6 Seasons and a Movie! See the 'Community' Cast Then and Now
“TV’s the best dad there is.” Community has a complicated history, but its dedicated fan base has turned the series into a cult favorite.
The sitcom, created by Dan Harmon, aired its first five seasons on NBC from 2009 to 2014. The broadcast network later declined to renew the show for a sixth season, leaving the team to search for a new home. After Hulu passed up the chance to save the show, it eventually landed at Yahoo! Screen for its final season, which aired in 2015.
Set at a fictional community college in Colorado, the series focuses on Jeff Winger (Joel McHale), a recently disbarred lawyer who was fired for lying about having an Ivy League education. When he’s forced to obtain a degree from Greendale Community College, he stumbles upon a study group of quirky outcasts who soon become family. Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Jim Rash and Ken Jeong rounded out the ensemble cast.
Comedy legend Chevy Chase starred alongside the Community crew for four seasons, announcing in November 2012 that he was leaving the show amid uproar about his use of the N-word on set. Six years later, Glover opened up about the National Lampoon’s Vacation actor’s frequent controversial comments.
“I just saw Chevy as fighting time — a true artist has to be OK with his reign being over,” the Solo star told The New Yorker in March 2018. “I can’t help him if he’s thrashing in the water. But I know there’s a human in there somewhere — he’s almost too human.”
Despite the scandals brought upon the series, viewers still have a soft spot for Community, even going so far as to create a social media movement begging for #SixSeasonsAndAMovie. Harmon and the cast reunited via Zoom in May 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic, and while they gave no firm answers about a potential movie spinoff, they each gushed over the experiences they shared together.
“I think we were lucky to realize that it was special while we were doing it, which you don’t always know it’s the good times when the good times are happening. I just get more sentimental as the years go on,” Jacobs said at the time. “It gave me personally that real-life feeling of feeling like part of a group in a way that I don’t think I’d ever really felt like before.”
Two years later, fans finally got their wish. McHale confirmed in September 2022 that a film was in the works with the original Community cast, tweeting a photo of a white background with blue text reading, “… And a movie.” The project will debut on Peacock, and the streaming platform also acquired non-exclusive rights to all six seasons of the series.
“‘Six seasons and a movie’ started out as a cheeky line from Community’s early seasons and quickly ignited a passionate fan movement for this iconic, hilarious and cool (cool, cool) NBC comedy,” read a statement from Susan Rovner, chairman of entertainment content at NBCUniversal Television and Streaming. “We’re incredibly grateful that 15 years later, we are able to deliver fans this promised movie and can’t wait to get to work with Dan Harmon, Andrew Guest, Joel McHale, Sony and our partners at UTV to continue this epic comedy for Peacock audiences.”
Scroll down to learn more about where the cast of the Community is now!
Along with Community, McHale is best known for providing snarky commentary as the host of The Soup from 2004 to 2015. He later went on to helm his own talk show, The Joel McHale Show With Joel McHale, which was canceled by Netflix in 2018 after just one season. On the big screen, McHale had roles in 2012's Ted, 2014's Blended and 2018's The Happytime Murders. He shares two sons with wife Sarah Williams, whom he wed in 1996. Kobal/Shutterstock; Shutterstock
The Juilliard grad starred as Mickey Dobbs on Judd Apatow's Netflix series Love from 2016 to 2018 before taking her talents to the silver screen for movies like Don't Think Twice (2016), Ibiza (2018) and I Used to Go Here (2020). Jacobs was previously featured in season 4 of HBO's Girls, which aired in 2015. Jacobs currently stars on the HBO Max series Minx alongside Jake Johnson, which premiered in March 2022. Shutterstock (2)
In the six seasons he appeared on the NBC comedy, the Chicago native scored three Critics' Choice Television Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. He has since starred in several short films and appeared in episodes of Dr. Ken, Angie Tribeca and Alone Together. Pudi welcomed twins James and Fiona in January 2012 with wife Bridget Showalter. Kobal/Shutterstock; Shutterstock
Before joining the Community cast, Brown made a name for herself as Helen Dubois on Nickelodeon's Drake & Josh, which aired from 2004 to 2007. In 2017, she scored a main role on the short-lived ABC series The Mayor with Lea Michele and Brandon Michael Hall. The Ohio native is a passionate activist and is vocal about the need for more diversity in Hollywood. Kobal/Shutterstock; Shutterstock
Along with Community, the California native received recognition for her roles on shows like Mad Men, BoJack Horseman and GLOW, the latter which earned her nods at the SAG Awards and Golden Globes in 2019. She's also starred in 2014's The Lego Movie, 2015's Sleeping With Other People and 2016's How to Be Single. In 2020, she cowrote and produced Netflix's Horse Girl. Brie married Dave Franco in March 2017 after five years together. Shutterstock (2)
The physician-turned-comedian created, wrote and starred in his own series, Dr. Ken, after Community came to an end in 2015. The ABC sitcom aired for two seasons. Jeong is also known for his roles in Knocked Up (2007), the Hangover trilogy (2009 to 2012) and Crazy Rich Asians (2018). Since 2019, he's provided color commentary as a judge on Fox's The Masked Singer. Kobal/Shutterstock; Shutterstock
The original Saturday Night Live cast member is an icon in the comedy community, with three Emmy awards to his name. Chase starred as old-school businessman Pierce Hawthorne for four of Community's six seasons, officially leaving the series in 2013 after butting heads with creator Dan Harmon. Later that year, Chase told The Hollywood Reporter that he and Harmon had cleared the air, claiming, "Dan and I are friends again. He's brilliant and can be very funny. The reason I wanted to do the show in the first place was Dan's writing. And I stand by that." In 2019, Chase starred in Netflix's Last Laugh with Richard Dreyfuss. Kobal/Shutterstock; Shutterstock
In 2012, Rash scored a Critics' Choice Television Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series for his role as the dean of Greendale Community College. The same year, the North Carolina native won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Descendants starring George Clooney and Shailene Woodley. He has since appeared on shows including Dr. Ken, Good News and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Kobal/Shutterstock; Shutterstock
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