With two daughters and tenured professorship at the age of thirty-six, Norah Brandeis-Cohen had already ruled out the idea of any more children. She had always been a firm believer that women could have it all, both career and family, and taught that at Bryn Mawr College, but the reality was a lot of hard work. Even with an incredibly supportive husband, Kenneth, most days were a balancing act of lectures and laundry, academic conferences and soccer games. Another child just wasn't on her mind, but Norah was in for a surprise. She was pregnant.

He may have been unexpected, but after his arrival on April 28, 1980, Brett Isaac Cohen was immediately welcomed with open arms. As the youngest child and only boy, his place as the baby of the family was permanently cemented, no matter how hard he'd try to shake it in the years to come. For his older sisters, Lindsay and Taylor, this entailed being their personal punching bag or rag doll, depending on the day (and, really, there was no in-between). However, it also gave his parents license to fawn over him constantly. In fact, all three Cohen children were raised with daily affirmations that they could accomplish anything.

Despite his parents' postive reinforcement, Brett was not especially athletic or academic. He quit playing the guitar after his first lesson and struggled with drawing stick figures during a simple game of pictionary. Brett himself was content with being average. He quickly found the way to compensate for his lack of talent: humor. At a young age, his wise-cracking, quick-witted (smart-ass) sarcasm developed. From where neither of his parents were exactly sure.

Brett could never get enough comedy, whether it was through movies, television, stand-up. He idolized comedians like Chris Farley, Steve Martin, and Adam Sandler, who helped him realize that he could make career out of making people laugh. His parents had hoped it was a childhood dream he'd outgrow, but no one was surprised when his aspirations only intensified. The Cohens stood by what they had always preached, supporting his decision, abeit somewhat reluctantly. They knew Brett was already going to face a hundred people who would tell him he couldn't do it. As his parents, they had to be the two who said he could.

He wasted no time hitting the pavement. Two weeks after his graduation from high school in 1998, Brett moved to Los Angeles with no real plans or expectations. He spent the first six months on a mattress on the floor of a garage he rented from a little old lady, paid for by odd jobs he could never keep for long. He pursued stand-up and performed with an improv troupe but had little success auditioning. With a belly and a full beard at the age of eighteen, Brett couldn't pass for the teen roles that got everyone else their foot in the door.

His first real job came when he was cast as Ken Miller in the television show Freaks and Geeks, where his appearance aided his portrayal of a high school outcast. While acclaimed by critics with a cult following, the show was cancelled after only season. Brett would have been back at square one had it not been for the show's producer, Judd Apatow, who got him a job on his next series, Undeclared. Again, the show was short-lived, but it fostered a relationship between Brett and Apatow that would pave the way for his future success.

In 2005, Brett joined a CBS pilot called How I Met Your Mother as Marshall Eriksen. The show was picked up, and unlike his first two attempts, proved to have long lasting success, running for nine seasons and giving Brett the stability of a hit TV show. When he wasn't filming HIMYM, Brett played small roles in Knocked Up and Superbad, two more Apatowian comedies. It wasn't until 2008's Pineapple Express that he got his first starring role opposite his long-time friend Owen Wexford. The movie did well at the box office and received positive reviews.

With his newfound success, Brett continued to find steady comedic work, starring in The Hangover the following year and then its two sequels. He took supporting roles and guest spots while still filming How I Met Your Mother full time.

After eight years on the air, Brett was ready to move on from the show at the end of his contract, but he was persuaded into staying for one last season to wrap up the story. On March 31, 2014, the series finale aired. It was a bittersweet moment, but Brett was able to keep himself preoccupied with promotion for his new film, Neighbors. Newly single during the press tour, he had a one-night stand with his costar, Avery Bennett. He hadn't expected anything more to come out of it and even reunited with his long-time girlfriend soon after. However, plans quickly changed when Brett discovered Avery was pregnant and that he was the father.