Amir Blumenfeld

At 41 years old, Amir Blumenfeld has this physical status:

Amir Shmuel Blumenfeld (born January 18, 1983) is an Israeli-American comedian, writer, television presenter, and member of the American comedy duo, Jake and Amir.

Born in Israel, he came to Los Angeles at the age of two and was recruited by the New York City-based CollegeHumor in 2005.

In addition to writing and publishing original videos for the website, including the film "Hardly Working" and Very Mary-Kate, he has appeared in original videos for the comedy website, as well as contributing to its short-lived MTV show The CollegeHumor Show. Amir first rose to national prominence in 2004 when he was a semi-finalist in Yahoo's inaugural national IM Live competition, losing to the eventual champions.

Now, he is best known for his role in Jake and Amir, in which he plays an annoying and exaggerated version of himself.

Hurwitz and Blumenfeld created the collection in their spare time and then CollegeHumor produced it.

Blumenfeld's presence in the series earned him the Prank War series, which depicts Blumenfeld and Streeter Seidell as they perform a series of escalating practical jokes on each other, became extremely popular, with the two characters appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! In 2009, the U.S. announced a new one.

Seidell and Blumenfeld were hired by MTV later to host Pranked, a clip show starring prank videos from the Internet.

The original plot was revealed to have been staged long after these events.

Blumenfeld has appeared in The Old Man and the Seymour, the television series Louie and I Just Want My Pants Back, and the 2011 film A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas.

He has also written for ESPN The Magazine and Mental Floss.

Personal life

Blumenfeld was born in Afula, Israel, and he and his two older brothers and his parents were moved to Los Angeles at the age of two, — his family is Reform Jewish. "I was funny at an early age, I discovered I was silly at a later age, and then, by college time, I was trying to make comebacks in terms of writing."

He attended a Jewish kindergarten and elementary school before moving to Milken Community High School, a private Jewish high school. During the summer, he attended computer camp and mathematics camp, but he regretted that he did not attend a Jewish summer camp.

Blumenfeld graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a Bachelor of Science degree in the hopes of landing a creative job in advertising or marketing while writing comedy on the side. He now uses his undergraduate degree to make some humerous jokes about finance and accounting, but not much more than that."

Avital Ash, a writer, actor, and comedian, has been dated since 2017, according to Blumenfeld. They appeared together in the Dropout web series Lonely and Horny.

Blumenfeld is Jewish, although he has referred himself as "not too religious" and does not attend Temple, nor does he keep Kosher. He does, however, celebrate Jewish holidays with his family and speaks Hebrew. He is a basketball fan who supports the Los Angeles Lakers, and Nick Van Exel and the late Kobe Bryant are two of his favorite players.

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Career

Blumenfeld started writing articles for CollegeHumor after he emailed its co-founder Ricky Van Veen's ideas, which Van Veen found amusing and posted on the website in 2003. When Blumenfeld graduated in 2005, CollegeHumor recruited him and Streeter Seidell full-time to write The CollegeHumor Guide to College, a comedic book that serves as a university education resource, and he moved to New York City at the age of 22. With Dan Gurewitch, he went on to produce original videos for CollegeHumor and has appeared in CH Originals and the series Hardly Working. Woody Allen has appeared in episodes of Hardly Working and Very Mary-Kate—MTV's Guy Code Blog listed him as one of "The 8 Best Woody Allen Impressions We Found On The Internet." His favorite sketch for CollegeHumor is "Moments Before Cup Chicks," which involves a director briefing the participants of the viral scatological film 2 Girls 1 Cup.

He and Streeter Seidell have appeared in the Prank War series of videos, in which the two comedians perform a series of increasingly funny practical jokes on each other. Seidell has outlined how some of the pranks "showed Amir's true colors, his desire to be famous [and] cut deeper emotionally], and how Blumenfeld's marriage proposal from Seidell to his girlfriend went "too far." After seven videos were shared over two years, Seidell tricked Blumenfeld into thinking he had won USD500,000 after taking a blindfolded half-court basketball shot. Seidell and Blumenfeld were interviewed by Wired magazine and appear on Jimmy Kimmel Live, which culminated in the pranks.

Blumenfeld appeared on MTV in 2009 as one of eight other CollegeHumor workers. The staff produced, filmed, and performed in the film, which is set in the CollegeHumor offices and has a scripted reality premise. Sketches from a half-hour sitcom have been embedded in the website. However, critics chastised the programme, and Pajiba's Dustin Rowles called it "a series of horribly strung together"; GigaOM's Liz Shannon Miller said the show was "deeply disappointing"; however, none of the other characters on the show had been developed beyond the surface level; only one season of six episodes was produced.

