10 Things You Didn’t Know About Larry David

Larry David has been making people laugh for decades. He co-created Seinfeld with Jerry Seinfeld in 1989, and later built Curb Your Enthusiasm into one of HBO’s longest-running comedies. His face, his voice, and his habit of turning minor social irritations into full-blown catastrophes are familiar to millions of viewers around the world.

Even so, most people only know the version of him that shows up on their screens. The real Larry David, the one who spent years struggling through New York, working forgettable jobs, and getting almost no recognition for his writing, is a far more interesting story.

These Larry David facts cover the parts of his life that rarely come up in interviews, the Larry David surprising facts that reveal a different dimension to the man, and the Larry David lesser known facts that even longtime fans tend to miss.

Whether you follow him for the comedy, the business story, or just the curiosity of how someone like him ended up where he did, there is more here than you might expect.

Who is Larry David?

Lawrence Gene David was born on July 2, 1947, in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, New York. He grew up in a Jewish household with his parents, Mortimer Julius David, a men’s clothing manufacturer, and Rose, a homemaker, along with his older brother Ken. The neighborhood was working class, the apartment was crowded with relatives, and personal space was a concept that did not really exist in the David household.

The Larry David biography follows the arc of someone who took a very long time to find his footing. He attended Sheepshead Bay High School, graduated in 1965, and went on to the University of Maryland, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1970.

After college he served in the United States Army Reserve from 1970 to 1975. When his service ended, he moved back to New York and started doing stand-up comedy at night while working whatever jobs would pay the bills during the day.

He spent the better part of two decades grinding through comedy clubs with mixed results before Seinfeld changed everything. Today, the full Larry David biography spans more than five decades in entertainment, two landmark television series, a Broadway play, and a net worth that puts him among the wealthiest figures in American comedy.

Larry David’s Early Life and Odd Jobs

During the years between finishing his Army Reserve service in 1975 and landing any meaningful work in television, Larry David held a wide variety of jobs just to stay afloat. Understanding Larry David’s early life during this period helps explain where so much of his material came from.

He drove limousines. He repaired televisions. He drove a cab through Manhattan traffic. He worked at a bra wholesaler. He clerked in stores. These were the Larry David odd jobs that filled his days while he did stand-up at night, and they put him in front of every kind of person imaginable, impatient customers, difficult bosses, strange colleagues. He absorbed all of it. Years later, those interactions became the raw material for his writing on Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

From 1980 to 1982, he wrote and performed on ABC’s late-night sketch show Fridays, where he first worked alongside Michael Richards, the future Kramer. In 1984, he landed a writing job at Saturday Night Live, a tenure that ended poorly and produced almost nothing, but which fed directly into some of his best future work.

The entire texture of Larry David’s early life, the Brooklyn upbringing, the odd jobs, the years of being overlooked, gave his comedy something specific and grounded that a more conventional path through entertainment school could not have produced.

Larry David Net Worth

As of 2025, Larry David’s net worth is estimated at approximately $400 million. The majority of that figure comes from Seinfeld. When the show ended its original run in 1998, David and Seinfeld negotiated a syndication deal worth approximately $1.7 billion, from which David received an estimated $250 million. Syndication checks have continued flowing ever since, with analysts estimating his annual income from the show alone at $40 to $50 million per year.

Hulu acquired the U.S. streaming rights to Seinfeld in 2015 for around $80 million. Netflix then acquired global streaming rights in 2019 for more than $500 million. Each of these deals added to the residuals David continues to receive as co-creator.

In 2007, David divorced his first wife, Laurie David, after 14 years of marriage. The settlement reportedly cost him close to half his fortune at the time. When a CBS News interviewer brought this up, David gave a characteristically direct answer: “No, after what I put her through, I want her to be happy. It’s not an easy job to be with me. I don’t think of other people.” He did not dwell on the loss.

Beyond his entertainment earnings, David holds significant real estate. He purchased a property in Montecito, California for approximately $7.6 million in 2023 and owns more than 70 acres on Martha’s Vineyard, acquired in 2004. A Pacific Palisades estate was listed for sale at $8.975 million in 2024.

Larry David Movies and TV Shows

Most people associate Larry David with two titles, but his work spans film, television, and stage. The table below covers the main entries across his career.

