You don’t have to tell Nate Corddry that his NBC series “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” has been polarizing viewers and critics.
“If we pursue blogs and TV reviews online, we’ll be made very aware of it, so we avoid all that. We just do our work,” says Corddry, who plays Tom Jeter in the Aaron Sorkin dramedy. “Aaron is polarizing. He’s a smart, opinionated guy who’s not afraid to say how he feels. All of the feedback, positive or negative, ends up in his lap, which must be hard for him.”
Corddry, who makes his network series debut in “Studio 60,” says he first got excited about performing while watching big brother Rob starring in a high-school production of “Bye Bye Birdie.”
“I was so excited,” he says. “It was my first play, and the response he got from the audience was like nothing I had ever seen before. I said, ‘God, I want some of that!’ “
Corddry did plays during his own high-school years but didn’t really commit to making a career of acting until his sophomore year at a liberal arts college. He later trained and performed with the Upright Citizens Brigade, although unlike his older brother, Corddry says he wants to pursue both comedy and drama as an actor.
It was during his 10-month stint with Rob on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” that Corddry found he involuntarily had gone from being billed as “Nathan” to “Nate.”
“It was weird,” he says. “They all saw me as Nate because that’s what my brother calls me. There’s no going back, because I look like a pretentious jackass if I say, ‘Call me Nathan.’ So I’m basically screwed — I’m Nate from now on.”
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Born: Sept. 8, 1977, in Weymouth, Mass.
Family ties: Father is a retired contractor who worked at Boston’s Logan Airport; mother works in customer service for a computer corporation; older brother, Rob; older sister.
Education: Graduated with a degree in communications from Colby-Sawyer College in New London, N.H.
Hobbies: Listening to indie rock, following current political news, watching the Boston Red Sox, drinking beer, playing tennis.
Coming up: Film roles in “The Nanny Diaries” and “The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing.”
