By Mark Gray
4:20pm PDT, Sep 27, 2017
It is returning! After a six-year hiatus, "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is back on HBO and, well, it seems that nothing has changed on the show. Larry is still as inappropriate as ever and people continue to call him out on his neurotic and often indefensible behavior. As much as we don't want to admit it, we can all relate to Larry at times. "Curb" is a show really unlike any other. It also often uses the actors' and actresses' real first names and sometimes famous characters play amped-up versions of themselves. On Oct. 1, 2017, "Curb" returns for its ninth season, but the show actually debuted 17 years ago. A lot has happened since then. We're taking a look at how the lives of the cast have changed since that first episode aired back in 2000…
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Larry David was already famous when "Curb Your Enthusiasm" began, but he was much more of a behind-the-scenes star as the co-creator and executive producer of "Seinfeld." Two years after "Seinfeld" ended, he started his work in front of the camera on "Curb" and became one of the more sought-after names on TV. Over the years, he's largely played himself in TV shows and movies. He was a fairly constant presence during the 2016 Democratic primary season when he played candidate Bernie Sanders on "Saturday Night Live." One of his crowning achievements came in 2015 when he wrote and starred in the Broadway show "Fish in the Dark." The play centered on how 15 people deal with a death in the family. The play was highly successful, breaking Broadway records for advance ticket sales. His love life, however, was less successful: In 2007, after 14 years of marriage, he and Laurie David divorced. After the split, he spoke to Howard Stern about dating. "Why else would somebody approach me? Who's going up to a bald guy, an old bald guy? Nobody!" he said. "If I wasn't on television, who's coming up to me? People would run from me, are you kidding? If I tried to flirt with a woman and she didn't know who I was, she would run away."
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Jeff Garlin was a fairly well-known comedian before he joined the cast of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," on which he also serves as an executive producer. As Larry's best friend Jeff Greene, Jeff often calls out Larry on his nonsense. Since he started in the role, Jeff's career has skyrocketed, especially as a voice actor. He's become a Disney go-to! His voice can be heard in "Wall-E," "Toy Story 3" and "Cars 2." He'll again voice Buttercup in "Toy Story 4" in 2019. He also went on to star on the cult classic "Arrested Development." And since 2013, he has starred as Murray Goldberg on ABC's "The Goldbergs." Jeff is doing just fine these days.
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Cheryl Hines stars as Larry David's wife/ex-wife, Cheryl, on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" (Lord help her!). Cheryl, the real one, has had some heartbreak and luck in her real life when it comes to marriage. She married producer Paul Young in 2002 but the couple, who have a teenage daughter, split in 2010. Then, in 2014, she married American royalty: Cheryl is now Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. While Cheryl on "Curb" continues to be her biggest role to date, she has carved out quite a nice career in TV and movies, having starred in "Think Like a Man Too" and on TV's "Suburgatory." In November 2017, she'll also star as Kristen Bell's mom in "Bad Moms 2." By the way, did we mention that she's married to a Kennedy?!
Susie Essman plays Susie Greene on "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Everyone has a soft spot for Susie because of her foul-mouthed hatred of Larry, who is her TV husband's best friend. Since debuting on "Curb," the real Susie has gone on to star in bit spots on TV shows. Her biggest role, other than "Curb," was voicing Mittens in Disney's "Bolt" in 2008. That same year, she married Jim Harder. In 2009, she also released "What Would Susie Say?," an autobiographical book about life as a struggling startup comedian to her time scoring the "Curb" gig.
Richard Lewis plays a semi-fictional version of himself on "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and, as with many characters, he's often at odds with Larry. Richard was already a star before joining "Curb," having starred in "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Robin Hood: Men in Tights," in addition to being a sought-after standup comedian. Shortly after he got the role on "Curb," Richard released the book "The Other Great Depression," which described his alcohol addiction and recovery from alcoholism.
J.B. Smoove joined the show in 2007 as Leon Black. Leon was taken in by Larry David following Hurricane Katrina. Leon loves Los Angeles too much to leave. He often serves as Larry's confidante. Since joining "Curb," J.B. has seen a steady rise to fame. He starred in "Date Night" in 2010, "We Bought a Zoo" in 2011 and "The Smurfs 2" in 2013. The comedian starred on "The Millers" from 2013 to 2015. He also had a major role on the FOX sitcom "'Til Death." He married singer Shahidah Omar in 2007 and they have one daughter together.
Marty Funkhouser, played by Bob Einstein, is often Larry's punching bag. They're friends, but they couldn't be more different. Bob actually came to "Curb Your Enthusiasm" with impressive credentials — he won Emmys in 1969 and 1977. Many people likely know him as Matt Damon's father in 2007's "Ocean's Thirteen" or as Super Dave Osborne, a fictional character he's essentially played regularly since 1991. His brother is actor and comedian Albert Brooks.
