Coordinates	50°27′44″N23°11′5″N
Name	Leo Allen
Birth date	July 5, 1972
Birth place	}}

Leopold Rufus "Leo" Allen (born July 5, 1972) is an American stand-up comedian and writer from Detroit, Michigan, known as one half of the comedy team Slovin and Allen.

Career

Allen has been performing stand-up comedy since the late '90s. In 2001, Allen, along with his writing partner, Eric Slovin, starred in their own ''Comedy Central Presents'' special which featured highly memorable sketches such as "Time Machine" and "Turkey Slapper". Slovin and Allen went on to write for ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2002 - 2005.

A veteran of numerous New York City comedy clubs and alternative venues, Allen performs solo and as part of the duo "Slovin and Allen." He has toured with comedians such as Eugene Mirman, Demetri Martin, Todd Barry, Michael Showalter, and others. He currently hosts "Whiplash" at Upright Citizen's Brigade Theatre in NYC, for which he was nominated for a 2009 ECNY award for Best Host.

Beginning in September 2005, Allen challenged himself to read 100 books in one year. Halfway into that endeavor, he cited as favorites ''The Ginger Man'' by J.P. Donleavy, ''The Master and Margarita'' by Mikhail Bulgakov, ''Don Quixote'' by Cervantes and anything by Octavia Butler. Listen: A Standup Guy Who Is Serious About Books, NPR

Allen's writing has appeared in the ''New York Times Magazine''. His television credits include ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', ''Funny or Die Presents'', ''Comedians of Comedy'', ''Human Giant'', ''Michael and Michael Have Issues'' and more.

Allen currently appears with a recurring role on the Comedy Central series ''Jon Benjamin Has a Van''; he is also co-creator and executive producer of the series.

References

External links

Slovin and Allen

MySpace Page

Category:1972 births Category:Living people Category:American comedians Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American television actors Category:American television writers

Coordinates	50°27′44″N23°11′5″N
name	Ira Glass
birth date	March 03, 1959
birth place	Baltimore, MD, United States
show	This American Life
station	WBEZ
network	Public Radio International
timeslot	Syndication
style	Presenter
country	United States
website	Official website }}

Ira Glass (born March 3, 1959) is an American public radio personality, and host and producer of the radio and television show ''This American Life''.

Early life

Glass was born in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, to Barry Glass, an accountant, and Shirley Glass, a psychologist and infidelity researcher. He attended Milford Mill High School in Baltimore County where he was active in student theater. He attended Northwestern University, in Evanston, Illinois, but transferred to Brown University, where he concentrated in semiotics and graduated in 1982. He is the first cousin once removed of composer Philip Glass, who has appeared on Ira's show and whose music can often be heard on the program. Glass stated on ''This American Life'' that he is a staunch atheist.

Career

Radio broadcasting

Glass has worked in public radio for some 30 years. He began as an intern at National Public Radio. He was a reporter and host on several NPR programs, including ''Morning Edition,'' ''All Things Considered'', and ''Talk of the Nation''. Glass wrote,

"The very first National Public Radio show that I worked on was Joe Frank's. I think I was influenced in a huge way... Before I saw Joe put together a show, I had never thought about radio as a place where you could tell a certain kind of story."

From November 1990 until September 1995, he co-hosted, with NPR producer Gary Covino a weekly, local program on Chicago Public Radio called ''The Wild Room''. In 1993, Glass said,

“I like to think of it as the only show on public radio other than ''Car Talk'' that both Daniel Schorr [NPR news analyst] and Kurt Cobain [lead singer/guitarist of Nirvana] could listen to. I think it’s appropriate that the show [which aired on Friday evenings] is on a station that most people don’t listen to at a time when most people won’t hear it. And the fact that public radio never puts a new show on the air or takes any off is definitely to our advantage.”

During this time, he spent two years reporting on the Chicago Public School System—one year at a high school, and another at an elementary school. The largest finding of his investigations was that smaller class sizes would contribute to more success in impoverished, inner-city schools.

In 1995, the MacArthur Foundation approached Torey Malatia, general manager of Chicago Public Radio, with an offer of $150,000 to produce a show featuring local Chicago writers and performance artists. Malatia approached Glass who countered that he wanted to do a weekly program with a budget of $300,000. In 1998, Covino told the ''Chicago Reader'', "The show he proposed was The Wild Room. He just didn't call it The Wild Room." Covino continued to produce ''The Wild Room'' until February 1996.

Glass invited David Sedaris to read his essays on NPR, which led to Sedaris's success as an independent author; Glass also produced Sedaris' commentaries on NPR.

