H. Jon Benjamin

Infobox Comedian
name = Jon Benjamin


imagesize = 250px
caption =
birth_name = Jon Benjamin
birth_date = Birth date and age|1966|5|23|mf=y
birth_place = Worcester, Massachusetts
othername = Jonathan Benjamin
yearsactive = 1991 - present
spouse =
homepage =
academyawards =
notable_work = "Dr Katz, Professional Therapist"
"Home Movies"
"Freak Show"
occupation = comedian, television writer, voice actor, actor
influences = Don Knotts, Don Rickles, George Carlin, Woody Allen, Johnny Carson, David Letterman
influenced = Loren Bouchard
emmyawards =
tonyawards =
americancomedyawards =

H. Jon Benjamin (born May 23, 1966 in Worcester, Massachusetts) is an American comedian and actor, known mostly for his extensive voice acting.

Career overview

Benjamin's comedy career began when he was around twenty-four in Boston where he was first in a comedy duo with Sam Seder, then a member of Cross Comedy, a comedy team led by David Cross. For around the first seven years of his career, Benjamin almost exclusively worked in groups rather than independently. Afterwards, his independent work remained more experimental, rejecting traditional styles of stand-up comedy in favour of playing with the medium.

Benjamin's live projects include the "Midnight Pajama Jam", a show performed in New York City with Jon Glaser, and "Tinkle" a show combining stand-up comedy and live music co-hosted by Todd Barry and David Cross. A "Midnight Pajama Jam" DVD is currently in production.

He was the guest on "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" in its eighty-first episode "King Dead" on December 17, 1999 where Zorak and Moltar kidnapped him. He has appeared in the television show "Cheap Seats", on ESPN Classic, as "Gene Stapleton" and "Rabbi Marc Shalowitz". He co-starred in Todd Barry's short film "Borrowing Saffron", and portrayed a hallucinatory talking can of vegetables with a shameful habit of autofellatio in the film "Wet Hot American Summer". He also made short cameos in "Not Another Teen Movie" as the football trainer and on the FX Network dramedy "Rescue Me" as the pimp "F-bomb" in season two. He is currently a writer and actor in the sketch MTV Show "Human Giant".

Benjamin has done a lot of voice work in animated TV shows. His credits include starring roles in several Soup2Nuts cartoon shows, such as "Science Court", "Home Movies", "O'Grady", "Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist", and "Assy McGee". He also co-created the show "Freak Show" with his friend David Cross. Benjamin is also starring as the Devil (and multiple other roles) in "Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil", which began airing on Adult Swim on September 9 2007. Benjamin also plays a recurring character on the PBS Kids series "WordGirl".

Benjamin has made guest appearances in several animated shows. He was in the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" episodes "Bus of the Undead" and "The Last One" as Mothmonsterman, and as Mr. Sticks in "Broodwich". He also made a cameo appearance as a government agent in the film "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters" alongside frequent collaborator Jon Glaser. He recently guest-starred in "Family Guy" as Carl, a convenience store clerk. Other notable recent appearances include "The Venture Bros.", in the episodes "Escape to the House of Mummies Part II" and "I Know Why the Caged Bird Kills", in which he played Dr. Orpheus's master (who appears in the form of Cerberus and Catherine the Great's horse, respectively). He also appeared in the Stella short "Bar" which can be found as an easter egg on the Season 1 DVD.

Benjamin is the announcer for The Sam Seder Show and the now defunct The Majority Report, both on Air America Radio. He also does the voice of "Shelly", Sam Seder's accountant, on Maron v Seder.

Benjamin was responsible for the McCain Girls [http://youtube.com/user/mccaingirls] videos on YouTube. [http://samsedershow.com/node/2889]

Selected filmography

Quotes

*"I don’t know about that. I’ve turned down some sitcom work but I don’t know if it’s important enough to note." (With regard to the claim that he turns down more work than any other actor)

*"When I saw my character I was thrilled because they made him really fat and dumpy while I am this tiny balding Jewish guy." (Describing his first reaction to seeing Coach McGuirk, one of the characters he voiced in "Home Movies")

*"I've never had the desire to tell jokes. I've always been more interested in not making people laugh, but people seem to laugh at that. So actual jokes have always been the antithesis of what I've wanted to do. I started doing comedy with a lot of people who were great at telling jokes so I just wanted to not do what they did." (On the nature of his live performances in an interview on The Sound of Young America)

External links

*imdb name|id=0071304|name=H. Jon Benjamin
*tvtome person|id=47725|name=H. Jon Benjamin
* [http://www.midnightpajamajam.com/ Midnight Pajama Jam Official Site]
* [http://thatotherpaper.com/austin/jon_benjamin_almost_a_rabbi Jon Benjamin: Almost a rabbi] "That Other Paper"
* [http://suicidegirls.com/words/H.+Jon+Benjamin/ Interview with Suicidegirls.com]
* [http://www.kittenpants.org/25_bk/jonb.asp Interview with Kittenpants.org]
* [http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/566/566927p1.html Ten Questions with H. Jon Benjamin]
* [http://media.libsyn.com/media/tsoya/jonbenjamin.mp3 Audio Interview] with The Sound of Young America public radio show
* [http://www.midnightpajamajam.com/video.html Clips from Midnight Pajama Jam shows ("Swift Boats", "XTC", etc.)]
* [http://onetrickpony.ws/jon_benjamin2 Interview from April 2007]
* [http://benkharakh.com/jon_benjamin Interview from March 2007 from SXSW Festival]