His work with Woody Allen in Whatever Works demonstrated that he could carry a feature film as the lead. His Broadway debut with Fish in the Dark, discussed in more detail in the facts below, showed he was still willing to take creative risks well into his sixties. These entries represent the full range of his output and are part of the broader Larry David biography that goes well beyond the two shows he is best known for.

Below are 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Larry David

Below are ten Larry David facts drawn from his career, personal life, and the behind-the-scenes history of his work. Some of these are well-documented but rarely discussed. Others are genuinely unknown facts about Larry David that even dedicated fans tend to miss.

Fact 1: He Quit Saturday Night Live – Then Came Back Two Days Later

In the 1984–1985 season, Larry David had a writing job at Saturday Night Live. He was frustrated with the work and felt that his material was being ignored. At one point he confronted executive producer Dick Ebersol, quit the job in anger, and walked out.

Two days later, he came back and sat down at his desk as if nothing had happened. Nobody said a word to him about it, and he never offered an explanation. He just picked up where he had left off.

David later turned this exact scenario into a Season 2 episode of Seinfeld called “The Revenge,” in which the George Costanza inspired by Larry David character quits his job in a fit of rage, changes his mind overnight, and returns to work acting as though the whole thing never occurred. The episode works precisely because it is based on something that actually happened. This kind of autobiographical honesty runs throughout the Curb Your Enthusiasm behind the scenes creative process as well, most of the storylines trace back to something real from David’s life.

Fact 2: George Costanza Was Built From His Own Life

Among the more surprising Larry David facts for casual viewers is just how directly the George Costanza character was drawn from Larry David’s own experiences and personality. The connection goes far beyond a passing resemblance.

Both David and George grew up in Brooklyn in Jewish households. George’s neurotic relationship with his parents mirrors David’s own upbringing. George’s tendency to lie impulsively, to sabotage his own opportunities, and to obsess over minor slights came straight from David’s personal history. Even specific incidents were lifted wholesale, including a storyline about stealing an answering machine tape before a girlfriend could hear a message that David had left.

The George Costanza inspired by Larry David connection is well-documented at this point, acknowledged by David himself in multiple interviews. Jason Alexander, who played George on Seinfeld, has described watching David in person and realizing that the character was essentially already fully formed in the man standing in front of him.

Fact 3: He Got One Sketch on Air During His Entire SNL Season

Larry David spent a full season as a staff writer at Saturday Night Live and managed to get exactly one sketch on air. It aired in the 12:50 AM time slot, the very last spot of the broadcast, traditionally reserved for material the producers were least confident in.

For someone who would later write some of the most acclaimed television comedy in American history, his Saturday Night Live run was a professional low point. This is one of the more instructive Larry David surprising facts because it illustrates how long the gap was between his actual abilities and any recognition of them. He knew he was good at what he did long before anyone in a position to reward him agreed.

Fact 4: He and Bernie Sanders Are Sixth Cousins Once Removed

In 2017, the PBS genealogy series Finding Your Roots tested the DNA of both Larry David and Senator Bernie Sanders. The results confirmed that the Larry David Bernie Sanders cousin connection is real, the two men are sixth cousins once removed, both with roots in Eastern European Jewish communities.

David’s response when he heard the news was immediate: “What the hell?! That is really funny. That is amazing! Alright. Cousin Bernie.” Sanders, for his part, noted that people often told him David did a better impression of him than he did of himself.

The story has a layer of context that makes it even better. Lorne Michaels had reportedly already been getting emails during the 2016 Democratic primary debates urging him to cast David as Sanders on Saturday Night Live. The physical resemblance, the Boston-inflected Brooklyn accent, the posture, all of it was already there. The DNA test just made it official. The Larry David Bernie Sanders cousin connection remains one of the stranger footnotes in American political comedy.

Fact 5: He Made His Broadway Debut at 67

In 2015, Larry David wrote and starred in a Broadway play called Fish in the Dark. He was 67 years old at the time. The Larry David Broadway work Fish in the Dark centered on a family thrown into conflict following the death of a patriarch, with David playing one of the feuding sons, an executive at a urinal company.

The production ran a full season at the Cort Theatre and was a commercial success, breaking box office records for advance ticket sales at the time of its announcement. Critics gave it mixed reviews, but audiences showed up consistently throughout the run.

