Johnson is an English, Scottish, and Irish name of Norman origin. The name itself is a patronym of the given name John, literally meaning "son of John." The name John derives from Latin Johannes, which is derived through Greek Ἰωάννης Iōannēs, from Hebrew יוחנן Yohanan meaning "Yahweh has favoured". The name was extremely popular in Europe since the Christian era, as a result of it being given to St. John the Baptist, St. John the Evangelist and nearly one thousand other Christian saints.^[3] Johnson is the tenth most common surname in the United Kingdom,^[1] and second most common in the United States. ^[4]

Description[link]

In North America, the surname Johnson has absorbed many variants of this patronym from European languages^[3], as well as the Danish Jørgensen (which does not share its root with Johnson, but is derived from Latin Georgius). It is the second most common family name in the United States after Smith. During the 1990 census, approximately 0.81% of people counted had this family name.^[5]

In Ireland, Johnson is the Anglicization of the Gaelic surnames Mac Sean (McShane) or Mac Eoin (McKeown).^[6]

Notable people sharing the surname Johnson[link]

• Samuel Johnson (1709–1784), English author
• Andrew Johnson (1808–1875), 17th President of the United States
• Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973), 36th President of the United States
• Boris Johnson (born 1964), British politician
• Earvin "Magic" Johnson (born 1959), American basketball player and businessman

See also[link]

• Jensen
• Jonson
• Jonsson
• Johansson
• Johnsson
• Johnston
• Jovanović
• Jones

References[link]

Anjelah Nicole Johnson (born May 14, 1982) is an American actress, comedienne, and former NFL cheerleader. Johnson is most notable for her membership in the recurring cast of comedians on sketch comedy series MADtv during its 13th Season. Her characters include a rude fast food employee named Bon Qui Qui and a Vietnamese nail salon employee.

Career[link]

After three years of college, Johnson moved to Los Angeles to pursue an entertainment career. She decided to become a comedian in 2005 and began doing stand-up comedy after a friend suggested that she join a joke writing class.^[2] Prior to that she had been working as an actress in Los Angeles and was taking improv classes in church.^[2][3] She quickly began to headline her own shows after being a featured comedian in just three shows.^[2] As a featured comedian, the comedy clubs that hired her gave her preferential treatment over even the headliners after noticing that her routines were popular with the audiences.^[2] Her stand-up routine comprising her impression of a Vietnamese nail salon employee received much attention on YouTube, and a year after beginning her stand-up career,^[2] in 2007, Johnson joined the cast of sketch comedy show MADtv, as a featured performer. Because of the impending writers strike, Johnson was often given only a few lines in the scripts during her tenure on the show, as the writers had to produce more scripts at a faster pace and thus opted to write more for the already established performers.^[2] However, her character Bon Qui Qui, a fast food employee who treats customers rudely, which she wrote herself was received well.^[2] The clip made its way to YouTube where it gained a large following, quickly outstripping her already popular nail salon routine in views.^[2] In 2008, Johnson was nominated for an ALMA Award for Outstanding Female Performance in a Comedy Television Series for her work on MADtv.^[4]

Johnson was given her own 1 hour Comedy Central special, "Anjelah Johnson: That's How We Do It" in 2009.^[1] She filmed a role in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel in 2009. She also appeared as America Ferrera's sister in the comedy, Our Family Wedding alongside Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia in 2010.^[4] She provided her voice for the live-action adaptation of Marmaduke, which starred Owen Wilson and Emma Stone.^[4] She was also featured on the late night talk show Lopez Tonight, hosted by one of her comedic influences, George Lopez, performing her stand-up routine to the audience. Johnson became the "TC Girl", a spokesperson for Mexican restaurant Taco Cabana in 2011 and appeared in television advertisements for the chain.^[5]

Personal life[link]

Johnson was born and raised in San Jose, California in a devout Christian family.^[3] She is of Mexican-American and Native American descent.^[6] She was a Pop Warner cheerleader from the age of 8 and was active in sports including soccer, softball and track.^[7] She also practiced various dancing style, such as hip hop to break dancing.^[7] She began acting as a senior in high school and was especially interested in affecting different accents.^[7] She later studied speech communications in college.^[7] She subsequently became a cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders after being inducted in 2002.^[7] As a member of the Oakland Raiderettes she was named Rookie of the year and performed in Super Bowl XXXVII.

Johnson married Group 1 Crew member Manwell Reyes in 2011.

