Tyler Gerald Burrell (born August 22, 1967) is an American actor. Burrell is best known for his role as Phil Dunphy on the ABC sitcom Modern Family, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 2011 and 2014, from eight consecutive nominations.
Burrell has had several roles in Broadway shows such as Macbeth and off-Broadway plays such as Burn This. He also had starring roles on the television series Out of Practice and Back to You. He has appeared in films such as Evolution, Black Hawk Down, Dawn of the Dead, Muppets Most Wanted, and as Doc Samson in The Incredible Hulk. He has also voiced characters in the animated films Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Finding Dory, and Storks.
Early life
Tyler Gerald Burrell was born in Grants Pass, Oregon, on August 22, 1967, the son of teacher Sheri Rose (née Hauck) and family therapist Gary Gerald Burrell (1940–1989). He has a younger brother, Duncan. He is mostly of English and German descent, though he discovered via Finding Your Roots that he is also of African descent through his four times great-grandmother, a formerly enslaved girl from Tennessee who became a homesteader in Oregon. He grew up in Applegate, Oregon, near the California border. He attended Hidden Valley High School in Grants Pass, where he played football and was a lineman for the Hidden Valley Mustangs.
While attending college at the University of Oregon, Burrell became a member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity and worked as a bartender at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. He later attended Southern Oregon University in Ashland, graduating with a bachelor's degree in theatre arts in 1993. (Fifteen years later, in 2008, he was the school's commencement speaker.)
Continuing his education at Penn State University, he earned an MFA and was a member of the Theatre 100 Company along with Keegan-Michael Key. In 1999, Burrell worked as a festival actor at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. He has also stated that for a period of time in graduate school, he lived out of his van to save money.
Career
Burrell's first credited film roles were 2001's Evolution and Black Hawk Down. He subsequently appeared in the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, and in several stage roles (like 2000's Broadway production of Macbeth, and the off-Broadway plays Corners, The Blue Demon, Burn This, and Show People).
He was a co writer and actor in the original production of the offbeat comedy The Red Herring O' Happiness directed by Russell Dyball. Burrell's stage work also includes writing and working in the off Broadway play Babble with his brother, Duncan. He has also made an appearance as a New Jersey prosecutor in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
After that, Burrell was cast as Oliver Barnes, a shallow but well meaning plastic surgeon, on the CBS sitcom Out of Practice (2005–06), also created by screenwriter Christopher Lloyd. The show was canceled in May 2006, with eight episodes remaining unaired in the United States. After the show's cancellation, he played Allan Arbus in the film Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. In the same year, he also appeared in Friends with Money and The Darwin Awards. In 2007, he had a small role in the film National Treasure: Book of Secrets as the curator of the White House followed by a starring role in the sitcom Back to You on Fox later that same year. On the show, created by Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, Burrell played a field reporter (alongside Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton). The show was canceled in 2008.
In the 2008 Marvel film adaptation of the comic The Incredible Hulk Burrell played Leonard Samson (without superpowers) who had a short relationship with Betty Ross.
He had a large role as realtor Phil Dunphy in the acclaimed ABC situation comedy Modern Family which is also created by Christopher Lloyd and Steve Levitan. For his performance, he received eight consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (2010–2017), winning the award twice in 2011 and 2014.
He also received nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series for his role, sharing the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series with his co stars. He was the recipient of the individual SAG award in 2014, defeating Alec Baldwin, who had previously won the award seven years in a row.
Burrell also appears as Phil in commercials for National Association of Realtors.