Jason Woliner
Encyclopedia
Jason Woliner is an American
comedy director, writer, editor and also a former child actor. He is the non-performing member of the comedy group "Human Giant
" and has directed the bulk of their output. The group, which also consists of comedians Aziz Ansari
, Rob Huebel
, and Paul Scheer
, produced an MTV
sketch comedy show that ran for two seasons. The show is currently on hiatus and in November 2008, The Hollywood Reporter
noted that the group is developing a feature film with Red Hour Films, the production company run by Ben Stiller
and producer Stuart Cornfeld
.
Woliner shot and edited the pilot episode of Jon Glaser
's Adult Swim
series Delocated
and recently directed projects for comedians such as Patton Oswalt
, Judd Apatow
, Slovin and Allen
, Chris Elliott
, and H. Jon Benjamin
.
, NY and began acting when he was four years old, having been discovered performing in a "father/son magician team" (alongside his father, Alan, who did children's birthday parties under the name "Amazing Alan The Magical Rabbit"). He appeared in over thirty television commercials, including those for Kix Cereal
, LEGO
, Teddy Ruxpin
, Apple Jacks
, Burger King
, Fruit Roll-Ups
, and Kool Aid. Woliner also appeared in the commercial parody "McSooshi" on Saturday Night Live
and as "Matt", a series regular during the first season of PBS's "Shining Time Station
". On Broadway, he performed in the play Conversations with My Father
and he played the role of "Bratty Kid" in the cult film Weekend at Bernie's
.
Woliner attended Sarah Lawrence College
from 1998 to 2000 before dropping out to pursue a directing career.
. During this period, Woliner also frequently collaborated on short films with Frank Lesser, now a writer for Comedy Central
's The Colbert Report.
The first three Human Giant videos, "Shutterbugs", "Illusionators" and the "Shittiest Mixtape Boombox Blast", caught the eyes of executives at MTV, who offered the group a pilot. The resulting pilot got a green light, and the show ran for two seasons. Woliner, in addition to directing the majority of the series, served on the writing staff and wrote or co-wrote sketches such as "Camping Weekend", "Car Accident (a.k.a. Gay Porn Ghost)", "Bruce Willis Lookalike", "Sci-Fi Makeup", "Foley Artist", "Rollerblading", and others. He also served as an executive producer and lead editor on the series.
Woliner is currently working with Red Hour Films on an untitled Human Giant feature project and directing television projects for HBO, Comedy Central
, Adult Swim
, PBS
, and SpikeTV. He has directed several episodes of the NBC
comedy series Parks and Recreation
, including "Beauty Pageant
", "Woman of the Year
" and the second season
finale, "Freddy Spaghetti
".
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comedy director, writer, editor and also a former child actor. He is the non-performing member of the comedy group "Human Giant
Human Giant
Human Giant is a sketch comedy show on MTV, starring writer/performers Aziz Ansari, Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer and directed primarily by Jason Woliner.The show has completed two seasons. The status of a third season is unknown...
" and has directed the bulk of their output. The group, which also consists of comedians Aziz Ansari
Aziz Ansari
Aziz Ansari is an American actor, writer, and stand-up comedian. He currently stars as Tom Haverford on the NBC show Parks and Recreation....
, Rob Huebel
Rob Huebel
Rob Huebel is an American actor, comedian and writer best known for his sketch comedy work on the MTV series Human Giant. He currently co-stars on the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital.-Early life:...
, and Paul Scheer
Paul Scheer
Paul Christian Scheer is an American comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He co-created and starred in MTV's sketch comedy series Human Giant and currently co-stars as Andre on the FX comedy The League. He also currently stars as Trent Hauser on the Adult Swim show NTSF:SD:SUV:: which he created...
, produced an MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
sketch comedy show that ran for two seasons. The show is currently on hiatus and in November 2008, The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
noted that the group is developing a feature film with Red Hour Films, the production company run by Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller
Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....
and producer Stuart Cornfeld
Stuart Cornfeld
Stuart Cornfeld is a film producer, business partner with Ben Stiller in the company, Red Hour Productions, and an actor. His hometown is Tarzana, California, and he attended the University of California at Berkeley in the early 1970s...
.
Woliner shot and edited the pilot episode of Jon Glaser
Jon Glaser
Jonathan Daniel "Jon" Glaser is an American actor, comedian and television writer based out of New York City. A graduate of the University of Michigan where he performed in the sketch comedy troupes Comedy Company and Just Kidding with Jon Hein, he is a five-time Emmy nominee with the writing...
's Adult Swim
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
series Delocated
Delocated
Delocated is an American live-action television series which premiered February 12, 2009 on Adult Swim. The original pilot for the show was aired on April 1, 2008....
and recently directed projects for comedians such as Patton Oswalt
Patton Oswalt
Patton Oswalt is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and voice actor. He is best known for portraying Spencer Olchin in the popular sitcom The King of Queens, voicing Remy from the film Ratatouille and Thrasher from the Cartoon Network original series Robotomy.-Early life:Oswalt was born...
, Judd Apatow
Judd Apatow
Judd Apatow is an American film producer, director, and screenwriter. He is well known for his work in comedy films, especially for films he has been involved with throughout the latter half of the 2000s. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, a film production company that also developed the...
, Slovin and Allen
Leo Allen
Leopold Rufus "Leo" Allen is an American stand-up comedian and writer from Detroit, Michigan, known as one half of the comedy team Slovin and Allen.- Career :Allen has been performing stand-up comedy since the late '90s...
, Chris Elliott
Chris Elliott
Christopher Nash "Chris" Elliott is an American actor, comedian and writer. He is best known for his comedic sketches on Late Night with David Letterman, starring in the cult comedy series Get a Life and for his recurring role as Peter MacDougall on Everybody Loves Raymond...