Filmography[link]

Movie appearances[link]

Television appearances[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Anjelah Johnson at IMDb
• Anjelah Johnson on Myspace
• Anjelah Johnson on Twitter

This article about an American television actor or actress born in the 1980s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Ray William Johnson (born 1981-1982) is an American actor and comedian best known for his YouTube series Equals Three, in which he provides commentary on viral videos.^[2][3] Many of the videos featured on Equals Three are noted to have received an additional boost of popularity.^{[4][5][6][7][8]} As of May 2012, the RayWilliamJohnson channel is the most subscribed channel on YouTube,^[9][10] with over 5.4 million subscribers, and over 1.7 billion video views.^[11] In February 2011, one industry publication noted that Johnson currently had six of the top twenty most watched videos of the month.^[12]

Background[link]

Johnson graduated from Norman North High School in Oklahoma, in 1999,^[1] however Johnson's Youtube profile states he was born and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.^[13] In an interview with Wall Street Journal, Johnson says that he studied at Columbia University, as a history major,^[1] while his profile adds he was preparing to study law.^[13] While at Columbia, Johnson started his first formatted show, Equals Three, as a way to combine two popular video styles, watching viral videos and video bloggers.^[2]

Current projects[link]

[edit] Equals Three

Equals Three
Title card
Genre	Comedy
Created by	Ray William Johnson
Written by	Phil Haney Steve Greene Marvin Silbermintz Erin Schmalfeld Ilana Cohn Brandon Perna "Big Rob" Lance Patrick Ray William Johnson
Presented by	Ray William Johnson
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English Spanish (Igual a Tres)
No. of episodes	265 (as of March 3, 2012)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Ray William Johnson
Producer(s)	Erin Schmalfeld
Editor(s)	Brandon Perna
Broadcast
Original channel	RayWilliamJohnson
Original run	2008 (2008) – present
Chronology
Related shows	Breaking Your Favorite Martian Igual a Tres YFMTS
External links
Website

In Equals Three (stylized as "=3"), Ray William Johnson reviews, criticizes, and adds commentary to some of the internet's latest viral videos.^[3] Equals Three episodes are usually uploaded to his channel every Tuesday and Friday. In these episodes, Johnson interacts with his audience by posting a viewer-submitted "comment question of the day", then features five of his favorite comments in the preceding episode. Equals Three is on the most subscribed channel on YouTube, having over 5 million subscribers to date, and has been recognized by Guinness World Records.^[2][14][15] Because of his popularity, Equals Three episodes can consistently obtain several million views within a week. Johnson has been able to leverage his popularity to secure several celebrity guests on Equals Three, including Robin Williams,^[16] Gabriel Iglesias,^[17] Kal Penn,^[18] Margaret Cho,^[19] Bobby Lee,^[20] T.J. Miller,^[21] Garfunkel and Oates,^[22] John Cho,^[18] Jason Biggs,^[23] Andy Milonakis^[24] and Traphik.^[25]

Your Favorite Martian[link]

In January 2011, Johnson launched a collaborative YouTube channel called "YourFavoriteMartian", which features animated music videos.^{[26][27][dead link]} The songs are performed by a virtual band of four fictional cartoon characters: PuffPuff Humbert (vocals, voiced by Johnson), DeeJay (turntables), Axel Chains (drums), and Benatar (vocals, guitar/keytar).^[28] Johnson writes lyrics, raps, sings, composes beats, and sometimes collaborates with other musicians to produce the songs.^[29] The following is a list of music videos that have been released so far:

To date, Johnson has released 30 original songs, 1 remix, and 3 covers through the channel. As of May 2012, the channel has over 1.8 million subscribers, making it one of the most subscribed channels on YouTube, and over 372 million video views.^[30][31] Due to the rapid growth of popularity of the channel and the music videos getting more views than the Equals Three episodes, Johnson has commented in his Breaking Los Angeles video blog that he at some point hopes to have the music videos released weekly instead of bi-weekly.^[32]

[edit] Breaking

BreakingNYC is a former daily video blog or vlog that Johnson started in December 2009 while living in New York City. He made the vlogs almost daily until June 2010. After nearly a year-long hiatus, Johnson resumed contributing to the video blog channel, creating a new higher quality series with a similar format. The new series titled, Breaking Los Angeles and the Adventures of Puff Puff, was released every Friday and is filmed in Los Angeles. Johnson often featured notable guests in his new series, including rappers Wax, Hoodie Allen and Dumbfoundead, slam poet George Watsky, comedian Gabriel Iglesias, and actor/director Bobcat Goldthwait. After Johnson took a three-month hiatus from making videos for the channel, a third season of Breaking Los Angeles (retitled to Breaking: Season 3), premiered on December 14, 2011.

References[link]

External links[link]

Internet portal

• Official Site

Jamey Johnson
Johnson performing in 2008
Background information
Born	(1975-07-14) July 14, 1975 (age 36)[1] Enterprise, Alabama, USA
Origin	Montgomery, Alabama, USA
Genres	Country
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	2005–present
Labels	BNA Mercury Nashville
Associated acts	Trace Adkins Randy Houser John Michael Montgomery Joe Nichols James Otto George Strait George Jones
Website	JameyJohnson.com

Jamey Johnson (born July 14, 1975) is an American Grammy Award nominated country music artist. Signed to BNA Records in 2005, Johnson made his debut with his single "The Dollar," the title track to his 2006 album The Dollar. Johnson was dropped from BNA in 2006 and signed to Mercury Nashville Records in March 2008, releasing his second album, the gold-certified That Lonesome Song. This album has produced two more singles: the Top 10 hit "In Color" and "High Cost of Living." In addition to most of his own material, Johnson has co-written singles for Trace Adkins, George Strait, James Otto, Joe Nichols and Jessie James.

