Eight time Emmy Award winner Julia Louis-Dreyfus is returning to TV as Selina Meyer in the seventh and final season of HBO’s Veep, a much lauded comeback not only because viewers can’t wait to see how the political satire concludes, but because the show’s 58-year-old leading actress was able to go back and film the last season. Diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2017, she completed her last round of chemotherapy in January 2018, underwent surgery that February, and then in October 2018, announced she was cancer free, and ready to get back to work.
Veep went hiatus while Louis-Dreyfus fought her battle with cancer, and not only did she have her cast and crew’s full support and best wishes, she had her husband, Brad Hall, who she’s been married to since 1987, and kids, 26-year-old Henry, who’s a musician, and Charlie, 21, and studying at Northwestern, his mother’s alma mater, by her side.
Louis-Dreyfus, who was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2018 and is currently filming the movie Downfall with Will Ferrell, she loves spending her down time with her husband at home in Santa Barbara, watching her son Charlie’s basketball games at Northwestern, or attending one of Henry’s shows, who’s a singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles.
Here’s what you need to know about Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s husband and kids:
1. She’s Been Married to Husband Brad Hall for 32 Years
Louis-Dreyfus met her husband while still a student at Northwestern University. After getting cast in the school’s “Mee Ow Show,” she was invited joined a theatre group called the Practical Theatre Company, which was partially founded by Northwestern dropout, Brad Hall. The four person troupe caught the attention of Tim Kazurinsky, writer and performer from NBC’s Saturday Night Live, and they were all hired on the spot for the sketch series. So, along with Brad, Louis-Dreyfus dropped out of college during her junior year, and joined the cast of SNL.
“He was gorgeous,” Louis-Dreyfus recalled in an interview with The New Yorker. “He looked like Björn Borg or something. I remember thinking early on that this was the guy for me, but I didn’t dare tell anyone, for fear they would say, ‘That’s ridiculous. You’re so young—you don’t know what you’re talking about.’ So I kept that little secret close to my heart.”
While things progressed with Brad, working at SNL was not all that it had been cracked up to be for either of them.
“It was a very dog-eat-dog environment,” Louis-Dreyfus said. “I didn’t go in armed with a bag of characters from which to pluck. I came into it naïvely, with this notion that it would be ensemble work, and that writers would be trying to write for everyone. But it was very political and very male-centric. Very.”
When producer Dick Ebersole left the show in 1985, and Lorne Michaels returned, Louis-Dreyfus was not invited back. She and Brad, who’d been released from SNL the previous year, decided to move out to Los Angeles together to pursue their acting and writing dreams, and two years later, they married.
2. Sons Harry and Charlie Grew Up on the ‘Seinfeld’ Set
Louis-Dreyfus originally met Seinfeld creator Larry David while working at SNL. “He was as miserable as I was,” she said. “I’d hang out in his office and bitch and moan.” After four years living in Los Angeles, “I get a call from my agent,” she said. “Larry David’s written this script with a comedian, Jerry Seinfeld —I hadn’t really heard of him — and they’re adding a girl.”
Seinfeld premiered in 1989, and the world was introduced to Elaine Benes. While not an instant hit, the NBC sitcom grew in popularity and ran for nine seasons, its series finale airing in 1998. While Louis-Dreyfus honed her acting chops working alongside Jerry, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards, she gave birth to her first son Henry in 1992, and her second, Charlie, in 1997.
“I’d had a lot of anxiety about being a mother working outside the home that I was missing things, that I needed to be with them and I wasn’t,” she said. “I’d had a nursery on the set at Seinfeld, and I would take both boys with me—which in some ways was worse, because then you’re so split! I was racing between the stage and the nursery, I was breast-feeding and all that s–t.”
3. Henry Hall is a Successful Singer & Songwriter
Henry played in on of most popular college bands at Wesleyan, Grand Cousin, with Evan Low and Robby Caplan, but has since become a successful solo artist. The guitar playing, singer/songwriter. His most recent EP, Questions, Comments, Concerns, which features the the track “Proverbial Ice” was released in February 2019.
“‘[Proverbial Ice]’ is about wanting to ditch everything that you know and that sort of desire to have a completely new life and start a blank slate and focusing on things that you don’t have experience at all with,” Henry said in an interview with Paper. “and the thing I know nothing about and have absolutely no connection to is hockey.”
While Henry doesn’t share his mother’s love for acting, he does have her great sense of humor. When Louis-Dreyfus first announced her cancer diagnosis, he tweeted “I couldn’t be more thankful for the outpouring of support for my mom yesterday. Here’s a picture of us taken last year. Love to you all.”
I couldn’t be more thankful for the outpouring of support for my mom yesterday. Here’s a picture of us taken last year. Love to you all.
His mom tweeted back, “I’m thankful, too” Louis-Dreyfus wrote, “And also thankful for my dear boy with good manners.”
4. Charlie Hall Played Basketball at Northwestern for 4 Years & Scored 1 Point
Charlie, who’s 6’5, started playing ball at Northwestern during his freshman year in 2015, didn’t score his first point as a Wildcat until 2017. And for internet trolls who feel like making fun of the 21-year-old, he beat everyone to the punch. Before making that fateful free throw shot, as major NBA prospects Lonzo Ball, Jayson Tatum, and Markelle Fultz announced whether or no they’d be turning pro, Hall, whom up that point, averaged 1.6 minutes of playing time in the 2016-2017 season tweeted:
After Charlie made his big one point shot, he again took to twitter with the most hilarious response.
Best part of this magic moment, Louis-Dreyfus was actually at the game cheering him on. She also retweeted Charlie’s hilarious photo with the caption, “My boy.”
5. Her Husband Brad Hall is A Director, Comedian & Actor
Julia Louis-Dreyfus and husband Brad Hall at the 69th Annual Emmy Awards Governors Ball
Louis Dreyfus’s husband, Brad Hall, 61, is also multi-talented hyphenate in the industry. He’s been a staff writer on numerous TV series, appeared as an actor in shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Brooklyn Nine Nine, and in addition to directing his wife in three episodes of Veep, he’s the director attached to Epix’s upcoming Meg Ryan comedy vehicle, Picture Paris, which was originally a short film that he wrote and produced which starred Louis-Dreyfus.
When not working, he and Louis-Dreyfus spend most of their time at their home in Santa Barbara. And even though both of their sons are now grown and out of the house, based on the loving throwback photos each of them post featuring Mom and Dad, it’s clear they all remain close.
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