He had a few small roles in films previous to Ace Ventura, the largest of which was probably his role as one of the aliens in the awful film Earth Girls Are Easy, but after Ace Ventura, his career skyrocketed. A quick look through Carrey's filmography will prove that Ace Ventura is the film that really acted as a springboard for his career. Ace Ventura is the kind of comedy that stems directly from a TV show, and in this case, that show was probably In Living Color, where Carrey got most of his publicity before he became famous as a movie actor.
