Michael John Nelson (born October 11, 1964) is an American comedian and writer, most known for his work on the

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

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 RiffTrax is an American company that produces scripted humorous commentary tracks which are synced to mostly public domain feature films, education shorts, and television episodes. With the talents of former ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (''M ...

, and was previously part of the straight-to-DVD ''

Film Crew A film crew is a group of people, hired by a production company, for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. The crew is distinguished from the cast, as the cast are understood to be the actors who appear in front of the camera o ...

'' with fellow ''MST3K'' alumni, Bill Corbett and Kevin Murphy.

Early life

Michael John Nelson was born in the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

suburb of St. Charles, Illinois. His ancestry is Danish, German, and

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

. He lived in Geneva, Illinois, until the age of twelve, when his family moved to north-western

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. He studied theatre and music at the

University of Wisconsin–River Falls The University of Wisconsin–River Falls (UW–River Falls or UWRF) is a public university in River Falls, Wisconsin. It is part of the University of Wisconsin System. The campus is situated on the Kinnickinnic River in the St. Croix River ...

, but he left before graduating and moved to the

Minneapolis–Saint Paul Minneapolis–Saint Paul is a metropolitan area in the Upper Midwestern United States centered around the confluence of the Mississippi, Minnesota and St. Croix rivers in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is commonly known as the Twin Cities ...

area.

Career

''Mystery Science Theater 3000''

Nelson was working as a waiter at T.G.I. Friday's and doing occasional stand-up comedy when he was offered a job on '' Mystery Science Theater 3000'', typing the suggestions in the writing room. The writers told him to feel free to make some comments on the movies they were watching, and Nelson impressed them so much with his wit and comedic timing that they made him a staff writer, and, later, head writer. Nelson also appeared frequently in the show's host segments, often playing characters from the movies being mocked such as Torgo from the infamous '' Manos - The Hands of Fate''. When series creator and host Joel Hodgson decided to leave the show halfway through the fifth season, he chose Nelson as his replacement, reportedly because he thought Nelson was a natural leader, a gifted comedian, and a gifted muse, and also because Nelson simply looked good standing next to the show's puppets. Nelson remained in the host role for another five and a half seasons (surviving the show's switching networks from Comedy Central to the Sci-Fi Channel) until the original show's final Sci-Fi Channel episode aired in 1999.

Post-''MST3K''

Writing Since the series ended, Nelson has worked steadily as a writer, publishing several books (as of March 2006): '' Mike Nelson's Movie Megacheese'', ''Mike Nelson's Mind Over Matters'' and '' Mike Nelson's Death Rat!'', the last being his first novel. His other works include a series of pop-culture humor books, ''Happy Kitty Bunny Pony'', ''Goth-Icky'', and ''Love Sick'', as well as a monthly column for ''Home Theater Magazine''. He also wrote for the short-lived game show '' Let's Bowl'', which gained a cult following of its own. He has commentary tracks for DVD releases of several films, including ''

Reefer Madness ''Reefer Madness'' (originally made as ''Tell Your Children'' and sometimes titled ''The Burning Question'', ''Dope Addict'', ''Doped Youth'', and ''Love Madness'') is a 1936 American propaganda film about drugs, revolving around the melodramat ...

'', ''

The Little Shop of Horrors ''The Little Shop of Horrors'' is a 1960 American horror comedy film directed by Roger Corman. Written by Charles B. Griffith, the film is a farce about an inadequate florist's assistant who cultivates a plant that feeds on human blood. The fi ...

'', ''

House on Haunted Hill ''House on Haunted Hill'' is a 1959 American horror film produced and directed by William Castle, written by Robb White and starring Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal, Carolyn Craig and Elisha Cook Jr. Price plays an ...

'', '' Plan 9 from Outer Space'', ''

Carnival of Souls ''Carnival of Souls'' is a 1962 American independent horror film produced and directed by Herk Harvey and written by John Clifford from a story by Clifford and Harvey, and starring Candace Hilligoss. Its plot follows Mary Henry, a young wo ...

