Ike Barinholtz

Ike Barinholtz (born February 18, 1977)^[1] is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his starring roles in the comedy series MADtv (2002–2007), Eastbound & Down (2012), The Mindy Project (2012–2017), Bless the Harts (2019–2021), The Afterparty (2022), and History of the World, Part II (2023).

Ike Barinholtz
Barinholtz in 2018
Born	(1977-02-18) February 18, 1977 (age 48) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupations	Actor comedian
Years active	2001–present
Spouse	Erica Hanson ​ (m. 2009)​
Children	3
Father	Alan Barinholtz
Relatives	Jon Barinholtz (brother)

His films include Disaster Movie (2008), Neighbors (2014), Sisters (2015), Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising (2016), Suicide Squad (2016), Snatched (2017), Blockers (2018), Late Night (2019), The Hunt (2020), and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022). He co-wrote the action comedy film Central Intelligence (2016), and directed, wrote, produced, and starred in the comedy film The Oath (2018).

On February 2, 2023, he won the inaugural primetime season of Celebrity Jeopardy!, winning $1,000,000 for charity, Pacific Clinics, and placed as a semifinalist in the 2024 Tournament of Champions. On August 14, 2024, he and his father, Alan, became the first duo and the second celebrities overall to win the $1,000,000 top prize for their charity, the ASL Program at Los Encinos School, and the fifteenth overall million dollar winners on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. He also previously won $125,000 for his charity, Uplift Family Services, on April 22, 2020.

Early life, family, and education

Barinholtz grew up in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood,^[2] the son of Peggy and Alan Barinholtz, an attorney and actor. His brother Jon Barinholtz is also an actor.^[3] Barinholtz has described his parents as "liberal people with great senses of humor", and said that he was raised in a "very funny home".^[4] Barinholtz is Jewish.^[5]

He attended Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School and then The Latin School of Chicago for high school. He worked at a telemarketing company and as a busboy before starting a career in comedy.^[6]

Barinholtz attended Boston University. After dropping out of college, he worked for the Chicago Transit Authority before starting his comedy career.^[2] In a 2013 interview, he said he dropped out of school because he hated it and was doing poorly.^[6] In a 2012 phone interview, Barinholtz said he was inspired to pursue a career in comedy after attending a comedy show at The Vic Theatre.^[2] Thereafter, he took comedy classes at The Second City, ImprovOlympic and Annoyance Theatre.^[6] He had planned on becoming a politician^[4] but instead decided to move to Los Angeles to be an actor.

Career

Barinholtz at PaleyFest 2013

Barinholtz spent two years in Amsterdam with the famed comedy troupe Boom Chicago along with Jordan Peele, Josh Meyers, and Nicole Parker. Barinholtz hosted the 'Worst of Boom Night' during a 10-year anniversary of the improv troupe Boom Chicago, where they performed their worst material from previous shows.

In 2009, he performed at the Chicago Improv Festival alongside former MADtv cast member Jordan Peele.^[7] In 2012, Barinholtz performed at another Chicago Improv Festival event with his brother, Jon.^[8]

He is a founding member of The Lindbergh Babies, an improv group directed by Del Close, who worked with John Belushi, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, and Chris Farley. In 2012, Barinholtz joined the cast of the third season of the HBO series Eastbound & Down, playing the role of Ivan Dochenko, Kenny Powers' Russian rival. He starred alongside Seth Rogen in the 2014 comedy Neighbors, as well as its 2016 sequel. Also in 2016, Barinholtz played prison guard Griggs in the DC Comics film Suicide Squad.

He has frequently worked with comedian Dave Stassen, with whom he attended high school.^[2] They co-wrote a SPIKE pilot in which Barinholtz also starred, Mega Winner,^[9] and the 2016 film Central Intelligence.^[10]

Barinholtz appeared in a regular role as nurse Morgan Tookers on the comedy series The Mindy Project. He was also a writer and story editor on the series. He also has a role in Friends from College, a Netflix original. In 2022, Barinholtz was in the main cast of the Apple TV+ mystery comedy series The Afterparty.

