, he attempted to make his stand-up debut behind the open mike of a Manhattan comedy club, but his mind went blank, his body went numb, and he could only mutter a few words before slinking off the stage. Later he learned that the audience had actually liked him and, encouraged, Seinfeld resolved to try again. While performing in New York comedy clubs for the next few years, Seinfeld took odd jobs, including brief stints selling light bulbs over the telephone and hawking costume jewelry on the sidewalks of New York City, because he couldn't support himself with his performances.

After he spent years refining his act, it took Seinfeld five minutes to become a hit with his television appearance on The Tonight Show in 1981. Dozens of talk shows and hundreds of club and college appearances later, Seinfeld was voted the funniest male stand-up comic in 1988 at the American Comedy Awards. This success was followed by the 1989 debut of Seinfeld. Produced and sometimes cowritten by Seinfeld, the quirky, widely watched show emphasized well structured stories, seemingly insignificant subject matter, and a buddy system of comedy in which the Jerry character often played a straight man to his three tightly wound, loosely screwed friends. A typical episode would put the four in the middle of an ordinary situation drawn from everyday life—for example, waiting for a table in a Chinese restaurant or searching for a car in a mall parking lot. Praised for its inventiveness and dialogue, the program had a widespread impact on popular culture as a prolific source of catchphrases and references. Among other industry honors, Seinfeld earned an Emmy award as producer of the series in 1993.

The show's observational humor was similar to the kind that Seinfeld routinely delivered in his sold-out club appearances and in his 1993 best-selling book ‘SeinLanguage': hip, clever, and generally temperate and clean. Maintaining that performing live was his first love, he planned to return to the road as a stand-up comedian after deciding to stop production of his series in 1998. Although some critics felt that the program was fading as its humor became formulaic, it was still near the top of the ratings during its ninth and final season.