Jason Mantzoukas (/mænˈzuːkəs/; born December 18, 1972) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter and podcaster. He is best known for his recurring role as Rafi in the FX comedy series The League, his role as Nadal in The Dictator, and as one of the three co-hosts of the podcast How Did This Get Made? alongside Paul Scheer and June Diane Raphael.
Mantzoukas began taking drum lessons at age 10 and studied under Steve Barrett for over 8 years.[6] In interviews, he has cited Stewart Copeland, Stephen Perkins from Jane's Addiction, and Jimmy Chamberlin from The Smashing Pumpkins as his biggest influences as a young musician.[7] He participated in jazz and marching bands in high school, as well as playing in a cover band called Slygoul.[8] He continued with jazz drumming in college and played for a bebop group.[9]
Mantzoukas attended Swampscott High School, graduating in 1991.[10] While attending, he was named captain of Swampscott's boys' soccer and track teams and was president of the marching band.[11] He attended Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, where he majored in religion.[12] He attempted to defend a "terribly written" honors thesis on religious iconography (which he admits to starting a week prior to his defense date) but was not given credit to graduate with honors.[13]
After graduating from college in 1995, Mantzoukas was granted a Watson Fellowship and traveled throughout North Africa and the Middle East studying religious and transcendental music for nearly two years.[4][14] He has admitted to having a "horrible [grant proposal] but was charming in the room; so [he earned the grant]."[13] At the time he left for Morocco for the Watson Fellowship, he had already had six auditions and callbacks for the Blue Man Group, but he ultimately decided to travel before the audition process was complete.[15][16] He lived in Morocco for about 7½ months while studying and recording Gnawa music.[17] While abroad, he traveled to Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Jordan, and Syria.[13] During his time abroad, he was arrested numerous times, once in Morocco for having an expired tourist visa and again in Turkey to prevent him from traveling through an active war zone.[13]
Career
Early comedy
Mantzoukas first began writing comedy sketches during his junior and senior years of high school for variety shows.[18] He began performing short-form improvisational comedy (improv) as a part of the Otter Nonsense Players at Middlebury College and quickly became "obsessed" with improv as it used the same skill set as performing jazz.[13] While performing with the Otters, Mantzoukas met and began learning and practicing long-form improv with fellow performers, Jessica St. Clair, Dan O'Brien, and Rodney Rothman.[9]
Upright Citizens Brigade
After moving to New York City in 1998, he began performing comedy regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater (UCB) and was taught by Amy Poehler.[9] He was a member of the improv team "Mother", one of the UCB's earliest house teams.[18][19][20] During his time at UCB, Mantzoukas worked in the computer graphics department at J.P. Morgan for over three years to "make ends meet."[21]
Mantzoukas and comedian Ed Herbstman performed as the comedy duo, "The Mantzoukas Brothers", for a number of years and were named the "Best Improv Duo" by Time Out New York magazine in 2006.[18][22] Mantzoukas continued to write and perform as a duo with Jessica St. Clair appearing in the sketch show, "We Used to Go Out" and long-form improv show, "First Date".[18][23][24] Together, he and St. Clair pitched a pilot to HBO (which was ultimately not picked up) and earned a deal with Comedy Central.[18] The two were often compared to the likes of Nichols and May and continue to collaborate and perform on the podcast, Womp It Up!.[25] Mantzoukas taught advanced improv classes at UCB.[26]
In 2008, NBC ordered a pilot for a comedy series written by Mantzoukas called Off Duty.[9][33] The pilot was filmed in New York starring Bradley Whitford and Romany Malco but the series was not picked up.[9] In interviews in 2014, Mantzoukas announced that he was working on a "loosely autobiographical" television show for Showtime about life after ending a long-term relationship.[9]
Mantzoukas earned credit for writing the screenplay draft of the buddy cop comedy Ride Along, starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart.[34] He originally was asked to write for Andy Samberg as one of the leads, but the rights to the film were ultimately purchased by Universal Studios who later cast Hart in the role originally intended for Samberg.[35] He has served as a consulting writer and producer on Childrens Hospital and Portlandia.[36]
^"Shrewsbury: David Dragonetti Q&A". redbankgreen. November 2, 2018. I graduated from Swampscott High School...in 1991. Notable graduates include... actor/comedian Jason Mantzoukas.
^Riedel, Michael (February 4, 1996). "Learning the Blues". New York Daily News. ...Jason Mantzoukas. A 23-year-old student at Middlebury College, Mantzoukas drove down from Vermont this morning for the audition.
^Dougherty, Margot (September 15, 2009). "Connie Britton: What 40 Feels Like". Redbook. I have a great man in my life — he's a comedy writer [Jason Mantzoukas], but I probably shouldn't say much more than that! — but that's awesome. And that happened after I turned 40.
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