Ike Barinholz is an American comedian, actor, director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for appearing on the comedy series MADtv (2002-2007), Eastbound & Down (2012) and The Mindy Project (2012-2017). He also sometimes acts as a screenwriter, director and producer.
Biography
Ike Barinholz was born in the Rogers Park area of Chicago, Illinois, and spent his entire childhood in that city. Hayk's father was a lawyer, his mother was a housewife. Barinholz calls his parents "liberal people with a great sense of humor" and said he grew up in a "very funny house."
The parents sent their son to the Jewish day school of Bernard Zell Anche Emet, and then he studied at the Latin School in Chicago, where he received his secondary education. From his youthful years, Hayk planned to become a politician and therefore studied this area in detail.
Then, unexpectedly, his interests changed - he decided to become an actor and went to Los Angeles, California to test himself in this field. In the "city of angels" you had to live on something, and Barinholz worked in several places, including a telemarketing company, a bus driver, and more.
He also has Boston University behind him, but he dropped out and never received a higher education. He later said that he hated studying, got poor grades and therefore left the walls of the university to become a comedian. Apparently, calling is still not a simple thing, and it pushes a person to the right actions, although in the eyes of society they may seem unreasonable.
What prompted a person keen on politics to become an actor? Once Ike went to a comedy show at The Vic Theater and was completely captivated by the performance of the actors, who drove the audience to frenzied laughter. Later, he personally met with several comedians, and he liked to communicate with them, get to know these people.
After that, he began attending acting classes at The Second City, Improv Olympic and The Annoyance Theater. At first, he did not succeed at all, but Ike decided to achieve success by all means. In addition, his younger brother John followed his example - he also went to study to be a comedian. Barinholz had no choice but to continue training and try to become a pro among the stand-up actors.
Actor's career
After graduation, Barinholz performed for two years in Amsterdam with the famous Boom Chicago comedy troupe, along with Jordan Peel, Josh Meyers and Nicole Parker. And then they began to invite him to the cinema.
He has starred in The Adventures of Big Handsome Guy and His Little Friend (2005), Love, Fear and Bunnies (2005) and Down (2001).
In 2012, Barinholz joined the filming of the third season of HBO's Eastbound & Down, playing the role of Ivan Dochenko, Kenny Powers' Russian rival. This role turned out brilliantly for him. He also starred with Seth Rogen in the sitcom Neighbors (2014), as well as in its 2016 sequel. And back in 2016, Barinholz played the prisoner guard Griggs in the DC Comics movie Squide Squad.
Ike was once offered a role in the comedy series Hulu The Mindy Project. He was supposed to play only in one episode, but his work was considered very successful, and the creators of the series renewed the contract with him. Then Barinholz wrote on Twitter that he was very pleased with this circumstance. As a result, he helped write the script for the series and became an editor for other scripts.
As for the career of a comedian - in 2002 Barinholz officially entered the cast of MADtv as the main performer of the eighth season. After the actor showed good performance, he received the status of a repertory performer for the next season. In the following seasons, Barinholz often performed in tandem with other actors: Josh Meyers, Horatio Sansa and others. In later seasons, he teamed up with fellow actor Bobby Lee. Among his famous characters were the Dutch model Abercrombie & Fitch and the head Lankenstein from the Coach Hines sketches.
Barinholz is also an excellent parody of celebrities, including Alex Trebek, Andy Dick, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ashton Kutcher and other famous personalities. It's amazing how he manages to portray such different people so similarly, and the audience really likes it. And this, in principle, is the most important thing for an actor.
In 2009, the comedian was invited to the Chicago Improv Festival, where he performed alongside former MADtv actor Jordan Peel. This improvisation caused a warm response from the audience and was critically acclaimed. And in 2012, Barinholz performed at another festival in Chicago with improvisation along with his brother John, who became a comedian. And this performance was also very successful - the brothers showed that they became real professionals in their craft.
During his acting career, many comedians became Ike's partners in performances. Including once he managed to work with comedian Dave Stassen, with whom he studied at the same school. This meeting brought good luck to both of them: they made many numbers together, and also co-wrote the project SPIKE, in which Barinholz played the main role.
Personal life
Ike once met Erica Hansen, who works as a producer. She was just doing the Hell's Kitchen series. Colleagues first looked closely at each other, and then realized that they were drawn together by a lot, and decided to get married.
Now the spouses have three daughters, the whole Barinholz family lives in Los Angeles.