, and H. Jon Benjamin
H. Jon Benjamin
Henry Jon Benjamin , known professionally as H. Jon Benjamin and Jon Benjamin, is an American actor, comedian and writer best known for his voice-over roles as Jason and Coach McGuirk on Home Movies, Ben on Dr...
.
Early life / acting career
Woliner was born in The BronxThe Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, NY and began acting when he was four years old, having been discovered performing in a "father/son magician team" (alongside his father, Alan, who did children's birthday parties under the name "Amazing Alan The Magical Rabbit"). He appeared in over thirty television commercials, including those for Kix Cereal
Kix
Kix may refer to:* Kix , a breakfast cereal* Kix , American band who achieved popularity in the 1980s** Kix , 1981 debut album by Kix* KiXtart, a Windows scripting language* Kix 96.2 FM, British radio station...
, LEGO
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
, Teddy Ruxpin
Teddy Ruxpin
Teddy Ruxpin is a children's toy talking bear. The bear would move his mouth and eyes while 'reading' stories which were played on an audio tape cassette deck built into his back. It was created by Ken Forsse with later assistance by Larry Larsen and John Davies. Later versions would use a digital...
, Apple Jacks
Apple Jacks
Apple Jacks is a brand of cereal produced by Kellogg's and targeted mainly at children. It was introduced to the U.S. as "Apple O's" in 1965 after being invented by William Thilly, now a professor at MIT. In 1971 the name "Apple Jacks" was put into action by advertisers...
, Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...
, Fruit Roll-Ups
Fruit Roll-Ups
Fruit Roll-Ups is a brand of fruit snack that debuted in grocery stores across the United States in 1983. Research for the product began in 1975. Fruit Roll-Ups are manufactured by General Mills and distributed under the Betty Crocker brand in the United States and the Uncle Tobys brand in Australia...
, and Kool Aid. Woliner also appeared in the commercial parody "McSooshi" on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
and as "Matt", a series regular during the first season of PBS's "Shining Time Station
Shining Time Station
Shining Time Station is an American children's television series co-created by Britt Allcroft and Rick Siggelkow. The series was produced by The Britt Allcroft Company and Quality Family Entertainment in New York for New York City PBS Station WNET, and was filmed first in New York and then in Toronto...
". On Broadway, he performed in the play Conversations with My Father
Conversations with my Father
Conversations with My Father is a play by Herb Gardner.At its core are Eddie Ross , a Russian immigrant Canal Street bartender, and his son Charlie, who yearns to establish - at the very least - a peaceful co-existence with his angry, remote, and verbally and emotionally abusive father, who has...
and he played the role of "Bratty Kid" in the cult film Weekend at Bernie's
Weekend at Bernie's
Weekend at Bernie's is a 1989 American comedy film directed by Ted Kotcheff. A comedy starring Andrew McCarthy and Jonathan Silverman features the two as a couple of young insurance agency employees who discover their boss is deceased...
.
Woliner attended Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
from 1998 to 2000 before dropping out to pursue a directing career.
Directing career
After leaving school, Woliner began making films and videos, both on his own and with comedians in New York, and screening them at shows like Invite Them Up, the monthly First Sundays film festival, Baltimore's now defunct MicroCineFest, UCB, and others. It was at these shows that he met and began working with the comedians who would become Human GiantHuman Giant
Human Giant is a sketch comedy show on MTV, starring writer/performers Aziz Ansari, Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer and directed primarily by Jason Woliner.The show has completed two seasons. The status of a third season is unknown...
. During this period, Woliner also frequently collaborated on short films with Frank Lesser, now a writer for Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
's The Colbert Report.
The first three Human Giant videos, "Shutterbugs", "Illusionators" and the "Shittiest Mixtape Boombox Blast", caught the eyes of executives at MTV, who offered the group a pilot. The resulting pilot got a green light, and the show ran for two seasons. Woliner, in addition to directing the majority of the series, served on the writing staff and wrote or co-wrote sketches such as "Camping Weekend", "Car Accident (a.k.a. Gay Porn Ghost)", "Bruce Willis Lookalike", "Sci-Fi Makeup", "Foley Artist", "Rollerblading", and others. He also served as an executive producer and lead editor on the series.
Woliner is currently working with Red Hour Films on an untitled Human Giant feature project and directing television projects for HBO, Comedy Central
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
, Adult Swim
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
, PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
, and SpikeTV. He has directed several episodes of the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
comedy series Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation is an American comedy television series on NBC that focuses on Leslie Knope , a mid-level bureaucrat in the parks department of Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana. Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, the series debuted on April 9, 2009; it has run for three seasons and...
, including "Beauty Pageant
Beauty Pageant (Parks and Recreation)
"Beauty Pageant" is the third episode of the second season of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation, and the ninth overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on October 1, 2009...
", "Woman of the Year
Woman of the Year (Parks and Recreation)
"Woman of the Year" is the seventeenth episode of the second season of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation, and the 23rd overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on March 4, 2010. In the episode, Ron is presented with a woman of the year...
" and the second season
Parks and Recreation (season 2)
The second season of Parks and Recreation originally aired in the United States on the NBC television network starting September 17, 2009, and ended on May 20, 2010. The season was produced by Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios, and series co-creators Greg Daniels and Michael Schur...
finale, "Freddy Spaghetti
Freddy Spaghetti
"Freddy Spaghetti" is the second season finale of the American comedy television series Parks and Recreation, and the 30th overall episode of the series. It originally aired on NBC in the United States on May 20, 2010...
".