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Larry Charles (February 20, 1956) is an American Emmy Award-winning writer, director, and producer. He is best known as a staff writer for the American sitcom Seinfeld, contributing some of the show`s darkest and most absurd storylines. He also directed the films Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan and Religulous.

Born in Brooklyn, Charles performed stand-up comedy in the 1970s until he was hired to write for the short-lived sketch comedy show Fridays (where he worked with Larry David, who would later give him a job as a writer on Seinfeld and director on Curb Your Enthusiasm). This began a career in television writing which included The Arsenio Hall Show and eventually Seinfeld.

Although series co-creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld wrote the bulk of the show`s episodes during the first five seasons, Charles was their second in command during this period. On the DVD commentary to the series, Charles discusses how he was especially instrumental in the development of the Cosmo Kramer character; as he felt that George Costanza and the fictionalized Jerry Seinfeld had their real life counterparts in David and Seinfeld, he felt the task fell to him to flesh out the then `smaller` character. It was Charles who imbued in Kramer a distrust of authority (especially in his episodes "The Baby Shower" and "The Heart Attack") and who created the character of Kramer`s notorious unseen friend Bob Sacamano, after his real-life friend of the same name.

Charles` feature debut was Masked and Anonymous (2003) which he directed, and co-wrote with Bob Dylan (under the pseudonyms Rene Fonatine and Sergei Petrov respectively). The film has received a mixed reaction from audiences and critics alike, although it has been gathering somewhat of a cult following. However, Charles maintains that it takes many viewings to get true enjoyment from the film: "I want the movie to be like a great Bob Dylan song that is listened to over and over and for people to back and see it again and get a lot more things, or totally different things."[2]

His second feature film as director, the critically acclaimed Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, was much more successful. Charles was asked to take over when original director Todd Phillips left the production after creative differences between Phillips and Sacha Baron Cohen, the star of the film, forced Philips off the project.[3] In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Charles discussed how, because of the nature of the mockumentary process, he had to act as well, even if none of his performance made it to the screen: "We all, especially me, had to play a character as well. I wasn`t Larry Charles when we were on the road. We all had to be in character, and we had to balance that with our aesthetic and logistical needs to produce the movie properly[...]The director also had to act."[4] The film was nominated for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes.

Charles` most recent film is Religulous - a documentary about Bill Maher`s take on the current state of world religion,[5] which was released in October 2008. He is currently working on a number of projects, including directing an "Untitled Kanye West HBO Project";[6] as well as directing and co-writing the new National Lampoon movie This is America; an episodic, sketch-comedy style satire of American culture.

Charles rare