 He starred in the television movie A Deadly Silence in 1989 and appeared in a number of television roles , including on L.A. Law , The Wonder Years , NYPD Blue , and Monty , in the early 1990s . Schwimmer later gained worldwide recognition for playing Ross Geller in the sitcom Friends , for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1995 . His first leading film role was in The Pallbearer ( 1996 ) , which was followed by roles in Kissing a Fool ( 1998 ) , Six Days Seven Nights ( 1998 ) , Apt Pupil , and Picking Up the Pieces ( 2000 ) . He was then cast in the miniseries Band of Brothers ( 2001 ) as Herbert Sobel . After the series finale of Friends in 2004 , Schwimmer was cast as the title character in the 2005 drama Duane Hopwood . Other film roles include Melman in the computer animated Madagascar films , the dark comedy Big Nothing ( 2006 ) , and the thriller Nothing But the Truth ( 2008 ) . Schwimmer made his West End stage debut in the leading role in Some Girl ( s ) in 2005 . In 2006 , he made his Broadway debut in The Caine Mutiny Court @-@ Martial . Schwimmer made his feature film directorial debut with the 2007 comedy Run Fatboy Run . The following year he made his Off @-@ Broadway directorial debut in the 2008 production , Fault Lines . In 2016 , he starred as Robert Kardashian in American Crime Story , for which he received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie . 
