Larry Charles (born ) is an American comedian, screenwriter, director, actor, and producer. He was a staff writer for the sitcom Seinfeld for its first five seasons. He has also directed the documentary film Religulous and the mockumentary comedy films Borat, Brüno, and The Dictator. His Netflix documentary series Larry Charles' Dangerous World of Comedy premiered in 2019. Early life Charles was raised in a Jewish family in Trump Village, located between Brighton Beach and Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from John Dewey High School, he attended college at Rutgers University in New Jersey, but he left school to perform comedy routines. Career Early career Charles performed stand-up comedy during the 1970s until he was hired to write for the short-lived sketch comedy show Fridays, where he worked with Larry David. This began Charles's career in television writing that included The Arsenio Hall Show and eventually Seinfeld. David gave him the job as a writer on Seinfeld and his directorial debut on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Seinfeld Although series co-creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld wrote the bulk of the show's episodes during the early seasons, Charles was their second in command during this period. Charles had met Seinfeld co-creator David when he was part of the writing staff of the ABC sketch show Fridays, on which David and Michael Richards were also part of the show's ensemble cast. Charles had been unable to write for the show's first season, as he had been writing for The Arsenio Hall Show. Charles is noted for contributing some of the show's darker storylines and scenes. In the season two episode "The Baby Shower" Charles wrote a dream sequence in which the title character, Jerry Seinfeld, was killed. Charles's episodes also covered such controversial topics as Nazis (in "The Limo"), a psychotic stalker (in "The Opera") and a hospital patient committing suicide (in "The Bris"). A season two episode he wrote, "The Bet", concerning Elaine buying a handgun to protect herself, was never filmed because NBC, some of the cast, and the show's director felt the gun content was too provocative. Charles claimed that his writing on Seinfeld was heavily influenced by Dragnet, Superman and Abbott and Costello. Charles said he was instrumental in the development of Cosmo Kramer; he felt that "Jerry and George were so well-defined through Larry David and Jerry, that there was less room for me to,