Is Seth Rogen Canadian?
Seth Rogen is one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood today, having spent more than a decade as a leading man in numerous comedy movies. Where did his story start and was it in Canada?
Seth Rogen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he was also raised. He now has dual citizenship in Canada and the US, although he considered himself more Canadian due to spending his formative years there. He moved to Los Angeles with his family at 16, after being cast in “Freaks and Geeks”, and has lived there ever since.
For more on Seth Rogen’s early life in Canada and how his big move to LA paid off, read on.
Life in Canada
Seth Aaron Rogen was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on April 15, 1982. His father was an American, Mark Rogen, who worked for a number of non-profit organizations, while his mother, Sandy Belogus, was a social worker. The couple met in Israel and are, according to Rogen, “radical Jewish socialists”.
He discovered comedy at an early age and first performed stand-up at Camp Miriam, a Habonim Dror establishment (part of a Socialist Jewish Zionist movement).
Before Rogen even approached his dream of working in comedy professionally, he had years of experience entertaining friends and acquaintances with his jokes. When he did discover the possibility of making money from comedy, he committed himself fully to turning his sense of humor into a career.
He enrolled in his first comedy workshop at 12, with his earliest routines based around his personal experiences at camp, his bar mitzvah, and members of his family. This led to him performing at bar mitzvahs and birthday parties for other teenagers.
His mother, Sandy, supported Seth by driving him to perform at comedy clubs, where he came second in the Vancouver Amateur Comedy. He achieved this despite being just 16 years old, half the age of many of his peers.
Moving to LA
Rogen’s acting debut and move to LA came at the perfect time. Still 16, his parents both became unemployed and the family was forced to sell their home and move into an apartment.
Fortunately, Rogen discovered that a local casting call he attended had been successful. He was cast in Judd Apatow’s “Freaks and Geeks”, starting a twenty-year work association and friendship. Rogen quickly dropped out of high school and the family moved to Los Angeles, with Seth becoming the main earner in the family while still 16.
Rogen, who believed he was more suited to writing than acting, was encouraged to pursue a career in front of the cameras by Apator, who has cast him ever since.
Though he and his Frat Pack associates are based in LA and Rogen has now lived in the US for longer than Canada, he still considers Canada home.
In fact, he and his lifelong friend Evan Goldberg, with whom he wrote a draft of “Superbad” as teenagers, launched a cannabis company together. The company, Houseplant, is based in Canada and opened for business in 2019.
Rogen is open about his cannabis use and says he wanted to launch a company that produces high quality, legal cannabis in Canada. On launch, Houseplant’s products were available in British Columbia, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland & Labrador, Manitoba, and Ontario.
Rogen and Goldberg have talked about how they produced a number of different types of products because they wanted to help their “consumers to understand cannabis on a deeper level so that they can truly have the best experience possible”.
It’s clear from reading about Seth Rogen’s commercial ventures in Canada and how he spent his teens working in the comedy clubs of Vancouver that the country is still a huge part of the actor’s personal identity. Even now that he’s one of the leading names in Hollywood comedy, there’s no doubt that Seth Rogen is a proud Canadian.
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