Seidell and Blumenfeld have hosted Pranked, an MTV series based on pranks that were caught on camera and posted online. The show has generally received poor reviews, with critics questioning its clip show appearance and use of YouTube material, as well as calling it inferior to the "prank war" that inspired it. "Hosts Blumenfeld and Seidell do what they can with their content, but their banter and comment is largely forgettable," Eric Chiu of the Michigan Daily said, and "the Prank War series on CollegeHumor.com is a prime example of humiliating gags done right." It's a shame that Pranked isn't able to muster up anything near the same degree of ingenuity."

The two founders of Prank War declared that the sequence was staged in the episode If I Were You, which Seidell was the guest on June 19, 2017.

Blumenfeld began an internship at CollegeHumor in 2006. The two people were seated across from each other and began to make short videos together, which they posted on YouTube. Their first video, "Quick Characters," was unscripted, and it involved either Hurwitz or Blumenfeld spontaneously pointing a camera at the other and instructing them to act in a specific way.

The two then launched Jake and Amir, the first two episodes of which were broadcast to jakeandamir.com. Hurwitz plays Jake, a "normal guy," while Blumenfeld plays Amir, his irritable and obsessive co-worker who cries for Jake's attention. Their videos began to be distributed on CollegeHumor, and the website later added the series.

Blumenfeld's account has changed from being "super needy [and] bizarre" to "a little crazier," but "the basis of my character remains the same, as well as the insecurity of it." He said he is "hopefully different," despite the fact that at the root of it, we're the same person." I'm certainly a little more aware of the plot than the actress, though I'm sure it's not. Well, the things he finds are probably true, but I'm able to avoid them."

Jake and Amir won a People's Voice award for Comedy: Long Form or Series in 2010, and Blumenfeld received one for Best Individual Achievement at the 14th Webby Awards in 2010. Blumenfeld was nominated for the Best Male Performance: Comedy award for 2013 by a jury in Jake and Amir.

Blumenfeld and Hurwitz' first new venture since Jake and Amir: If I Were You, a comedy audio podcast in which they give listeners who ask questions. Kayla Culver of The Concordian praised the podcast as "comfortable to listen to" and "truly amusing" and "true," adding, "It's like listening to two of your best friends having a joking discussion on the couch next to you." Miranda Sawyer of the Guardian called If I Were You "a typical example of a comedy podcast" and "amiable enough," but "it contained "far too much laughing" and "a common sense of humor," and "if I wanted stream-of-consciousness waffle with the occasional humdrum" in a tweet.

Blumenfeld and Hurwitz created Lonely and Horny, an on-demand comedy film on Vimeo in 2016. CollegeHumor picked up the series for its second season.

Blumenfeld and Hurwitz's interest in podcasting led them to the creation of HeadGum, which now has 34 active shows as of May 2020.

Blumenfeld revealed in August 2018 that he and Amir Blumenfeld founded Buckets, where he addresses the NBA with guests.

Blumenfeld appeared in the 2009 short film The Old Man and the Seymour, as well as Shawn Harrison, Liz Cackowski, and Jordan Carlos. It's about a growth hormone deficiency man who is mistaken for a student at his nephew's high school. On Vimeo, the film was chosen as a "Staff Pick" and premiered at the Austin Film Festival, the Sacramento Film and Music Festival, the Los Angeles Shorts Fest, the Friars Club Comedian Film Festival, and the Portable Film Festival.

Blumenfeld appeared in comedian Louis C.K. in 2011. "Halloween/Ellie," a television series created by Louie during the tenth episode of its second season's second season, was released. In the second half of the episode, he was hired by a writer to improve a movie script. With Popcorn's George Prax, he played "the 'unfunny' guy who ends up being the funniest of all to the audience" and that Blumenfeld "should be guesting and appearing in many more things." Blumenfeld's first sitcom appearance was also a "clearly momentous occasion." Blumenfeld appeared in I Just Want My Pants Back, an MTV movie directed by Doug Liman.

In the 2011 stoner comedy film A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, Kumar Patel's friend Todd played Kumar Patel's friend, Adrian. Although IGN's Eric Goldman said "there isn't much to the Todd and Adrian scenes," Pajiba's Daniel Carlson said, the scriptwriters handled the characters as "living props," despite his performance. "Anything Adrian says or does... provokes[s] a minor chuckle at best," T. J. Mulligan of Movies on Film said.

However, Robert Zak of WhatCulture!

Lennon and Blumenfeld "provid[ed] constant amusement," he praised the film's "strong supporting cast."

Blumenfeld, a writer, works freelance for ESPN The Magazine and has contributed to the ESPN Guide to Psychological Behavior. In addition, he has "The Curious Comedian" section in Mental Floss.

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