[7] His father, Kalmen Seinfeld,[8] a sign painter, was from Hungary and collected jokes that he heard while serving in World War II.

[22] After graduation in 1976, he tried out at an open-mic night at New York City's Catch a Rising Star, which led to an appearance in a Rodney Dangerfield HBO special.

[27] Along with Seinfeld, the show starred Saturday Night Live alumna Julia Louis-Dreyfus and established actors Michael Richards and Jason Alexander.

[28] After he ended his sitcom, Seinfeld moved back to New York City and returned to stand-up comedy instead of staying in Los Angeles and furthering his acting career.

The process of developing and performing new material at clubs around the world was chronicled in a 2002 documentary, Comedian, which also featured fellow comic Orny Adams and was directed by Christian Charles.

The fictional reunion took place in the seventh season's finale and starred most of the original cast, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, Michael Richards, in a multiple-episode arc.

In July 2011, he was a surprise guest on The Daily Show, helping Jon Stewart to suppress his urge to tell "cheap" "Michele Bachmann's husband acts gay" jokes.

[39] Seinfeld also launched a personal archives website at JerrySeinfeld.com and appeared in the HBO special Talking Funny with fellow comedians Chris Rock, Louis C.K., and Ricky Gervais in the same year.

The show has continued to get high-profile guests such as Alec Baldwin, Mel Brooks, Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, Louis C.K., Larry David, Ellen DeGeneres, Tina Fey, David Letterman, Jerry Lewis, Steve Martin, John Mulaney, Eddie Murphy, Carl Reiner, Don Rickles, Chris Rock, Howard Stern, and Jon Stewart.

Those who participated in the event included Jon Stewart, David Letterman, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Nathan Lane, Regis Philbin, Robert De Niro, and Martin Scorsese.

[53] On February 15, 2015, Seinfeld made a guest appearance on the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special, where he hosted the "Questions from the Audience" segment, which included cameos from Michael Douglas, John Goodman, James Franco, Larry David, Ellen Cleghorne, Dakota Johnson, Tim Meadows, Bob Odenkirk, and Sarah Palin (who Seinfeld initially mistook for Tina Fey).

Seinfeld joined guests including Alec Baldwin, Barbara Walters, Steve Martin, Jim Carrey, Chris Rock, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Peyton Manning, Tina Fey, and Bill Murray who all participated in The Top Ten List segment, "Things I've Always Wanted to Say to Dave.

[61] The New York Times labeled it a "Critic's Pick" with Anne Nicholson describing it as a "full-fledged, fully ridiculous feature comedy targeted to the audience’s sweet-and-salty dopamine receptors".

Ben Travers of IndieWire wrote, "If the Curb finale is meant to rewrite the Seinfeld ending in any way, it’s during that first scene between Jerry and Larry.

They’re playing out the kind of scene they used to write for Jerry and George, and getting that silly, joyful spark between two TV legends — even for a moment — is pure bliss".

[71] Seinfeld has stated, "On the Mount Rushmore of stand-up comedy, there are four faces, in my opinion: Richard Pryor, George Carlin, Bill Cosby, and Don Rickles.

"[72] Seinfeld has also cited as his influences Jean Shepherd,[73] Mad Magazine,[74] Jonathan Winters, Jerry Lewis, Robert Klein, and Abbott and Costello.

[78] These albums included: In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Seinfeld stated his five favorite films are The Heartbreak Kid (1972), The Graduate (1967), The In-Laws (1979), A Night at the Opera (1935), and Glengarry Glen Ross (1992).

[79] Those influenced by Seinfeld include John Mulaney,[80] Ellen DeGeneres,[81] Jim Gaffigan,[82] Judd Apatow,[83] Issa Rae,[84] Nate Bargatze,[85] and Mark Normand.

[87] Seinfeld is a fan of the New York Mets and periodically calls Steve Somers' show on WFAN-AM, a sports talk radio station, as "Jerry from Queens.

[100] She transferred from George Washington University to UCLA, in part to be with him, ultimately citing constant press coverage and missing New York City as reasons for the relationship ending.

[100] In August 1998, while at a Reebok Sports Club, Seinfeld met Jessica Sklar, a public relations executive for Tommy Hilfiger who had just returned from a three-week honeymoon in Italy with then-husband Eric Nederlander, a theatrical producer and scion of a theater-owning family.

[105] After the nuptials, Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld bought Billy Joel's house in Amagansett, New York, for US$32 million after news of the couple's interest in the property became public in 2000.

Good+Foundation grants donations of products and services to programs that have demonstrated a capacity to address family poverty in three focus areas: supporting new mothers, investing in early childhood, and engaging fathers.

[124] In 2002, Seinfeld purchased property on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City where he built a $1.4 million two-story garage to store Porsches.

The Discovery Channel television show Chasing Classic Cars claimed that Seinfeld owns the first and last produced air-cooled Porsche 911s.

"[153][154] Seinfeld has made several political contributions, including to George W. Bush's and Al Gore's presidential campaigns in 2000, and subsequently to four Democratic Party primary candidates in 2000 and 2004.

When you write a script and it goes into four or five different hands, committees, groups — 'Here's our thought about this joke' — well, that's the end of your comedy.”[157] Months later, he walked back those comments on the "Breaking Bread" podcast, stating "I don't think, as I said, 'the extreme left' has done anything to inhibit the art of comedy.

[160] On November 5, 2015, the David Lynch Foundation organized a benefit concert at New York City's Carnegie Hall called "Change Begins Within" to promote transcendental meditation for stress control.

"It's been the greatest companion technique of living that I've ever come across, and I'm thrilled to be part of this movement that seems to have really been reinvigorated by Bob [Roth] and David Lynch," Seinfeld said.