Comedy in today’s world is genuinely getting harder to come by, seeing as a majority of vulgar slangs, raucous behavior, and senseless acts have already been done and overdone in movies tenfold.

You know the ones involving teenagers and pies, or the spoof “Movies” series that lack plots. Just after the turn of the century, Judd Apatow began producing movies that gave comedy a new dawn. His brand of comedy have a very vulgar and nothing held back aspect to them, where they are sometimes “outrageously dirty.”

Alongside his films, he also promoted a new era of actors and actresses, whose careers have taken off due to their performances in his movies.

Apatow has been involved with media long before his film debut. Late in the 90’s, he had the critically acclaimed but short lived television shows “Undeclared” and “Freaks and Geeks.” He also wrote for “The Ben Stiller Show” and “The Larry Sanders Show.”

In 2004, Apatow produced Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, which was his first successful flm project. He soon began friendships with Steve Carrell, a correspondent on The Daily Show with John Stewart at the time. They both threw around ideas for a script, and out of the mix came the 2005 smash hit comedy, The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

For the next three years, Apatow and his production company, Apatow Productions, would have a hand in producing, writing or directing 11 more movies that all have had generally high success.

Some of these include, Knocked Up, a hilarious film about a one night stand gone awry was extremely successful in early 2007, along with the summer blockbuster of the same year Superbad, which involved two teens in their last week of high school, and the events of a weekend.

As his company continued to roll out successful comedy films, there were also a few negatively received ones, like 2008’s Step Brothers starring Will Farrell and John C. Reilly as 34 year olds who can’t get away from home and try to live with each other, and Walk Hard: the Dewey Cox Story starring John C. Reilly, mocking the careers of many musicians of the past.

Apatow generally casts a similar group of stars in his movies. Some of which who have been referred to as “The Frat Pack,” which includes Jack Black Will Farrell, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, and Luke and Owen Wilson.

Others who recur often are Steve Carrell, Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen, David Koechner, his wife Leslie Mann, and Nancy Walls. He often goes as far as recasting people even as extras that he has used in the past.

Many of the actors cast by Apatow have had their career take off as a result. Long time friend Seth Rogen has gained mainstream success as a writer and actor due to his roles in almost all of the Apatow related productions, and writing of 2007’s summer blockbuster Superbad, and this year’s Pineapple Express and co-writing of Drillbit Taylor.

Jason Segal, who had the role as Seth Rogen’s roommate in Knocked Up, went on to write another Apatow produced success, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, in which he also starred as the lead role. He is currently filming I Love You, Man along side of Paul Rudd. Rudd’s recurring roles in Apatow’s movies are classic spots, in which he generally plays a calm, practical, light-hearted character.

Look for upcoming Apatow Production Company movies The Year One, Funny People, and Get Him to the Greek in 2009.