Mike Judge's SILICON VALLEY, Featuring Christopher Evan Welch, to Air 4/6 on HBO

Mike Judge ("Office Space," "Beavis & Butt-head," "King of the Hill") brings his irreverent brand of humor to HBO in the new comedy series SILICON VALLEY. The series features late stage and screen actor Christopher Evan Welch ("The Master", "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"), who passed away on December 2, 2013 of lung cancer at the age of 48.

In an interview with The Wrap, the creators said five and a half of the eight episodes were filmed before Welch's death, and that the plot will continue as planned for Season 1.

Commenting on Welch's death, Alec Berg told the site: "It was incredibly shocking. ...That was gut-wrenching and obviously for all of the right reasons it was a terribly horrible thing. But also just on a selfish level to not have that character in that toolbox to play with was such a bummer."

"He was so fun to write for," Judge added. "He was amazing. He was the one that we found ourselves talking about his performance. You'd go home from the set imitating what he was doing."

Partially inspired by Judge's own experiences as a Silicon Valley engineer in the late '80s, the show is a collaboration between Judge and Berg ("Seinfeld," HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm"), and kicks off its eight-episode season SUNDAY, APRIL 6 (10:00-10:30 p.m. ET/PT), immediately following the season debut of "Game of Thrones."

In SILICON VALLEY, Richard (Middleditch) is an introverted computer programmer living in the Hacker Hostel start-up incubator along with his best friend, Big Head (Brener), pompous Gilfoyle (Starr) and dry-witted Dinesh (Nanjiani). These social Misfits live under the watch of Erlich (Miller), a self-satisfied dotcom millionaire who lets them stay in his house for free - as long as he gets a ten percent stake in their projects. After a failed pitch to billionaire venture capitalist Peter Gregory (Welch), Richard seems destined to remain at his job at the tech company Hooli, founded by the megalomaniacal Gavin Belson (Ross). When Monica (Crew), Gregory's head of operations, and Jared (Woods), a Hooli executive, realize the value of the site's compression algorithm, a bidding war erupts between Belson and Gregory, with Richard caught in the middle.

The series features a talented ensemble of young comic actors. Cast regulars include: Thomas Middleditch ("Search Party," "The Office"), T.J. Miller ("Mash Up," "Seeking a Friend for the End of the World"), Zach Woods ("In the Loop," "The Office"), Kumail Nanjiani ("Franklin & Bash," "Portlandia"), Martin Starr ("Freaks and Geeks," "Party Down"), Josh Brener ("Glory Daze," "The Internship"), Christopher Evan Welch ("The Master," "Vicky Cristina Barcelona") and Amanda Crew ("Jobs," "Charlie St. Cloud"). Matt Ross ("Magic City," HBO's "Big Love") guest stars.

Mike Judge directs four of the eight episodes; Alec Berg directs two episodes; Tricia Brock (HBO's "Girls") and Maggie Carey ("The To Do List") also direct. The writers are Mike Judge, Alec Berg, Clay Tarver, Dan O'Keefe, John Altschuler & Dave Krinsky, Ron Weiner, Carson Mell, Jessica Gao and Matteo Borghese & Rob Turbovsky.

Welch, an Obie-award winning actor, made his New York stage debut in 1997 in a Roundabout Theater production of Scapin, directed by and starring Bill Irwin. He gave other memorable performances as Mitch in the 1999 New York Theater Workshop revival of A Streetcar Named Desire, as Reverend Parris in the 2002 Broadway revival of The Crucible starring Liam Neeson and Laura Linney, as Mercutio in the 2007 Shakespeare in the Park production of Romeo And Juliet, as Boo in the 2008 Roundabout Theater revival of Christopher Durang's The Marriage Of Bette And Boo, in Playwrights Horizons' 2006 production of Bruce Norris' The Pain And The Itch, and in Woody Allen's 2003 Writer's Block at the Atlantic Theater Company.

He worked again with Mr. Allen in 2008 narrating the director's film Vicky Cristina Barcelona and in the 2009 released Whatever Works with Larry David. Welch's other film credits include roles in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, and Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York.

On television, Mr. Welch played the intelligence analyst Grant Test on the AMC drama "Rubicon" and appeared on "The Sopranos," "Nurse Jackie," "The Good Wife" and all three incarnations of "Law And Order."

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