Since 1995, he has hosted and produced ''This American Life'', from WBEZ. The show was nationally syndicated in June 1996 by Public Radio International and has been national ever since. PRI was eager to take on the program even as NPR passed on it.

''This American Life'' reaches over 1.7 million listeners on over 500 stations weekly, with an average listening time of 48 minutes. Glass can be heard in all but four episodes.

On November 17, 2005, ''This American Life'' celebrated its 10th anniversary. The following week, as a special show celebrating the anniversary, the first episode, "New Beginnings", was re-broadcast. Prior to this, the first episode had never been aired outside of Chicago. When the first episode was broadcast in 1995, the show was known as ''Your Radio Playhouse''. That first episode includes interviews with talk-show host Joe Franklin and Ira's mother, as well as stories by Kevin Kelly, founding editor of ''Wired'', and performance artist Lawrence Steger.

In May 2009, the ''This American Life'' radio show was broadcast live to over 300 movie theaters.

In 2009, Glass was named the recipient of the Edward R. Murrow Award for Outstanding Contributions to Public Radio.

Other works

While in high school, he wrote jokes for Baltimore radio personality Johnny Walker.

In September 1999, Ira collaborated on a comic book, ''Radio: An Illustrated Guide'', with Jessica Abel. The book showcases how ''This American Life'' is produced, and how to produce your own radio program.

In 2006, he served as one of the executive producers of the feature film ''Unaccompanied Minors''. It is based on the true story of what happened to ''This American Life'' contributing editor Susan Burton and her sister Betsy at an airport on the day before Christmas. Burton had already produced a segment on ''This American Life'' about the same experience before the story was adapted to film.

In October 2007, he published the anthology ''The New Kings of Nonfiction''.

On March 22, 2007, Glass and company began airing a television version of ''This American Life'' as half-hour episodes on the Showtime network. During an interview with Patt Morrison on 89.3 KPCC, Southern California Public Radio, Glass said that he lost 30 lb (13.5 kg) for this venture. The show aired for thirteen episodes over two seasons, and ended in 2009 because of the heavy workload required to produce it.

Appearances

On April 25, 2008, Glass again appeared on ''The Late Show''. On April 22, 2009, Glass appeared as the featured guest on ''The Colbert Report''. He also was on TBTL on September 18, 2009. Glass served as the monologist for ASSSSCAT at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in New York on February 21, 2010. He appeared in a green motion capture suit in a John Hodgman segment on the ''Daily Show with Jon Stewart'' on Thursday, November 4, 2010 where he acted as the main character of the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City video game. Glass appeared on the June 24th, 2011 edition of Adam Carolla's podcast.

References

External links

Official website

Ira Glass's Manifesto at the Transom.org

Ira Glass: Live and Uncut – Mother Jones interview. August 11, 1998

The Onion A/V Club's interview with Ira Glass, November 5, 2003

Category:American vegetarians Category:American atheists Category:Brown University alumni Category:Radio personalities from Chicago, Illinois Category:National Public Radio personalities Category:People from Baltimore, Maryland Category:This American Life people Category:1959 births Category:Living people Category:Jewish atheists Category:Jewish actors Category:American television hosts Category:American film producers Category:American radio producers Category:American book editors Category:American comics writers Category:American Jews

de:Ira Glass

Mike Drucker is a stand-up comedian and writer living in Seattle, Washington.

In 2007, he was one of three winners of Disney's "So You Think You're Funny" stand-up competition, a joint-venture by Disney and MySpace to promote the movie Ratatouille.

He is a contributing writer to The Onion and Saturday Night Live. He also regularly writes humor pieces for McSweeney's and Black20.

During his time as an intern on Saturday Night Live his nerdy mannerisms were noticed by writers and he was subsequently parodied by Zach Braff in a Bronx Beat sketch.

References

Category:American stand-up comedians Category:Living people

Coordinates	50°27′44″N23°11′5″N
Name	Nick Kroll
birth date	June 05, 1978
birth place	Rye, New York, U.S.
occupation	ActorComedianWriterProducer
yearsactive	1998–present
website	http://www.nickkroll.com }}

Nick Kroll (born June 5, 1978) is an American actor and comedian best known for appearing in television shows such as ''Best Week Ever'', ''Cavemen'' and ''Sit Down, Shut Up''. He currently co-stars in the shows ''The Life & Times of Tim'' and ''The League''.

Life and career

Kroll graduated from Georgetown University after attending Rye Country Day School. He has been a contributing writer to Comedy Central's ''Chappelle's Show'' and MTV's ''Human Giant''. Kroll's live work is a mix of standup, sketch and characters. He is probably best known as a performer for his characters Fabrice Fabrice, craft services coordinator for the sitcom ''That's So Raven'', and Gil Faizon of the ''Oh, Hello Show'', which he created with writing partner John Mulaney.

