Jonathan Ames | |
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| Born | (1964-03-23)March 23, 1964 (age 61) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist, television showrunner |
| Education | Indian Hills High School Princeton University Columbia University (MFA) |
| Period | 1989–present |
| Genre | Memoir,literary fiction, television comedy |
| Children | 1 |
Jonathan Ames (/eɪmz/; born March 23, 1964)[1] is an American author who has written a number ofnovels andcomicmemoirs, and is the creator of two television series,Bored to Death (HBO) andBlunt Talk (Starz). In the late '90s and early 2000s, he was a columnist for theNew York Press for several years, and became known for self-deprecating tales of his sexual misadventures. He also has a long-time interest in boxing, appearing occasionally in the ring as "The Herring Wonder".[2]
Two of his novels have been adapted into films:The Extra Man in 2010, andYou Were Never Really Here in 2017.[3] Ames was a co-screenwriter of the former and an executive producer of the latter.
Raised inOakland, New Jersey, Ames is Jewish.[4] He attendedIndian Hills High School.[5][6] Ames graduated with an English degree in 1987 fromPrinceton University, and where he authored his senior thesis entitledEye Pity Eye: (The Collected Writings of Alexander Vine).[7] He also holds aMaster of Fine Arts degree in fiction fromColumbia University.[8] He has been an infrequent faculty member at Columbia,The New School, and theIowa Writers' Workshop.
Ames's novels includeI Pass Like Night (1989),The Extra Man (1998), and 2004'sWake Up Sir!, described byThe New York Times as "laugh-out-loud funny".[9] In September 2008, Ames releasedThe Alcoholic, his first foray intographic literature, illustrated byDean Haspiel;[10] an excerpt was included inThe Best American Comics 2010.[11] In 2009, he published a new collection of essays and fiction with Scribner, titledThe Double Life Is Twice as Good. In 2018,Vintage released an expanded version of Ames's first thriller novel,You Were Never Really Here, which was originally published atByliner as an e-book in 2013.[12][13]
While at theNew York Press, his columns were often recollections of his childhoodneuroses and his unusual experiences, written in the gritty tradition ofCharles Bukowski. These columns were collected in four nonfiction books,What's Not to Love?: The Adventures of a Mildly Perverted Young Writer (2000),My Less Than Secret Life (2002),I Love You More than You Know (2006), andThe Double Life Is Twice As Good: Essays and Fiction (2009). Ames was also responsible for theMost Phallic Building contest which followed an article he wrote forSlate magazine where he claimed that theWilliamsburg Bank Building inBrooklyn,New York, was the most phallic building he'd ever seen.[14]
Ames became known as araconteur in New York City following his 1999 one-man stage show, "Oedipussy," and continues to perform frequently with the New York-based storytelling organizationThe Moth. He has also been a guest on theLate Show with David Letterman several times and played the lead role in the 2001 IFC filmThe Girl Under the Waves, an on-screen experiment in improvisational acting.
In 2004,Showtime commissioned Ames to develop apilot based on his writings, titledWhat's Not to Love? Ames starred as himself, but it was not developed into a series, instead airing as a one time special in the winter of 2007-2008. Ames also appears inThe Great Buck Howard, directed bySean McGinly and starringJohn Malkovich, which debuted atSundance in 2008.
Ames created theHBO seriesBored to Death, which starsJason Schwartzman as a struggling Brooklyn novelist named Jonathan Ames who moonlights as an unlicensed private detective. The show debuted on September 20, 2009. He also started to guest-star as Irwin during the second season, appearing fully nude in one scene. On December 20, 2011, it was reported thatBored to Death was cancelled by HBO after airing its third season.
The film adaptation of Ames's novelThe Extra Man, starringKevin Kline,John C. Reilly,Katie Holmes, andPaul Dano, was released in 2010.
The film adaptation ofYou Were Never Really Here was theatrically released in April 2018. The author produced the movie based on his book, which was directed byLynne Ramsay. It premiered at the 70th Cannes Film Festival, where Ramsay won the award for Best Screenplay andJoaquin Phoenix won the award for Best Actor.
Ames has also appeared in HBO'sCurb Your Enthusiasm in the Season 8 episode "Car Periscope," playing a brief role asLarry David's business manager.
In 2015, Ames teamed up withPatrick Stewart andSeth MacFarlane to createBlunt Talk, which aired on the STARZ network for two seasons. For his performance in the starring role, Patrick Stewart was nominated for aGolden Globe award for Best Actor in a Television Series Musical or Comedy and aCritics' Choice TV Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series.