Competing on the first season of Celebrity Jeopardy! on ABC in 2022-23, Barinholtz defeated Patton Oswalt and Wil Wheaton in the finals to win the championship. He earned $1,000,000 for his charity, Pacific Clinics, and, due to rule changes, became the first celebrity champion to receive a berth to the Tournament of Champions. Competing in 2024, Barinholtz won his quarterfinal match against 13-game winner Ray Lalonde and 3-game winner Melissa Klapper, before losing in the semifinals.^[11] An article in Slate described Barinholtz as the "chaos agent Jeopardy! needed".^[12]

MADtv

Barinholtz officially joined the cast of MADtv in 2002 as a featured performer for the eighth season. He was later promoted to a repertory performer status the following season. Barinholtz often paired up with fellow cast member Josh Meyers in various sketches for the eighth and ninth seasons similar to the Mike Myers/Dana Carvey and Jimmy Fallon/Horatio Sanz duos on Saturday Night Live. Barinholtz also paired up with fellow cast member Bobby Lee in some of his sketches in the later seasons. Some of his famous characters included Abercrombie & Fitch model Dutch and Principal Lankenstein from the Coach Hines sketches.

Barinholtz's celebrity impressions included Abraham Lincoln, Alex Trebek, Andy Dick, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ashton Kutcher, Bo Bice, Dane Cook, Felicity Huffman, Fidel Castro, George Michael, Howard Dean, Howie Long, Jack Osbourne, Kevin Federline, Mark Wahlberg, Clay Aiken, Matt Damon, Nick Lachey, Nick Nolte, Orlando Bloom, Pat Sajak, Ralph Nader, Rafael Palmeiro, Tom Hanks, and Vin Diesel.

In 2007, he decided not to renew his contract for the 13th season of MADtv. Barinholtz has commented that he started getting "restless" and did not see eye to eye with some of the MADtv bosses about how decisions were being made.^[6]

Characters

Character	Sketch	Notes
Adam Bice	QVC: Quacker Factory
Eli	The B.S.
Astroman
Duncan Kruskal	The Silver Fox
Dutch	Abercrombie & Fitch
Jeffrey "Jeff" DeShazer	Coach Hines
Marty	Knobs
Mitchel "Mitch" Ruffin
Principal Lankenstein	Coach Hines	He is the principal of St. Francis High and Coach Hines' nemesis.
Roy Schenk	Feuding Parents
Steven "Steve" Wellington