The significance of Larry David Broadway work Fish in the Dark in the context of his overall career is that he chose to do it at a point when he had nothing left to prove. He could have coasted on the success of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Taking on a live stage performance, eight shows a week, no edits, no second takes, was a genuine creative stretch, and the Larry David biography is richer for it.

Fact 6: His Stand-Up Deliberately Pushed Audiences Away

During his years doing stand-up in New York clubs, Larry David developed a style that other comedians admired and general audiences often found alienating. He performed in an army jacket, wore thick-framed glasses, and delivered material in a way that felt combative rather than charming.

If an audience was talking during his set, he would stop and address them directly. If he felt the crowd was not engaged, he would sometimes walk off stage mid-performance. He earned a reputation as a “comedian’s comedian,” someone the professionals respected precisely because he refused to soften his act for people who were not paying attention.

This is one of the Larry David surprising facts that helps explain how Curb Your Enthusiasm ended up the way it did. The show’s refusal to wrap things up neatly, to redeem characters, or to make the audience feel comfortable traces directly back to the posture David brought to stand-up two decades earlier. He was always more interested in being honest than likable.

Fact 7: The Real Kramer Lived Across the Hall From Him

During his years doing stand-up in New York, Larry David lived at Manhattan Plaza, a federally subsidized housing complex in Hell’s Kitchen that was home to a large number of artists and performers. His neighbor, directly across the hall, was a man named Kenny Kramer.

Kenny Kramer was an entrepreneur with outsized energy and a habit of dreaming up elaborate schemes. He talked loudly, moved fast, and filled a room in a way that was hard to ignore. He became the primary inspiration for the Cosmo Kramer character on Seinfeld, the neighbor who bursts through Jerry’s door with some new project or crisis.

Kenny Kramer went on to capitalize on the connection by launching a guided bus tour of New York called “Kramer’s Reality Tour,” taking fans to locations from the show. He has given hundreds of interviews about his friendship with David and his life as the real-world model for one of television’s most beloved characters. This is one of those Larry David facts you probably didn’t know that makes the entire world of Seinfeld feel closer to reality.

Fact 8: He Wrote 62 Episodes of Seinfeld, Including Its Most Celebrated

Over the course of Seinfeld‘s run, Larry David wrote 62 episodes. That is a significant portion of the show’s 180-episode total and represents an enormous body of work produced over roughly nine years.

Among those 62 episodes was “The Contest” from Season 4, broadcast in November 1992. The episode follows the four main characters in a competition involving self-restraint, a subject the script handles entirely through implication, never once stating what the contest is actually about. TV Guide later ranked it the single greatest television episode ever made. David received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing in a Comedy Series for the script.

The episode is frequently cited in discussions about television writing craft because it demonstrates how much can be communicated without being said directly. It is also a strong example of the Curb Your Enthusiasm behind the scenes sensibility that David carried from one show to the other, the willingness to trust the audience to fill in the gaps.

Fact 9: He Split His Fortune in a Divorce and Moved On Without Bitterness

Larry David married environmental activist Laurie David in 1993. The two had two daughters together and were married for fourteen years. When they divorced in 2007, the settlement divided his wealth significantly, estimates suggest he gave up somewhere between $100 million and $200 million depending on the timeline of the valuation.

In a CBS News interview, the reporter asked whether he was bitter about the financial outcome. His answer was direct and without self-pity: “No, after what I put her through, I want her to be happy. It’s not an easy job to be with me. I don’t think of other people.” He was not performing humility. He was making an honest assessment of himself as a partner and acknowledging that the settlement was fair given the circumstances.

In 2020, David married Ashley Underwood, a television producer, after meeting through mutual friends. By his own account, the relationship started as a blind date. These personal details are part of the Larry David lesser known facts that round out the picture of who he actually is away from the cameras.

Fact 10: Curb Your Enthusiasm Started as a One-Time Special

Most viewers assume Curb Your Enthusiasm was always planned as an ongoing series. It started as something much smaller. In 1999, HBO commissioned a one-hour mockumentary special in which Larry David played a version of himself preparing a stand-up comedy show. The format was improvised, the cameras were handheld, and there was no traditional script.

HBO aired the special and the response was strong enough that executives asked David to develop it further. What followed was 12 seasons and 120 episodes across 24 years, ending in 2024 with a finale that brought back the original cast of Seinfeld and placed Larry on trial, a structural echo of Seinfeld‘s own controversial finale.

