Jonathan Ames
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Biography
Novelist, memoirist, raconteur, actor, producer, comic book writer, one-time porn film extra and sometime pugilist Jonathan Ames insists he is not identical to the eponymous character in his HBO series "Bored to Death" (2009-11), but viewers could be forgiven for confusing the two. Jason Schwartzman portrayed Ames as a somewhat nebbishy failed novelist turned private investigator, but, although they are both Jewish, live in New York, and write books, the real Jonathan Ames, for all the self-deprecating portrayals of himself he puts forth to the public, is actually an energetic and multi-talented artist. From the time he published his first novel at the precocious age of 25, through years of writing strikingly confessional columns for the New York Press, many of which were reprinted in memoir collections, to a one-man off-Broadway show, a series of acting gigs, a graphic novel collaboration and three seasons running his own show at HBO, Ames has proved himself to be anything but the ineffectual loser of the television character who shares his name.
Raised in Oakland, New Jersey, Ames enjoyed a happy, middle-class childhood . He was encouraged to read and write by his mother, a poet, and served as editor of his school paper. At Princeton, he worked on a novella, under thesis advisor Joyce Carol Oates, which eventually became his first novel, I Pass Like Night (1989). Despite this early milestone, success would be a long time in coming. Ames spent most of the '90s supporting himself with odd jobs and writing columns for the New York Press, though he became well-known in New York City underground and bohemian circles. During this time, Ames also fathered a son, his only child. In 1999, he won a Guggenheim Fellowship and created an off-off-Broadway one man show, "Oedipussy," that raised his profile as a storyteller and performer.
The release of the first in a series of memoirs, collections mainly of his New York Press columns, was released in 2000 with the title What's Not to Love? The Adventures of a Mildly Perverted Young Writer. From early masturbation stories - following his first success, he ran to tell his mother - to dalliances with drugs and prostitutes to run-ins with STDs, Ames ruthlessly mined his own experiences for good copy, an approach he would later see as having its drawbacks: "Someone will read something I wrote 10 years ago and to them it's very resonant. They think: 'This is how he is right now.' But I've changed so much. Honesty ends up not having a shelf life" (The Guardian, March 27, 2011). Understandably, Ames' now-adult son has never read his nonfiction. Ames published two additional novels as well, The Extra Man (1998) and Wake Up, Sir! (2004).
A year later, Ames was cast as the lead in the IFC film "The Girl Under the Waves," an improvisational experiment in fourth-wall deconstruction that includes the director's instructions to his actors. Ames went on to publish several more volumes of his nonfiction and in 2004 was commissioned by Showtime to develop a pilot for "What's Not to Love?" As a series, however, it went nowhere, eventually airing as a one-time special on Showtime in December 2008 and January 2009. Ames began dating singer/songwriter Fiona Apple around this time, who would later pen the song "Jonathan" about him, which among other things makes reference to a day they spent at Coney Island where "he takes all his girlfriends," according to Apple (Interview Magazine, June 2012). Ames also collaborated on a graphic novel with artist Dean Haspiel, The Alcoholic (2008).
In 2009, his show "Bored to Death" (2009-11), starring Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis and Ted Danson, began airing on HBO. As the lead character, Schwartzman played failed-novelist-turned-private-eye Jonathan Ames, who was aided, abetted and sometimes stymied on his misadventures by his best friend, Ray (Galifianakis), a comic book artist, and his editor George (Danson), whom Ames has acknowledged as at least as autobiographical a character as the one named for him. Ames himself appeared in two episodes of the series as the demented new boyfriend of Ray's ex-girlfriend. Ames also saw his second novel adapted into a film of the same name, "The Extra Man" (2010). Despite a debut at the Sundance Film Festival and an all-star lineup including John C. Reilly, Paul Dano, Kevin Kline and Katie Holmes, the film was poorly reviewed. In 2012, Ames created something of a stir online when footage of his drunken, bitter and funny speech shortly after the cancellation of "Bored to Death" at the Writer's Guild Awards went viral; Ames announced. "I've already been cancelled; I'm going back to novels!" In 2013, after expressing some interest in writing in the crime genre following his comic take on noir in "Bored to Death," Ames released a noir novella, You Were Never Really Here.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Life Events
1989
Published first novel, I Pass Like Night
1999
Created off-off Broadway one-man show, "Oedipussy," with money from Guggenheim fellowship
2000
Published first essay collection, What's Not to Love? The Adventures of a Mildly Perverted Young Writer
2001
First film role, starring in IFC's "The Girl Under the Waves"
2007
Wrote and starred in Showtime special based on his work "What's Not to Love?"
2008
Collaborated on first graphic novel, The Alcoholic, with Dean Haspiel
2009
Created first TV series, HBO's "Bored to Death"
2010
Film version of his novel The Extra Man released
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