In January 2018, it was announced that he would be receiving his own talk show on Netflix in February. McHale hosted the 43rd People's Choice Awards on Januand the 2017 Webby Awards on May 15, 2017. In 2016, he appeared as an occasional co-host alongside Kelly Ripa in the ABC morning show Live with Kelly. He hosted the 2011 Independent Spirit Awards and the 2015 ESPY Awards. McHale was the host at the 2014 White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner. He also made an appearance as a guest judge on RuPaul's Drag Race season 11, episode 4, " Trump: The Rusical." McHale made a guest appearance on the finale of Last Comic Standing's sixth season, when he recapped the show's events in his typical format of jokes made popular on The Soup.
He was involved in the American version of the British TV show The IT Crowd. He has been a judge on Iron Chef America. He frequently appears as a co-host on Loveline. Throughout the show, he takes the audience through the oddities and ridiculous happenings of the week in television. In 2004, McHale began hosting The Soup, a satirical weekly television show on the E! television network.
He received an MFA from the Professional Actors Training Program at the University of Washington. From 1993 to 1997, he was a member of the improv comedy group at Unexpected Productions, participating in Theatersports! at the Market Theater located in Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. He was part of the Almost Live! cast, a local sketch comedy television show produced by Seattle's KING-TV. Though most of his teammates received athletic scholarships, he was a walk-on who played tight end for two years on the scout team without appearing in an actual game. McHale was recruited to be on the University of Washington's rowing team, but later joined its football team. He received a bachelor's degree in history from the University of Washington in 1995, and was briefly in the Theta Chi fraternity but left it because he "couldn't stand it."
He grew up on Mercer Island, Washington, and briefly lived in Haddonfield, New Jersey, before returning to Mercer Island.
McHale is of Irish and Norwegian descent, and was raised Catholic.
His father is American and is from Chicago, while his mother is Canadian and a native of Vancouver. McHale was born in Rome on November 20, 1971, the son of Jack McHale, who worked as the Dean of Students at Loyola University's Rome Center, and his wife Laurie. He also voices X-PO in Lego Dimensions (2015–2017) and The Scientist in Fortnite (2021–present). McHale voiced Johnny Cage in the direct-to-video martial arts film Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge (2020), a role he reprised in the sequel Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms (2021).
In 2020, he hosted a special aftershow interviewing key subjects from the Netflix documentary series Tiger King. He also starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom The Great Indoors (2016–2017), hosted a reboot of Card Sharks (2019–2021), and portrays the superhero Sylvester Pemberton / Starman on the show Stargirl (2020–present). He has performed in the films Spider-Man 2 (2004), Open Season 2 (2008), Spy Kids: All the Time in the World (2011), Ted (2012) and The Happytime Murders (2018). He is best known for hosting The Soup (2004–2015) and his role as Jeff Winger on the NBC sitcom Community (2009–2015). Joel Edward McHale (born November 20, 1971) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and television host.