John Hodgman
Hodgman in 2009
Born	John Kellogg Hodgman (1971-06-03) June 3, 1971 (age 41) Brookline, Massachusetts, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, author, humorist, television personality
Years active	2005–present

John Kellogg Hodgman (born June 3, 1971) is an American author, actor, and humorist. In addition to his published written works, such as The Areas of My Expertise, More Information Than You Require, and That Is All, he is known for his personification of a PC in contrast to Justin Long's personification of a Mac in Apple's "Get a Mac" advertising campaign, and for his correspondent work on Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

His writings have been published in One Story (to which he contributed the debut story), The Paris Review, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Wired and The New York Times Magazine, for which he is editor of the humor section. He contributes to Public Radio International’s This American Life, and CBC Radio One’s Wiretap. His first book and accompanying audio narration, The Areas of My Expertise, a satirical tongue-in-cheek almanac which actually contains almost no factual information, was published in 2005. His second book, More Information Than You Require, went on sale October 21, 2008. His third book, That Is All, went on sale November 1, 2011.

Hodgman was the headline speaker at the 2009 Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, D.C.

Early life[link]

Hodgman was born and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts. He attended the Heath School and Brookline High School where he edited the underground magazine Samizdat, named for the grassroots dissident literature movement produced under the Soviet Bloc.^[1][2] During his last year of high school, he hosted the weekly Radio Consuelo show on freeform station WMFO in Medford.^[3]

In 1994 Hodgman graduated from Yale University with a degree in literature.^[4][5] Before gaining fame as a writer, Hodgman worked as a literary agent at Writers House in New York City, where he represented Darin Strauss, Deborah Digges, and actor Bruce Campbell, among others. Hodgman has used his experience as an agent in his column “Ask a Former Professional Literary Agent” at McSweeney's Internet Tendency.

Television appearances[link]

Hodgman appeared on The Daily Show on November 16, 2005, to promote his book, The Areas of My Expertise. Host Jon Stewart described the book as “very funny” and said that the section on hobo names in particular was written with “a certain kind of genius.” Hodgman has returned to the Daily Show numerous times for "resident expert" interview segments,^[6] and he is listed on the show's web site as a contributor.^[7]

In 2005, Hodgman played a character named "The Deranged Millionaire" in They Might Be Giants's Venue Songs DVD/CD, narrating in between songs with dialog he co-wrote with the band. He also narrated a number of Venue Songs-themed setlists during the band's live shows in 2005, and has introduced the band while in the role of The Deranged Millionaire as recently as May 16, 2007. Hodgman appeared again with They Might Be Giants on The Late Late Show, with Craig Ferguson, on December 11, 2009. Hodgman performed the spoken-word portions of the song Why Does the Sun Shine?

Hodgman at a reading in 2006.

In February 2006, Hodgman appeared on Attack of the Show, a show that airs daily on G4, to share some insight with the host and promote his book The Areas of My Expertise. In this appearance, Hodgman recounted the sad tale of the lobster (which he said were actually a small, furry, extinct species, killed and replaced by the creatures we think of as lobsters today) and brought along Jonathan Coulton, a frequent Hodgman collaborator and musical director of the Little Gray Book lectures. Coulton performed a song called Furry Old Lobster.^[8] Also, on October 18, 2008, Hodgman appeared again on Attack of the Show to talk about his newest book More Information Than You Require.

Hodgman appeared in the North American Get a Mac advertising campaign for Apple Inc., which ran from May 2006 through 2010. In the ads he plays the personification of a PC alongside his Mac counterpart, played by actor Justin Long. In reality, however, Hodgman himself became a Mac user in 1984.^[9]

In 2007, Hodgman appeared in the "Bowie" episode of the HBO television series Flight of the Conchords. He played the manager of a musical greeting card company who was considering using one of the band's songs for a greeting card.

Hodgman appeared in the episode "No Exit" of Battlestar Galactica, appearing as the civilian neurosurgeon, Dr. Gerard.^[10] He had earlier visited the set in 2005 to write about the show for The New York Times Magazine.^[11] A bottle of Edradour given as a gift to the show's producers also appeared in the episode "Crossroads, Part I."^[12]

On Friday, June 19, 2009, Hodgman was the headline speaker at the 2009 Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington, D.C. Hodgman referred to this event as a "Nerd Prom." Many of his jokes were on the topic of President Barack Obama as the first nerd president, and quizzed the president on his knowledge of Frank Herbert's novel Dune. ^[13]

Hodgman appeared in the last two episodes of the first season of Bored to Death, "The Case of the Stolen Sperm" and "Take a Dive," as a literary reviewer who wrote a bad review that offended the main character.^[14] He returned in the second and third seasons.

