Jonah Ray | |
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 Ray at GalaxyCon Raleigh in 2019 | |
| Born | Jonah Ray Rodrigues August 3, 1982 |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, comedian, writer |
| Years active | 2004–present |
| Spouse | Deanna Rooney (m. 2013) |
Jonah Ray Rodrigues (born August 3, 1982) is an American actor, comedian and writer from Los Angeles. He stars as Jonah Heston, one of the primary hosts of Mystery Science Theater 3000 . He is a former host of The Nerdist Podcast and was the co-host of Comedy Central's The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail .
Originally from Kailua, Hawaii on the island of Oahu, Ray played in local Hawaii rock/punk bands and later moved to Los Angeles. Once there he first pursued opportunities in punk rock, but later started to focus on writing and performing comedy.
Ray started his TV career as a writer's assistant for The Andy Milonakis Show , as well as working as a writer and performer on Showtime's sketch comedy pilot The Offensive Show. He is also a frequent sketch and stand-up performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles and has made appearances on programs such as Saul of the Molemen , Crossballs , The Sarah Silverman Program , and Jimmy Kimmel Live! [1] He also hosted "Joe Genius", an online program about humor and homegrown science, on Revision3. [2] Previously, he worked as a writer and occasional voice actor on Current TV's program SuperNews!. He previously wrote for Web Soup on the G4 network, and then The Soup on E! . He left The Soup in 2012.
Ray co-hosted a weekly comedy show called The Meltdown with Kumail Nanjiani, produced by Nanjiani's wife, Emily V. Gordon, at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles. [3] In late June 2013 Comedy Central announced a television production of the show titled The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail , which debuted in July 2014. [4] The show ended after three seasons in 2016.
Ray was one of Chris Hardwick's co-hosts of The Nerdist Podcast and television show. In February 2011, Ray revealed on an episode of the podcast that Jonah's Arcade, a video gaming-comedy pilot he created and stars in, was not picked up by Comedy Central. [5] The pilot was later released on YouTube, produced by the same producers of Web Soup.
In October 2012, Ray began hosting his own podcast Jonah Raydio featuring guests from various independent music scenes. Regular contributors and guests on the show include Man Man, Andrew Jackson Jihad, Pup, and Har Mar Superstar.
On a 2014 episode of his podcast, Ray announced the launch of his own record label through ATS, Literally Figurative Records, a comedy/music label aimed to feature "a comic on one side and band they are friends with on the other."
On November 16, 2015, Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson announced plans for Ray to host the series' upcoming continuation. [6] The series was funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign and was released internationally by Netflix on April 14, 2017. Ray plays the character Jonah Heston for seasons 11 and 12. In April and May 2021, Joel Hodgson ran a second successful Kickstarter to produce season 13, in which Ray returned as Jonah Heston. [7]
Ray recorded a seven-inch record of his stand-up comedy for Aspecialthing Records entitled This Is Crazy Mixed-up Plumbing, released in 2006. He followed this up with his second release entitled Hello, Mr. Magic Plane Person, Hello on May 15, 2012, which received mixed reviews. [8]
Ray had several videos from South by Southwest on comedy website Super Deluxe as well as his own web-series called The Freeloaders Guide to Easy Living with Jonah Ray.
Ray married his wife, Deanna Rooney, on April 27, 2013. [10] [11]
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. It then moved to nationwide broadcast, first on The Comedy Channel/Comedy Central for seven seasons until its cancellation in 1996. Thereafter, it was picked up by The Sci-Fi Channel and aired for three more seasons until another cancellation in August 1999. A 60-episode syndication package titled The Mystery Science Theater Hour was produced in 1993 and broadcast on Comedy Central and syndicated to TV stations in 1995. In 2015, Hodgson led a crowdfunded revival of the series with 14 episodes in its eleventh season, first released on Netflix on April 14, 2017, with another six-episode season following on November 22, 2018. A second successful crowdfunding effort in 2021 produced 13 additional episodes shown on the Gizmoplex, an online platform that Hodgson developed which launched in March 2022. As of 2023, 230 episodes and a feature film have been produced as well as three live tours.
Crow The Robot is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). Crow is a robot, who, along with others, ridicules poor-quality B to Z movies.
Michael John Nelson is an American comedian and writer, most known for his work on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). Nelson was the head writer of the series for most of the show's original eleven-year run, and spent half of that time as the on-air host, also named Mike Nelson. In addition to writing books, Nelson is currently part of the online movie riffing site RiffTrax, and was previously part of the straight-to-DVD Film Crew with fellow MST3K alumni, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy.
Joel Hodgson is an American writer, comedian and television actor. He is best known for creating Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) and starring in it as the character Joel Robinson. In 2007, MST3K was listed as "one of the top 100 television shows of all time" by Time.