From 2002 to 2009, Shelley Berman starred as Nat David, Larry's dad, on "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Larry genuinely loves his father, but calls him out for things that come with aging, like hearing loss and diminishing eyesight. In 2008, Shelley was nominated for an Emmy for best guest actor in a comedy series for his work on "Curb." Shelley had been in TV and films since the 1950s, but he continued working all through the 2000s, including a run on "Boston Legal" from 2006 to 2008. Sadly, on Sept. 1, 2017, Shelley passed away at the age of 92.
Ted Danson was a cinematic legend before he ever appeared on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" as himself ("Cheers," "Becker," "3 Men and a Baby," among so many others). Ted and his real-life wife, Mary Steenburgen, actually starred on the second episode of "Curb," but he has gone on to have a constant presence throughout the duration of the show. Ted is also a constant presence in American culture. From 2011 to 2015, he starred on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" as supervisor D.B. Russell. He was on the TV series "Fargo" in 2015. In 2016, he began starring on "The Good Place" on NBC. An environmentalist, Ted released a book in 2011, "Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans And What We Can Do To Save Them." On the personal side of life, he's a staunch Democrat who often donates to his political party's candidates.
Ashly Holloway is the youngest continuous cast member on "Curb Your Enthusiasm." She plays Jeff and Susie's daughter, Sammi Greene. She was 9 when she first got the part, which was one of her first gigs. "Curb" helped her nab a starring role in 2004's "The Polar Express." She's now in her mid-20s.
Vivica A. Fox joined "Curb Your Enthusiasm" in 2007 as Loretta Black, Leon Black's wife. She had a pretty major role that season and has said she's open to return, which often happens on the show. Vivica has become a very recognizable name in Hollywood over the years, starring in "Kill Bill," "Independence Day: Resurgence" and FOX's "Empire." And she has no plans to slow down either. In 2017, she started a new project called "Vivica's Black Magic," a reality show that chronicles her efforts to launch an all-male exotic dance group. The single actress ended her engagement to club promoter Omar "Slim" White in November 2011.
Like countless celebrities, Rosie O'Donnell has only starred on a few episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," but each appearance was memorable, none more so than when she and Larry tried to court the same woman. If you haven't seen Rosie over the last decade, where have you been? She's been on countless TV shows and was a host on "The View" for two different stints, the first time from 2005 to 2007 and the second time from 2014 to 2015. Her personal life has taken up more pages in the tabloids than she cares to remember. In 2004, she married Kelli Carpenter. They have four children together. Rosie and Kelly split in 2007. In 2012, she married Michelle Rounds and the two adopted a baby girl, Dakota. In November 2014, Rosie and Michelle split. The next year, Rosie's daughter Chelsea went missing, only to be found a few days later with a man she met on a dating app. Chelsea ended up moving in with her biological mom when she turned 18, but then moved back with Rosie. The two again had a falling out and Chelsea accused Rosie of abuse, which the comedian strongly denied. September 2017 was a tough month for Rosie: Chelsea, from whom she's still estranged, announced she was pregnant, and ex-wife Michelle committed suicide.
Wanda Sykes is one of the funniest people alive. Wanda, like others, has played herself on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" as a recurring character. Wanda is thankfully hard to miss these days. In 2004, Entertainment Weekly named her as one of the 25 funniest people in America. For five years, from 2006 to 2010, she starred on "The New Adventures of Old Christine." She also lent her voice to "Ice Age: Continental Drift." Through it all, she has also continued to put out her own comedy specials, and she's been rewarded for it. In 2007, she was nominated for an Emmy for "Wanda Sykes: Sick and Tired." In 2010, she was nominated for two Emmys for "Wanda Sykes: I'ma Be Me." In 2015, she began starring as a recurring character on "Black-ish." Oh yeah, she was nominated for an Emmy for that too. In November 2008, Wanda publicly came out as a lesbian. Around the same time, she married her partner, Alex Niedbalski. In 2009, they welcomed fraternal twins, daughter Olivia Lou and son Lucas Claude. In 2011, she announced that she'd been diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ, a non-invasive "stage zero breast cancer." She decide to undergo a bilateral mastectomy in order to lower her chances of getting breast cancer.
We know, we know, she's known far more for her work on "Seinfeld." But Julia Louis-Dreyfus made semi-regular appearances on "Curb Your Enthusiasm" too. In fact, she was on Season 1 of the show and was most recently on Season 7. What has Julia done since "Curb"? What hasn't she done?! You can basically pencil her in for an Emmy Award every year for her work on "Veep." From 2006 to 2017, she was up for best lead comedy actress 11 times! She's won it seven of those years. Julia, who from 2006 to 2010 starred on "The New Adventures of Old Christine," broke records in 2017: Thanks to her Emmy win in September, she now holds the record for most Emmys won by a single actor for one role and is tied Cloris Leachman's record for most Primetime Emmy wins by a single actor (with eight).
