Billy Gardell was 26 when he and a friend decided to pack up "a car full of stuff" and head to Hollywood in 1996. At the time, he had been struggling as a stand-up comic for about nine years, "just driving city to city, doing every gig that I could get. Before I left for Hollywood, I remember my father-my hero-gave me the greatest advice," recalls the Pennsylvania native. "He said, 'You ain't pretty, you don't know nobody, and you ain't got any money, so go outwork all of 'em.' He just had a way of shooting me straight that never hurt." Since then Gardell's hard-work ethic has more than paid off. His stand-up career took off, and in 2010 he landed his breakout role as Mike Biggs opposite Melissa McCarthy in the Emmy-Award winning sitcom Mike & Molly.
This story is from the March 04, 2024 edition of People US.
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This story is from the March 04, 2024 edition of People US.
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