Orville Willis Forte IV ( FOR-tay; born June 17, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He was a cast member and writer on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live for eight seasons from 2002 to 2010. His most famous recurring character was a parody of MacGyver named MacGruber; he reprised that role in the film adaptation, MacGruber (2010); and the limited series of the same name in 2021.
Forte also created and starred in the sitcom The Last Man on Earth (2015–2018). For the series, he received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations: two for acting and one for writing. He played various roles in comedy films, before starring in the drama film Nebraska (2013). Forte has also voiced characters in numerous animated productions, including the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films, Abraham Lincoln in Clone High and the Lego Movie franchise, and Shaggy Rogers in Scoob! (2020).
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Early life
Orville Willis Forte IV was born on June 17, 1970, in Alameda, California, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area. His mother, Patricia, is an artist and former schoolteacher; his father, Orville Willis, "Reb" Forte III, was a financial broker. He is of Italian and Irish descent. Forte grew up in Moraga before the family moved to Lafayette when he was 13. He went by "Billy" in his early years until he was teased at school for it also being a girl's name. At that point, he chose to be known as "Will." Forte described himself as having been a "really happy little boy", whose parents were "wonderful" and created a "very loving environment." He was interested in comedy from a young age, growing up idolizing comedians Peter Sellers, David Letterman, and Steve Martin as well as the sketch-comedy television series Saturday Night Live. He often pulled pranks on his parents, and would record himself performing imaginary radio shows. He did not aim to be a comedian, but initially wanted to become a football player.
Forte was "a laid-back teen with a lot of friends." He was a member of the varsity football and swim teams at Acalanes High School in Lafayette, where he graduated in 1988. He served as freshman class president and was voted "Best Personality" by his graduating class. He had no ambitions for a television or film career, though his mother noticed a "creative streak" in him.
After high school, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and completed a degree in history. Forte wanted to become a financial broker like his father at Smith Barney Shearson, but felt "miserable" there. During that period, he co-wrote a feature-length script. Later he said that he discovered he loved writing "more than anything [he] had ever done in [his] life". During his time as an undergraduate, he had been encouraged to attempt comedy; he decided to change his career to do so.
Career
Forte began taking classes at The Groundlings in Los Angeles, an improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school, while tutoring children to make ends meet. His first successful foray into comedy was 101 Things to Definitely Not Do If You Want to Get a Chick, a comic book he produced about incompetent men. The comics landed him his first professional job writing for The Jenny McCarthy Show, a short-lived variety show starring Jenny McCarthy. Shortly thereafter, he was asked to submit a packet to the Late Show with David Letterman and was told Letterman responded favorably to animation. After only nine months at Letterman, he was "let go" from the job. He recalled his stint on the program as unpleasant, noting that he did not have enough experience in writing. "What an honor to work at that show but I don't think I was fully mentally prepared. [...] I always wonder what it would be like if I'd had a couple more years of experience before going there."
Forte left New York and returned to Los Angeles, where he began performing with the Groundlings' Main Company, with Cheryl Hines, Jim Rash, and Maya Rudolph. He tried stand-up comedy three times, mostly at open mic nights, but quit after being voted into the Main Company. He joined the writing teams of two failed sitcoms, including The Army Show and Action. Forte got jobs writing for 3rd Rock from the Sun and That '70s Show. He loved writing and had mostly given up on acting, aside from acting with the Groundlings. While performing with the troupe in 2001, he was spotted by Lorne Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live (SNL). Forte felt his confidence was higher than usual, as That '70s Show had been picked up for two more years. He was invited to audition for SNL, which he regarded as unexpected.
At his audition for SNL, he performed multiple original characters, including Tim Calhoun, a speed reader, a prison guard, in addition to impressions of singer Michael McDonald and actor Martin Sheen. His final character was an older piece from his days with the Groundlings, in which he portrays a gold-painted street performer who performs fellatio to pay for his face paint, which devolves into a song needlessly uttering the words "cock" and "face paint" dozens of times. He felt his time to shine as a performer was already over, as he was in his thirties when he auditioned. To his surprise, he was offered a chance to be on the show, but declined, opting instead for the financial stability of his work at That '70s Show. He felt working for SNL could not live up to the idealized version he had dreamed of, but he later realized he would be making a mistake.
Personal life
Forte dated his Last Man on Earth co-star January Jones in 2015. He and Olivia Modling met in 2018 and started seeing each other. They became engaged in 2019. They have two daughters, Zoe Douglas Forte, born February 15, 2021, and Cecilia, born approximately 18 months later. While making MacGruber, he and Modling married on 31 July 2021 "in the back of Jorma Taccone's house" in New Mexico. They lived in a modestly sized Craftsman home in Santa Monica, California. Forte had bought the house in 2002, two weeks before joining the cast of Saturday Night Live. That action required him to move to New York City but he kept the house. He admitted later that "it was not the greatest timing."
Forte's mother, Patricia, has visited every film set on which he has worked. She made an appearance on a Mother's Day episode of SNL, in which he sang a song to her on Weekend Update. Forte officiated his sister Michelle's wedding; he also filmed the births of his niece and nephew.
Forte has discussed and joked about his OCD tendencies. He recounted listening to only one song in his office at SNL for an entire year because he wanted to challenge himself. During an interview with Larry King, he discussed his OCD as a challenge he had to overcome but not one he wished he did not have, as it is a part of his personality. In a February 2015 article on Grantland, the writer of the article said that Forte mentioned OCD often but it was not clear if he had ever been formally diagnosed. Forte related how he and a former girlfriend had answered an OCD questionnaire based on his typical actions; it concluded that Forte "should immediately talk to someone about this." In a 2026 episode of the podcast Family Trips with the Meyers Brothers hosted by Seth and Josh Meyers, Forte discussed how he had recently received a formal diagnosis of OCD.
Forte is an avid gamer. While filming A Good Old-Fashioned Orgy, he achieved one of the world's highest scores on the arcade version of Donkey Kong.