Hodgman voice-acted on The Venture Bros. in the episode "Self-Medication" as Dale Hale, an ex-boy detective in therapy following the death of his father.

Also, during the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2009, Hodgman provided color commentary with made up trivia about the winners.^[15] He reprised this role for the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards in August 2010.

Because of his continuing support for QI, the BBC's intellectual comedy quiz, to be shown on BBC America,^[16] Hodgman was invited to appear on the show. He was the first “fifth panelist" on the program broadcast 3 December 2009 (the usual line-up being Stephen Fry as host, Alan Davies as regular panelist and three guests)—and won, continuing the tradition of a guest winning their "rookie" appearance on the show.^[17]

In 2012, Hodgman guest-starred in an episode of Delocated called "Reunion Show," acting as the host of a fictional show-within-a-show. Also in 2012, he appeared in as a psychiatrist in an episode of Community called "Curriculum Unavailable."

Other media appearances[link]

Film appearances[link]

• 2007: Super High Me as Himself (deleted scene)
• 2008: Baby Mama as Fertility Doctor
• 2009: Coraline as Father/Other Father (voice actor)
• 2009: The Invention of Lying as Wedding Overseer
• 2011: Arthur as Candy Store Manager

Radio[link]

Hodgman has been a guest on a number of different radio programs including PRI's This American Life^[18] and The Sound of Young America,^[19] WFMU's The Best Show on WFMU,^[20] NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me and North Carolina Public Radio's The State of Things.^[21] Hodgman has also been featured on several podcasts including occasional appearances as "Judge John Hodgman" on Jordan, Jesse GO! which led to a stand-alone podcast^[22] produced by Maximum Fun. Hodgman was also a guest along side Jonathan Coulton on a number of episodes of You Look Nice Today. Hodgman was also a guest on This Week In Tech with Leo Laporte^[23] and has been featured on the podcast Boing Boing TV.^[24] Hodgman also appeared in person and on the NPR radio broadcast of City Arts and Lectures, in a recorded interview by Dave Eggers, in front of a live studio audience on November 10, 2008, at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, California. He was a guest on Neil deGrasse Tyson's radio show StarTalk Radio on February 27, 2011.^[25]

Online[link]

• the show with zefrank
• TED^[26]
• Diggnation Episode 231^[27]
• Today in the Past (podcast)^[28]
• Two articles on the website Open Letters in the year 2000.^[29][30] In them, he details a family trip to Ocean City, New Jersey shortly after his mother's death, and uses his experiences there as metaphors for life and death.
• Transcript of welcoming remarks at a literary reading shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11^[31]

Music[link]

• Hodgman was featured on the track "Question and Answer Time" on MC Frontalot's 2010 album Zero Day.^[32]
• Hodgman has appeared in two indie music videos directed by Tom Scharpling. The first was Ted Leo & The Pharmacists "Bottled In Cork," followed by The New Pornographers "Moves."

In print[link]

Hodgman at the 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival.

As contributor:

• Hodgman appears on the cover of the February 2007 edition of Wired Magazine, as a contributor to their "What we don't know about..." articles.
• Hodgman oversaw the "True Life Tales" section of the Sunday New York Times Magazine.^[33] The section is currently on hiatus.
• Hodgman has guest written for the "Sedaratives" section of The Believer Magazine. "Sedaratives" is an advice column created by Amy Sedaris.
• Hodgman wrote the Massachusetts^[34] chapter in the anthology State by State: A Panoramic Portrait of America.
• Hodgman wrote the introduction to The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats Sell Out (2009), a collection of Adam Koford's "Hobotopia" comic strips.
• Hodgman founded The Little Gray Book Lectures in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The lectures have been on hiatus "for the foreseeable future" as of August 2007.^[35]

As author:

• The Areas of My Expertise (ISBN 0-525-94908-9, 2005)
• More Information Than You Require (ISBN 0-525-95034-6, October 2008)
• That Is All (ISBN 978-0525952442, November 2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site for The Areas of My Expertise
• John Hodgman on Twitter
• Good Evening—Hodg-man on Blogger (inactive)
• John Hodgman at the Internet Movie Database
• "Interview with John Hodgman"