Career[link]

Johnson was born on July 14, 1975, in Enterprise, Alabama, but raised in Montgomery, Alabama. From an early age, he was influenced by country acts such as Alabama and Alan Jackson, the latter of whom was the first act that he saw in concert.^[2] After graduating high school (Jeff Davis High School), Johnson attended Jacksonville State University, the same university from which Alabama lead singer Randy Owen graduated.^[2] During his time at Jacksonville State University, he was a member of Sigma Nu in the Iota Lambda chapter.

Johnson quit college after two years and served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve for eight years.^[2] He served in Company L, 3rd Battalion 23rd Marines as a mortarman (MOS 0341) and attained the rank of corporal. He would often play original songs for his fellow Marines and has kept in contact with many of them. He wrote two songs on his initial self-released album that mention his Marine Corps service. After exiting the Marines, he began playing country music in various bars throughout Montgomery; one of his first gigs was opening for David Allan Coe.^[2] By 2000, Johnson had moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in pursuit of a career in country music. He also self-released an album called They Call Me Country. One of his first connections was with Greg Perkins, a fiddler who had played for Tanya Tucker and other artists. Perkins invited Johnson to sing as a duet partner on a demo tape; the other duet partner with whom he sang was Gretchen Wilson.^[2] Songs for which Johnson sang demos include "Songs About Me" (cut by Trace Adkins) and "That's How They Do It in Dixie" (cut by Hank Williams, Jr. with Big & Rich, Gretchen Wilson, and Van Zant).^[2]

In addition, Johnson had made connections with producer and songwriter Buddy Cannon, who helped him land a songwriting contract.^[3] Among Johnson's first cuts as a songwriter was "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk," which Adkins released from his 2005 album Songs About Me. That song he co-wrote along with hit songwriter Dallas Davidson and fellow country singer-songwriter Randy Houser, who later worked with Johnson again co-writing "My Cowboy" for country pop singer Jessie James for her self-titled debut album.

Musical career[link]

By 2005, Johnson had also been signed to a recording contract with BNA Records. His first single, entitled "The Dollar," was released that year, followed by his Buddy Cannon-produced debut album (also entitled The Dollar) in March 2006. "The Dollar" went on to peak at #14 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. The album's second single, "Rebelicious," failed to enter the charts and Johnson was dropped from BNA.

After the loss of his record deal, Johnson divorced his wife and took on a reclusive lifestyle, residing in a friend's house while working on his songwriting.^[4] He wrote several songs for other artists. In 2006, George Strait reached #1 on the Country chart with "Give It Away," a song which Johnson co-wrote with Bill Anderson and Cannon. This song became Strait's 51st #1 on the Billboard country charts, setting a new record for most #1s on that chart.

In 2007, Trace Adkins charted with two more songs that Johnson co-wrote: "Ladies Love Country Boys" and "I Got My Game On," the former being Adkins' first #1 in 10 years. Also in 2007, Joe Nichols reached Top 20 with "Another Side of You," another song co-written by Johnson. This song was the first single on Nichols's album Real Things, which also contained "She's All Lady," a song that Johnson originally recorded on The Dollar.

Johnson was part of the Fox TV television series Nashville,^[5] which was cancelled after two episodes in September 2007.

Johnson released an album in 2008, That Lonesome Song, which was only made available online.^[4] The album drew the attention of Mercury Nashville Records, who signed him to a record deal in 2008. His first single for the label, "In Color," was released in March 2008. This song, which Johnson co-wrote with Lee Thomas Miller and James Otto, entered Top 40 in June 2008, and That Lonesome Song was physically released in August of that year. "In Color" peaked at #9 on the Country chart in January 2009 and was followed a month later by "High Cost of Living," which managed to crack the Top 40, but only reaching #34. By April 2009, That Lonesome Song was certified Gold by the RIAA.

A fifth single, "My Way to You," was issued in July 2009. The song was released to radio on July 13, 2009, and debuted at #56 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The song peaked at #52 in September 2009.

Johnson was nominated for the 2009 CMA Awards New Artist of the Year, and has been nominated for the 2010 Academy of Country Music Top New Solo Vocalist.

Johnson's single "Playing the Part," was released in summer 2010 and included on The Guitar Song, released September 14, 2010. The music video for the single was released in October, and was directed by Matthew McConaughey, who also stars in the video as a dancing gorilla.

Johnson is the supporting act on Kid Rock's 2011 Born Free Tour, accompanying Rock on a duet or two most concerts.

Johnson is a main stage act on Willie Nelson's Country Throwdown May–July 2011.

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Singles[link]

Music videos[link]

Other appearances[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

Johnson received three Grammy Award nominations at the 51st Grammy Awards: Best Country Album for That Lonesome Song, and Best Country Song and Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "In Color."^[14] "In Color" won the Academy of Country Music's 2009 award for Song of the Year and the same award during the 2009 Country Music Association Awards. Going into 2010, Johnson received two more Grammy Award nominations for the 52nd Grammy Awards: Best Country Song and Best Male Country Vocal Performance, both for his 2009 single "High Cost of Living."^[15]

References[link]