Kroll currently voices Stu on the HBO animated series ''The Life & Times of Tim''. He also co-stars as Ruxin in the FX comedy series ''The League'' and had a recurring role on ''Childrens Hospital'' on Adult Swim. In 2008, Kroll co-starred in the ABC sitcom ''Cavemen'' based on the popular GEICO Cavemen commercials and was a regular commentator on VH1's ''Best Week Ever''. Kroll is one of the co-authors of the critically acclaimed book ''Bar Mitzvah Disco'' and a graduate of Rye Country Day School, where he gave a contentious graduation speech in which, contrary to widespread belief, he did not expose his genitals, although he did gently chastise the school administration.

He has studied and performed regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in NYC and LA and co-hosted the stand-up show ''Welcome to Our Week'' with Jessi Klein. In November and December 2008, he toured as the support with Aziz Ansari on his ''Glow in the Dark'' comedy tour in the USA.

He went to the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester until the 8th grade, but then left for high school going to Rye Country Day. In 2009, Kroll became a regular voice cast member of the animated Fox comedy series ''Sit Down, Shut Up''. He voiced Andrew LeGustambos, the flamboyant, bisexual drama teacher. According to Kroll, Andrew is (alongside Helen) a loser amongst losers. Kroll voices him to talk like a "modern day Snagglepuss". The series premiered on April 19, 2009. He also lent his voice to Reuben Grinder in the PBS Kids GO! series ''WordGirl''.

Kroll has appeared on the Comedy Central series ''John Oliver's New York Stand Up Show'', once performing stand-up as his character "Fabrice Fabrice", a flamboyant craft services coordinator and the other time as himself.

Kroll has also recently created a new stand-up character named "Bobby Bottleservice." He has featured the character in a number of online videos for the Funny or Die website, including the ''Ed Hardy Boyz'' and an audition tape for the MTV show Jersey Shore

Kroll also appears as a character known as El Chupacabra on numerous comedy podcasts, radio programs and the Comedy Central show Reno 911.

In 2010, Kroll performed on the Comedy Central program The Benson Interruption.

In 2011, Comedy Central aired his stand-up special ''Thank You Very Cool''. He also appeared in the NBC sitcom ''Parks and Recreation'' in the Season 3 episode Media Blitz and will be appearing in the feature film ''A Good Old Fashioned Orgy'', premiering September 16, 2011. Kroll is currently working on his upcoming sketch show ''The Nick Show Kroll'' for Comedy Central.

References

External links

Official website

Nick Kroll on Funny or Die

Category:1978 births Category:Living people Category:Actors from New York Category:American actors Category:American comedians Category:American Jews Category:American film actors Category:American stand-up comedians Category:American television actors Category:American television writers Category:Georgetown University alumni Category:People from Westchester County, New York Category:Rye Country Day School alumni

Seth Herzog (aka "The Zog") is an American comedian. Besides being active in New York City performing comedy, Mr. Herzog was the subject of the short film ''Zog's Place''. He has also enjoyed small roles in such films as ''Safe Men'', ''The Ten'' and ''The Baxter''. He has also acted in numerous commercials, and on such T.V. shows as ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'', ''Chappelle's Show'',''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' and VH1's ''Best Week Ever'' He was also recently noted in ''Heeb Magazine'' 's 2007 "Heeb 100," a listing of 100 influential young Jewish artists/performers.

In the New York comedy scene, Seth has performed in such venues as Chetty Red's, Rififi, and the Red Room. In addition, Seth runs and hosts a weekly comedy show every Tuesday night called "Sweet" at the Lower East Side bar, ''Ella''. A regular feature of the show is a ten-minute set called "What's On My Mom's Mind," during which he interviews his mother, Kera Greene.

In 2008, Herzog contributed his voice to the animated comedy webseries ''Amazing the Lion'' hosted by the Independent Comedy Network.

Seth is perhaps best known for his "Wonder Woman" routine, during which he wears a Wonder Woman costume and does a dance while lip-synching to the Wonder Woman theme song.

In April 2008, Seth toured Iraq performing for the U.S. troops.

He is currently the warm-up comic for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and has occasionally appeared in sketches on the show.

References

External links

Seth Herzog doing his Wonder Woman dance (YouTube)

"Sweetness," a documentary on Seth Herzog's weekly comedy show, "Sweet." (YouTube)

Seth Herzog's Myspace page

Category:Living people