Acting After developing his skills as a stand-up comedian, Reiser had a breakout film role in 1982 when he appeared in
Diner, a
coming-of-age film directed by
Barry Levinson. Reiser's character, Modell, a closet stand-up comedian, effectively brought Reiser's abilities to the attention of
Hollywood. He followed this success playing a detective in
Beverly Hills Cop (1984), a role he reprised in its sequel
Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), and again in
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. and performed the piano for the theme's recording. Reiser's role in
Mad About You earned nominations for an
Emmy, a
Golden Globe, an
American Comedy Award and a
Screen Actors Guild Award for him. For the show's final season, Reiser and Hunt received $1 million ($ million today) per episode. After signing onto a
Mad About You revival in 2018, it was picked up as a 12-episode limited series by
Spectrum Originals in March 2019, which became available for members of
Amazon Prime Video as of fall 2020. In 2001, Reiser played a dramatic role as a man desperate to locate his biological mother, after learning he has a serious illness, in the British TV film
My Beautiful Son. In 2002, Reiser made a guest appearance as himself on
Larry David's
HBO sitcom,
Curb Your Enthusiasm. In the TV comedy film
Atlanta (2007), Reiser appears as one half of a couple who, after meeting at a funeral, are unable to stay away from each other. In 2010, Reiser collaborated with the singer
Julia Fordham to create a CD album titled
Unusual Suspects, which includes the song "UnSung Hero", dedicated to American soldiers serving in
Afghanistan. The two embarked on an acoustic tour after its release. Reiser also co-wrote the song, "No There There" with
Melissa Manchester for her 2015 album,
You Gotta Love the Life. Early in his career, Reiser was the opening act for Manchester, who warned him that music audiences can be rough on comedians and that the last comedian that opened for her left the stage in tears. Reiser reflects about this warning and on how he then bombed at the
Concord Hotel in the chapter "Don't Worry if They Suck" in ''I Killed: True Stories of the Road from America's Top Comics'' (2010), by Ritch Shydner and Mark Schiff. Reiser scripted and starred in the semi-autobiographical comedy series
The Paul Reiser Show, which aired on
NBC as a
mid-season replacement during the 2010–11 TV season. "This is nice", commented Reiser on the
Stephanie Miller radio program, "because you get to sit around and root for other shows to fail." However, due to the lack of
lead time and
promotion by NBC prior to its debut (as well as
poor scheduling), the low-rated show was canceled on April 22, 2011, with only two episodes aired. He co-created (but did not star in) the 2017 dramedy ''
There's... Johnny!, set backstage at The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' in 1972. Originally created for
Seeso, the seven-episode season was released on
Hulu after Seeso's collapse. In recent years Reiser has appeared in films such as
Whiplash and TV series such as
Red Oaks, Stranger Things and
The Boys. In 2022, Reiser appeared in the
third season of
The Boys as
The Legend, and will reprise his role in the fifth season. In 2024, Reiser will revisit his
Aliens character for a new
Marvel comic titled
Aliens: What If...? which will explore what could have happened if Carter Burke survived the events of Hadley's Hope. The book is co-written by his son, Leon Reiser, with art by Guiu Vilanova.
Writing Reiser has written three books:
Couplehood (1995), about the ups and downs of being in a committed relationship;
Babyhood (1997), about his experiences as a first-time father, and
Familyhood (2011), a collection of humorous essays.
Couplehood is unique in that it starts on page 145; Reiser explained this as his method of giving the reader a false sense of accomplishment. In 1996, Reiser appeared on
Late Show with David Letterman in the middle of writing
Babyhood. Since he had not yet decided on a title, he presented a prop book, titled simply "Book" and with the same cover as that of
Couplehood. The term
olive theory was first coined in
Couplehood. He also co-wrote
Michael McDonald's memoir
What a fool believes. They discuss how the book came about and McDonald's career on the first episode of season one of
Recorded Live at Analog. ==Personal life==