Personal life

Barinholtz is married to Erica Hanson, an accountant, with whom he has three daughters.^[13] While shooting the film Blockers, he suffered an accident doing a stunt involving a fall. He suffered two fractured cervical vertebrae in his neck.^[14]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Down	Assistant Milligan
2006	The Adventures of Big Handsome Guy and His Little Friend	Bar Jerk	Short film
2007	Bunny Whipped	Joe
	Twisted Fortune	Dave Armstrong
2008	Meet the Spartans	Various
	Disaster Movie	Various
2009	Shrink	Steve	Uncredited
	Lock and Roll Forever	Lomax
2010	How to Make Love to a Woman	David
	Vampires Suck	Bobby White	Uncredited
	For Christ's Sake	Buster Chery
2013	The Sidekick	Lightning Mike	Short film
	Inventing Adam	Telly
2014	Neighbors	Jimmy Blevins
2015	Sisters	James
2016	Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising	Jimmy Blevins
	The Angry Birds Movie	Tiny	Voice[15]
	Central Intelligence	None	Writer
	Suicide Squad	Griggs	[16]
	Storks	Miscellaneous Storks	Voice[15]
2017	Snatched	Jeffrey Middleton
	Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House	Angelo Lano
	The Disaster Artist	Himself	Cameo
	Bright	Pollard
2018	Blockers	Hunter Lockwood
	Song of Back and Neck	Nurse
	The Oath	Chris Montana	Also writer, producer, and director
2019	Late Night	Daniel Tennant
	The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part	Lex Luthor	Voice[15]
2020	The Hunt	Moses / Staten Island	[17]
2021	Moxie	Mr. Davies	[18]
2022	The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent	Martin Etten
2023	Maximum Truth	Rick Klingman	Also writer[19]
2024	Orion and the Dark	Light	Voice[20][15]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2002–2007, 2016	MADtv	Various characters	116 episodes; also writer
2005	E! Hollywood Hold'em	Himself	Episode: "Laura Prepon"
2008	Family Guy	Dane Cook	Voice, episode: "I Dream of Jesus"
2008–2009	Rita Rocks	Fly	6 episodes
2010	Weeds	Daryl	Episode: "Fran Tarkenton"
2010–2015	The League	Frank "The Body" Gibiatti	4 episodes
2011	Childrens Hospital	Peter Principato	Episode: "Newsreaders"
2012	Eastbound & Down	Ivan Dochenko	6 episodes
	NTSF:SD:SUV::	Maitre'D	Episode: "Sabbath-tage"
	Megawinner	Cliff Planker	Television film; also writer and executive producer
2012–2017	The Mindy Project	Morgan Tookers	115 episodes; also writer and executive story editor
2013	Drunk History	August Spies	Episode: "Chicago"
	High School USA!	Cyber Bully	Voice, episode: "Bullies"
	The Soup	Himself	Episode dated October 23
	The Pete Holmes Show		Episode: "Ike Barinholtz"
2013–2015	The Awesomes	Muscleman	Voice, 30 episodes[15]
2014	Kroll Show	Zach Sword	Episode: "Oh Armond"
	Chozen	Hunter	Voice, 4 episodes
	Married	Bruce	Episode: "The Old Date"
	Garfunkel and Oates	First Door on the Right Director	Episode: "Hair Swap"
	@midnight	Himself	Episode dated January 8
	American Dad!	DJ Iron Monkey	Voice, episode: "Blonde Ambition"
2016	Animals.	Alan	Voice, episode: "Pigeons."[15]
2017	Friends from College	Degrasso	2 episodes
	Neo Yokio	Jeffrey	Voice, episode: "Hamptons Water Magic"
2019	Brooklyn Nine-Nine	Gintars Irbe	Episode: "Gintars"
	The Twilight Zone	Mike	Episode: "Not All Men"
	What Just Happened??! with Fred Savage	Himself	Episode: "Elevator"
	Live in Front of a Studio Audience	Michael Stivic	Episode: "Norman Lear's All in the Family and The Jeffersons"
2019–2021	Bless the Harts	Wayne Edwards	Voice, 34 episodes
2020, 2024	Who Wants to Be a Millionaire	Himself	2 episodes
2020	Mapleworth Murders	Richard Belt	3 episodes
2021–2022	Chicago Party Aunt	Mark	Voice, 15 episodes; also writer and executive producer
2022–2023	Celebrity Jeopardy!	Himself	3 episodes
2022	The Afterparty	Brett	8 episodes[21]
	Central Park		Voice, episode: "A Hot Dog to Remember"
2022–2023	American Auto	Landon Payne	2 episodes
2023	History of the World, Part II	Various	8 episodes; also writer and executive producer
	White House Plumbers	Jeb Stuart Magruder	3 episodes
2024	Jeopardy Tournament of Champions	Himself	2 episodes
	Curb Your Enthusiasm	Shimon	Episode: "The Gettysburg Address"
	The Simpsons	Wayne the Grip	Voice, episode: "Homer and Her Sisters"
2025–present	Running Point	None	Co-creator, executive producer
2025	The Studio	Sal Seperstein	Main cast

Video games

Year	Title	Voice role	Notes
2016	Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare	A.J.

Audio

Year	Title	Role	Author	Production Company
2021	Batman: The Audio Adventures[22]	Two-Face/Harvey Dent	Dennis McNicholas	Blue Ribbon Content
2023	White House Plumbers Podcast	Himself

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2013	Writers Guild of America Awards	New Series	The Mindy Project	Nominated
2024		Comedy/Variety – Sketch Series	History of the World, Part II	Nominated