This is one of the Larry David facts you probably didn’t know that changes how the show looks in retrospect. The entire format, the improvised dialogue, the absence of a traditional laugh track, the willingness to leave storylines unresolved, was an experiment in 1999. The fact that it ran for a quarter-century says something about how well the experiment worked.

Conclusion

The Larry David biography is full of periods that did not look promising at the time. He spent years in jobs that had nothing to do with comedy. He got almost nothing on air during his time at Saturday Night Live. He built his stand-up act in a way that made it harder to break through, not easier. And then, in his early forties, he co-created one of the most successful television shows ever made.

These Larry David surprising facts are worth knowing because they add context to the work. The obsession with social behavior that runs through Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm came from decades of observing people in taxis, repair shops, bra wholesalers, and comedy clubs. The characters are so specific because the experiences behind them were real.

Understanding the Larry David lesser known facts, the odd jobs, the failed SNL season, the DNA connection to Bernie Sanders, the Broadway debut at 67, gives you a more complete picture of someone who has been hiding in plain sight for fifty years. The show has always been the man, more or less directly. That is why it still works.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What are some well-documented Larry David facts that most viewers don’t know?

A: Several Larry David facts are well-documented but rarely discussed. He worked as a limo driver, cab driver, bra wholesaler employee, and TV repairman before getting any traction in comedy. He got only one sketch on air during his entire season at Saturday Night Live. He quit the show in anger, came back two days later without explanation, and that exact scenario became a Seinfeld episode.

Q: What were Larry David’s odd jobs before he became famous?

A: The list of Larry David odd jobs includes driving limousines, driving taxis, working as a store clerk, repairing televisions, and working at a bra wholesaler. He did all of these during his years doing stand-up in New York before any of his television work took off. Larry David’s early life in Brooklyn and his time grinding through these jobs gave him most of the material he would later use as a writer.

Q: What is Larry David’s net worth and where did it come from?

A: Larry David’s net worth is estimated at approximately $400 million as of 2025. The bulk of it came from Seinfeld syndication. He received an estimated $250 million from a 1998 syndication package and continues to earn $40 to $50 million per year from the show through ongoing streaming and syndication deals. His divorce in 2007 cost him a significant portion of his accumulated wealth at the time.

Q: Is Larry David actually related to Bernie Sanders?

A: Yes. The Larry David Bernie Sanders cousin connection was confirmed in 2017 through DNA testing on the PBS series Finding Your Roots. The two men are sixth cousins once removed, both descended from Eastern European Jewish immigrant communities. David had already been doing his Sanders impression on Saturday Night Live for two years by the time the genealogy was confirmed.

Q: What was Larry David’s Broadway debut?

A: Larry David’s Broadway debut was Fish in the Dark in 2015. He wrote the play himself and starred in it as well, making his debut at age 67. The Larry David Broadway work Fish in the Dark ran a full season at the Cort Theatre in New York and was a commercial success, breaking records for advance ticket sales when it was first announced.

Q: What are the most overlooked Larry David lesser known facts?

A: Some of the most overlooked Larry David lesser known facts include: he lived across the hall from the real Kenny Kramer, the person who inspired the Seinfeld character; he wrote 62 episodes of Seinfeld including the one TV Guide called the greatest television episode ever made; and Curb Your Enthusiasm was originally a one-time mockumentary special that HBO asked him to continue.

Q: How did Larry David’s early life shape his comedy?

A: Larry David’s early life gave him a direct line into the frustrations and absurdities of ordinary interaction. Growing up in a crowded Brooklyn household with no personal space, then spending years working Larry David odd jobs that put him in front of all kinds of people, these experiences gave him the raw material for two television shows and a Broadway play. The specificity of his comedy comes from the fact that most of it is based on things he actually observed or lived through.

Q: What are some unknown facts about Larry David’s early television career?

A: Among the unknown facts about Larry David from his early career: he performed on ABC’s late-night sketch show Fridays from 1980 to 1982, where he first worked with Michael Richards. He also wrote for a Lifetime comedy variety show called Way Off Broadway in 1987. These are chapters of the Larry David biography that rarely come up in discussions of his work, but they were part of the long path that eventually led to Seinfeld.