Jon Barinholtz Biography: In His Own Words – Exclusive Video, News, Photos, Age

by Hailey SchipperMarch 26, 2023, 7:05 pmU Bio >

Jon Barinholtz is an American actor, comedian and producer. He is best known for his roles in Superstore and American Auto.

JON BARINHOLTZ BIOGRAPHY: AGE, EARLY LIFE, FAMILY, EDUCATION

Jon Barinholtz was born on December 26, 1979 (Jon Barinholtz: Age 43) in Chicago, Illinois, to Peggy and Alan Barinholtz. His older brother, Ike Barinholtz, is also an actor. Both brothers have said they were raised in a supportive and funny home.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Barinholtz explained how he and Ike became actors.

“We have very supportive parents, our parents were theater majors at Ohio State, that’s how they met, and so they were very supportive from the start,” Barinholtz began. “Now, they were very realistic, they were like, ‘you should do whatever you want to do, but you have to support yourself while you do it. You have to find what you love and also find a way to make it work in the real world.’ So having my brother six years ahead of me, I was watching him like I remember being like a nerdy seventh grader with my two best friends and we would go to watch improv shows on weeknights and we were surrounded by like a bunch of like alcoholics smoking cigarettes and there we were like in the front row like really excited. We probably understood half the material but we felt the excitement. I remember being like, ‘Oh my God, this is a thing you can do!'”

“Then as he [Ike] continued in this path and found success I was like, ‘oh, you can do it, like actually make it work as an actual job and you can do what you love,'” Barinholtz continued. ‘So it was really great to have him ahead of me forging this path where I could be like, ‘oh this is really attainable and it’s tangible.’ Yeah, like I said, having the support from our parents was great. We also were a very, you know, funny household like we were big SNL family. My parents loved sitcoms and we would we’d watch SNL on Saturdays, we’d watch Cheers and Seinfeld and Friends during the week, like we just loved comedy in our house growing up so it almost feels like it was very well fostered.”

JON BARINHOLTZ BIOGRAPHY: CAREER

Barinholtz began his acting career with small roles in shows like Perfect Couples, Getting On, New Girl, Veep and Alone Together. Barinholtz and Ike acted together in The Mindy Project in 2015.

Barinholtz’s career began to take off with his role as Marcus White in the show Superstore (2016-2021), a sitcom that follows the staff of a big-box store. Then in 2021, Barinholtz helped create the Netflix animated comedy, Chicago Party Aunt. Barinholtz voices Mikey in the show and again works with Ike, who voices Mark.

Also in 2021, Barinholtz landed the main role of Wesley in the show American Auto.

JON BARINHOLTZ BIOGRAPHY: AMERICAN AUTO

American Auto is a sitcom that follows the story of the Payne Motors company and the struggles they find themselves in with a new CEO, Katherine Hastings (Ana Gasteyer). In the show, Barinholtz plays Wesley Payne, grandson of the company founder who believes he should be there and can do whatever he likes.

In an exclusive interview with uInterview, Barinholtz explained what he likes most about his character.

“The blind confidence of a white privileged man of a certain age who believes that his opinion should be heard on everything and it is something that was interesting to explore with the character for Wesley,” he said. “I think it gets him into situations where, while that seems like a not sympathetic trait, which I don’t think it is, it gets him situations where you do find some form of sympathy and you just see a person who is ultimately trying to do the right thing and does take pride and you know the company he was born into by family and I don’t think he has a lot of friends outside of the workplace so, which you never tell anyone in the workplace, so I think there’s a vulnerability there where he kind of needs his coworkers as friends as well and I really love being able to play that side of him.”

Barinholtz also described what it was like working with Gasteyer.

“I mean she’s such a great lead for a show because not only is she insanely talented as a comedian, she’s just an amazing actress and just like a great energy,” he said. “Every scene is really fun with her, they write for her well, and she performs it flawlessly. The one that sticks out is in the first season we pulled an all-nighter at the office and there’s like a certain connection point between Wesley and Catherine in the show. She’s the CEO, she’s the boss of the company and he’s a little butthurt about the fact that he wasn’t named CEO even though he was never really in the running. There is this connection point where they both love money and love success and they are tied into the success of this company and they there’s a moment I think like seventh episode of last season where they’re outside having a vape and Wesley thinks it’s a moment of vulnerability where he’s like, ‘Oh my God, this could be a love connection’ and she doesn’t think that at all because she exists in reality and Wesley doesn’t and Wesley goes in for a kiss and she goes, ‘ew, ew, ew.’ I would’ve loved to be in the editing room just to see how many takes I blew from laughing because every time she’d react to me sort of cracking up, it was very hard to get through that scene.”