GPC, formerly Gypsy, is one of the fictional robot characters on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000. She is larger and less talkative than the other robots. GPC normally only appears during the show's host segments and introduction, but briefly took a seat in the theater to watch the movie in episode #412. She only delivered a couple of "riffs" – partially because she took the movie and what the 'boys' were saying too literally, and left after realizing how bad the movie was. Along with the other robots, GPC was designed and built by series creator Joel Hodgson. She was named Gypsy after a pet turtle his brother once owned, as the robot's size and ponderousness reminded him of the turtle.
Mary Jo Pehl is an American writer, actress, and comedian. She is best known for her various roles on the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Best Brains, Inc. is an entertainment company based in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. It is best known for the creation and production of the comedy/sci-fi television program Mystery Science Theater 3000, a.k.a. MST3K (1988–1999). The company ceased producing the program when it was cancelled by the Sci-Fi Channel in 1999 and closed its studio. The company then functioned as the holder of the MST3K brand for negotiating home video releases of the show on Shout! Factory and its availability on streaming services like Hulu until its sale of the MST3K property to Shout! Factory in 2015.
Robby Christopher Schrab is an American comic book creator, screenwriter, director, and producer. He is the creator of the comic book Scud: The Disposable Assassin, co-writer of the feature film Monster House, co-creator of the competitive film festival Channel 101, and the co-creator of Comedy Central's The Sarah Silverman Program. He has directed three seasons of The Sarah Silverman Program and episodes of Childrens Hospital, Blue Mountain State, Community, Parks and Recreation, The Mindy Project, Workaholics, Creepshow, and the second revival season of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Christopher Ryan Hardwick is an American comedian, actor, television and podcast host, writer, and producer. He hosts Talking Dead, an hourlong aftershow on AMC affiliated with the network's zombie drama series The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, as well as Talking with Chris Hardwick, a show in which Hardwick interviews prominent pop culture figures, and The Wall, a plinko-inspired gameshow on NBC, Hardwick created Nerdist Industries, operator of the Nerdist Podcast Network and home of his podcast The Nerdist Podcast, which later left the network and was renamed to ID10T with Chris Hardwick. His podcast has broadcast 1,000 episodes as of December 2019.
RiffTrax is an American company that produces scripted humorous commentary tracks which are synced to feature films, education shorts, and television episodes. With the talents of former Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) cast members and writers, RiffTrax also produces several live shows each year which are broadcast to movie theaters. The style of commentating originated from MST3K, their earlier television series, in which they would similarly mock films aloud while watching them. As of September 2024, RiffTrax has riffed 554 feature films, 488 short films, and 16 TV episodes.
Elliott Charles Kalan is an American comedian. He was the head writer for the Netflix era of the cult series Mystery Science Theater 3000 and a former head writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, as well as a comic book writer and co-host of the podcast The Flop House.
Baron Vaughn is an American comedian and actor, known for his portrayal of Nwabudike "Bud" Bergstein on the Netflix television series Grace and Frankie and Tom Servo on the 2017 revival of Mystery Science Theater 3000. Previously, Vaughn appeared on the USA Network television series Fairly Legal, on which he played legal assistant Leonardo Prince.
Matthew Paul Mira is an American podcast host, stand-up comedian and television writer based in Los Angeles. He was a co-host of The Nerdist Podcast from 2010 to 2018.
Kumail Ali Nanjiani is a Pakistani-American stand-up comedian and actor. He is known for his role as Dinesh in the HBO comedy series Silicon Valley (2014–2019) and for co-writing and starring in the romantic comedy film The Big Sick (2017). For co-writing the latter with his wife, Emily V. Gordon, they were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 2018, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. He was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role in The Twilight Zone executive produced by Jordan Peele in 2019.
Nerdist Industries, LLC is part of the digital division of Legendary Entertainment. Nerdist Industries was founded as a sole podcast created by Chris Hardwick but later spread to include a network of podcasts, a premium content YouTube channel, a news division, and a television version of the original podcast produced by and aired on BBC America.
The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail is an American stand-up comedy television series hosted Jonah Ray and Kumail Nanjiani that aired on Comedy Central. It was filmed in the Nerdist Showroom at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles. It is based on a weekly live show that began in 2010. On July 24, 2014, an edited version began airing on Comedy Central consisting of eight episodes.
Emily V. Gordon is an American writer, producer and podcast host. She co-wrote the 2017 romantic comedy film The Big Sick, based on her relationship with her husband and frequent collaborator, comic Kumail Nanjiani. Gordon and Nanjiani won an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay for The Big Sick; they were also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, among many other nominations.
Hampton Yount is an American stand-up comedian, writer, and actor, known for Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Jonah Heston is a fictional character featured in the renewal of the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). He is portrayed by actor/comedian Jonah Ray.
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