'', and '' Night of the Living Dead''. With his ''MST3K'' co-stars Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett, he was part of a comedy team called " The Film Crew", which has created comedy segments for

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

. The first Film Crew DVD, '' Hollywood After Dark'', was released July 10, 2007, and three more followed in the months after. Legend Films , RiffTrax In 2006, Nelson was appointed Chief Content Producer for Legend Films. He is responsible for building and leading the company's creative content, providing continuous commentaries, and developing other premium web-based programming. "I'm very excited. Legend Films is such a great fit for me—talented people who consistently put out a great product. Plus, there are Flaming Hot

Cheetos Cheetos (formerly styled as Chee-tos until 1998) is a crunchy corn puff snack brand made by Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo. Fritos creator Charles Elmer Doolin invented Cheetos in 1948, and began national distribution in the U.S. The initi ...

in the lunch room

vending machine A vending machine is an automated machine that provides items such as snacks, beverages, cigarettes, and lottery tickets to consumers after cash, a credit card, or other forms of payment are inserted into the machine or otherwise made. The ...

. That made it an easy choice to join the team," enthused Nelson. One of the projects put together by Nelson and Legend Films was

, a website offering the purchase of downloadable audio commentaries once again costarring two former ''MST3K'' cast members Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. The first commentary made available through the service was for '' Road House''. In a September 2006 interview, Nelson said he felt that Rifftrax may be the closest thing to a reunion of the ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' team. In 2016, additional MST3K alumni, Joel Hodgson, Trace Beaulieu, and Frank Conniff, all appeared for a live reunion at the State Theatre in Minneapolis with Nelson, Murphy and Corbett. They were also joined by the newest host,

Jonah Ray Jonah Ray Rodrigues (born August 3, 1982) is an American actor, comedian and writer from Los Angeles. He stars as Jonah Heston, the most recent primary host of ''Mystery Science Theater 3000''. He is a former host of '' The Nerdist Podcast'' and ...

. Voice work In 2013, Nelson agreed to do voiceover work for '' Armikrog''. Nelson voices the lead character, Tommynaut. Podcasts In 2016, Nelson and David Berge started the

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

br>Like Trees Walking
They look at life and faith from a Christian perspective, with a lightly humorous, offbeat approach. Since 2017, he has created, with Conor Lastowka, the podcast '' 372 Pages We'll Never Get Back'', which analyses books of dubious quality.

Personal life

Nelson is married to fellow ''MST3K'' writer

Bridget Jones Bridget Rose Jones is a fictional character created by British writer Helen Fielding. Jones first appeared in Fielding's '' Bridget Jones's Diary'' column in ''The Independent'' in 1995, which did not carry any byline. Thus, it seemed to be an act ...

, and the pair have two sons. They moved from the Minneapolis, Minnesota-area to

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United Stat ...

, in mid-2006, and moved back to Minneapolis in 2014. He has described the role of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

in his family as "the very centerpiece of our lives. We're heavily involved in our church, my wife works with youth groups and churches as her profession, and almost every career and life decision I make depends upon it." He studies

Christian apologetics Christian apologetics ( grc, ἀπολογία, "verbal defense, speech in defense") is a branch of Christian theology that defends Christianity. Christian apologetics has taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle in ...

and cites

William Lane Craig William Lane Craig (born August 23, 1949) is an American analytic philosopher, Christian apologist, author and Wesleyan theologian who upholds the view of Molinism and neo-Apollinarianism. He is Professor of Philosophy at Houston Baptist ...

and C.S. Lewis as influences.

References

External links

*
LAist.com Interview with Michael J. Nelson

Mike Nelson interviewed on "The Joe Cook Program" 9/24/06

Michael Nelson Reddit Questionnaire
(March 22, 2011)
RiffTrax profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Michael J. 1964 births Living people American male comedians American male television actors American people of Danish descent People from St. Charles, Illinois Writers from Minneapolis Writers from San Diego University of Wisconsin–River Falls alumni Minnesota Republicans American Protestants American television writers American male screenwriters American male television writers American comedy writers People from Geneva, Illinois Comedians from Illinois Screenwriters from California Screenwriters from Illinois Screenwriters from Minnesota Comedians from California 21st-century American comedians 21st-century American screenwriters 21st-century American male writers