Acting Some of Pollak's early television appearances include
Amen,
Thirtysomething, and ''
Who's the Boss?. From 1995 to 1996, he had a recurring role as Mr. Bell on the ABC sitcom The Drew Carey Show''. As a film actor, Pollak's roles frequently include the best friend, family member or confidant character to the leading man, such as in
Ricochet (1991),
A Few Good Men (1992), ''
Wayne's World 2 (1993), Grumpy Old Men (1993) and its sequel Grumpier Old Men (1995), Casino (1995), End of Days (1999), and The Wedding Planner (2001). However, he has also played a wide variety of parts, such as a comical brownie in Willow (1988), the philandering brother of Sarah Jessica Parker in Miami Rhapsody (1995), a criminal in The Usual Suspects (1995), a father in She's All That (1999), a gangster in The Whole Nine Yards (2000) and its sequel The Whole Ten Yards (2004), a lawyer in Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), and Cupid in The Santa Clause 2 (2002) and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006). His most substantial role to date was in Deterrence'' (1999), in which he played the main character, a vice president who must take over for a deceased President and deal with a nuclear crisis. Pollak briefly hosted
Celebrity Poker Showdown in its first season. In December 2006, he played Karl Kreutzfeld in the
Sci Fi Channel miniseries
The Lost Room. Through 2008, he had a recurring role as a district attorney on the television series
Shark. In March 2008, Pollak played himself in the web series
The Writers Room on
Crackle. In 2010, he portrayed Sheriff Tom Wagner in
Choose. In early 2010, Pollak was scheduled to host
Our Little Genius on
FOX, but
the series was pulled before it could air on television. Pollak was then seen hosting
Million Dollar Money Drop for FOX at the end of that year; the show ran for 12 episodes. In 2014, Pollak began a recurring role as Alvin Biletnikoff on the
CBS sitcom
Mom. His time on the show ended with the death of his character. Starting in 2016, Pollak played the role of Marion in the
FX series
Better Things. His character was recurring throughout all five seasons. In 2017, Pollak joined the cast of the
Golden Globe–winning
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, an original series from
Amazon, as Moishe Maisel, the main character's father-in-law. In 2019, Pollak appeared in five episodes of the fourth season on
Showtime's Billions, as Douglas Mason.
Directing Pollak's directorial debut was on the horror web series
Vamped Out, featured on the
internet television platform
Babelgum.
Jason Antoon, Seana Kofoed,
Samm Levine and Pollak all acted in the ensemble cast. The screenbook was based on a simple joke that Antoon and Pollak had between them. Pollak's feature film directorial debut, the comedy documentary
Misery Loves Comedy, premiered at the
2015 Sundance Film Festival. The film sold North American rights to
Tribeca Film, a US distribution company. Pollak directed the comedy film
The Late Bloomer, starring
Johnny Simmons, which was released in 2016.
Stand-up As a comedian, Pollak's most famous work was his 1991
HBO special
Stop with the Kicking, directed by fellow comedian
David Steinberg and produced by comedy writer
Martin Olson. In 2010,
The Littlest Suspect, his most recent comedy special, was aired on
Showtime. Comedy Central named Pollak one of the Top 100 Comedians of All Time.
Celebrity impressions Podcasting In 2009, Pollak partnered with
Jason Calacanis on a weekly Internet talk show, ''Kevin Pollak's Chat Show''. Guests for the show include film directors
Kevin Smith and
Mike Binder, comedians
Jimmy Pardo and
Bill Burr, and actors
Nia Vardalos,
Illeana Douglas,
Bryan Cranston,
Dana Carvey,
Billy West,
John DiMaggio,
Matthew Perry,
Jon Hamm,
Paul Rudd,
Adam Carolla,
Anthony Cumia,
Jason Alexander,
Seth MacFarlane,
Tom Hanks,
Larry David and
Jason Lee. The guest interviews are very in-depth and typically longer than an hour in duration, sometimes exceeding two hours. Common topics include the guests' childhoods, how they got into the business they are in (typically show business), how they got inspired to start certain creative endeavors, and unique experiences they have had while working. Viewers can interact via chat room during the show, and sometimes questions for the guest posed in the chat room are answered live. The show's self-described "
Paul Shaffer" is actor
Samm Levine. Recurring segments and bits on the show include: • "The Larry King Game", which requires the guest to do a bad
Larry King impression, reveal something about oneself (in the persona of Larry King) and then go to the phones and say a funny-sounding city • "Tweet Five", where Pollak reads the guest five questions from a Twitter user, usually in a this-or-that style • "Who Tweeted", in which a host (typically Samm Levine) reads tweets from the Twitter accounts of three female celebrities (the list of actresses varies, but typically includes
Demi Moore (or, more recently,
Justin Bieber),
Tyra Banks, and
Paris Hilton) and Pollak and his guest compete against each other game-show-style to guess who authored each tweet. • "You're Not Buffering", in which Pollak freezes mid-statement during his interview as though the show has paused due to internet lag, but he's actually still live. He then breaks his pause and says, "You're not buffering." In 2012, Pollak began a new podcast called
Talkin Walkin in which he spends an hour or more with a new guest in character as
Christopher Walken. After three episodes, the show was rated in the top 5 of all comedy podcasts by iTunes. He is the only person to ever go "2 for 2" (two exact matches), as a guest on the Sklar Brothers/Daniel Van Kirk podcast
Dumb People Town, in the "Guess the Age" game. The feat was completed on the episode released on April 2, 2018. In 2018, Pollak began hosting a comedy improvisation podcast called
Alchemy This, on the network
iHeartRadio. It features a regular cast of 5 members,
Craig Cackowski, James Heaney, Chris Alvarado, Vanessa Ragland, and Joey Greer, as well as several guests.
Poker Pollak is an avid poker player. He finished 134th out of 6,598 entrants in the
2012 World Series of Poker and won $52,718. He also hosts weekly home games with Hollywood celebrities. ==Personal life==