AGE: 40
OCCUPATION: Writer-producer, comedian
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 0
PRO: Apatow may have broken the nerd ceiling with The 40 Year Old Virgin, but it was the one-two punch of Knocked Up and Superbad that have, in a single year, cemented the Apatovian Sensibility — high concepts executed with genuine emotion and casual dudely verité — as the future of comedy, displacing the Ferrell smirk and the Myers mug.
CON: The future of comedy may have already come and gone, if returns on Walk Hard and the uncharacteristically PG-13 Drillbit Taylor are any indication. Team Apatow now looks to R-rated Forgetting Sarah Marshall for a comeback.