American actor, comedian, writer and producer (born 1966)
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Benjamin was born on May 23, 1966, to a Jewish family in Worcester, Massachusetts.[4][5] His father, Howard, was CEO of an electric company, and his mother, Shirley, was a former ballet dancer who taught dance at a studio.[6] He graduated from Worcester Academy in 1984 and Connecticut College in 1988.[7]
Career
Benjamin's comedy career began in Boston, where he was in a comedy duo with Sam Seder, then a member of Cross Comedy, a comedy team led by David Cross. For the first seven years of his career, Benjamin almost exclusively worked in groups rather than independently. Afterward, his independent work remained more experimental, rejecting traditional styles of stand-up comedy.
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[when?] in production. Benjamin and Cross appear together on the album Invite Them Up.
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 talking can of vegetables with a shameful habit of autofellatio in the film Wet Hot American Summer. He made short cameos in Not Another Teen Movie as the football trainer and on the FX Networkcomedy dramaRescue Me as the pimp "F-bomb" in season two. He can be seen in Turbocharge-the Unauthorized Story of the Cars, a comedy biopic about the '80s rock band The Cars, playing the role of Cars' manager Elliot Roberts in his usual deadpan comedic delivery.[8]
In 2009, Benjamin and David Cross created and wrote for Paid Programming, a live-action pilot for Cartoon Network's late night programing block, Adult Swim. Paid Programming was not picked up for a full series and Benjamin referred to it as an "abject failure".[9]
Benjamin was featured in a Super Bowl XLIIIBud Light commercial with Conan O'Brien[10] and was responsible for the McCain Girls[11] videos on YouTube.[12] He voices Sterling Archer, a secret agent in the FX series Archer that first aired January 14, 2010.[13] He has appeared in several segments of the television show Human Giant and had a cameo in the American Dad! episode "License to Till" as a talking head of cabbage.
Benjamin starred in the Comedy Central series Jon Benjamin Has a Van, which he co-created with comedian Leo Allen.[14] The series debuted on May 14, 2011; a total of 10 episodes aired, the last on August 10, 2011.
Beginning in 2013, Benjamin's voice can be heard as the narrator of a series of TV commercials for Coke Zero, including some with tie-ins to ESPN's College Game Day program.[citation needed]
In 2014, Benjamin was named as the year's best male comedy performer for his work on Bob's Burgers and Archer by the Vulture TV Awards, a digital expansion of New York magazine.[15]
In 2015, despite not knowing how to play any instrument, Benjamin released his first jazz album, Well, I Should Have....[16] Benjamin "played" piano and was joined by Scott Kreitzer on sax, David Finck on bass, and Jonathan Preitz on drums.[17]
Benjamin wrote a comedic autobiography, Failure is an Option: An Attempted Memoir, which was published by Penguin Random House in May 2018.[1] He also narrated the audiobook.
In March 2020, Benjamin was the voice of Saddam Hussein in Blowback, a podcast about the Iraq War created and hosted by Brendan James and Noah Kulwin.[19]
In 2024, Benjamin appears as the voice of a pigeon in the new Progressive Insurance commercials.
Personal life
Benjamin was named "Harry" after his paternal grandfather, but his family has always called him by his middle name "Jon";[1] in his early years, he was unaware of his actual first name.[20] He has said that the inclusion of his first initial in the credits on Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist was done without his consent by co-star Laura Silverman "just to make fun of me."[20]
Benjamin's longtime partner is set decorator Amy Beth Silver. They have a son and live in Brooklyn.[6]
In January 2020, Benjamin endorsed Bernie Sanders for president and narrated a series of videos on Sanders's health care proposals.[22] In September 2020, Benjamin voiced an animated version of himself to promote the launch video for the Gravel Institute's YouTube channel.[23]
