Andrew Blitz (born June 28, 1971) is an American comedian, writer, producer and actor best known for his
sketch comedy
Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and ...
and writing work on the late-night
talk show
A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk S ...
''
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien. NBC aired 2,725 episodes from September 13, 1993, to February 20, 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musi ...
''. He has received nine
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
nominations.
Early life and education
Blitz was born in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
and grew up in
Ridgewood, New Jersey
Ridgewood is a village in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 24,958,Ridgewood High School, graduating as part of the class of 1989. He graduated from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...
in 1994.
Career
By 1999 he had established himself as a fixture of New York City's
stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up.
Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, ...
scene, performing regularly at the now-defunct Luna Lounge; in that same year he began his work on ''Late Night''. Since leaving ''Late Night'', Blitz has worked as a writer, executive producer and guest actor on the
Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy program ...
series ''
Review
A review is an evaluation of a publication, product, service, or company or a critical take on current affairs in literature, politics or culture. In addition to a critical evaluation, the review's author may assign the work a content rating, ...
'' and worked as a writer and co-executive producer on the
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...
series ''
Master of None
''Master of None'' is an American comedy-drama streaming television series, which was released for streaming on November 6, 2015, on Netflix. The series was created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, with the first two seasons starring Ansari in the ...
''. Blitz previously wrote for the
Adult Swim
Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...
Chris Elliott
Christopher Nash Elliott (born May 31, 1960) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He appeared in comedic sketches on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' (1982–1988), created and starred in the comedy series '' Get a Life'' (1990–1992) ...
,
Maria Thayer
Maria Christina Thayer is an American actress and comedian. She first earned public recognition for her portrayal of Tammi Littlenut on the cult series ''Strangers with Candy'' in 1999. Thayer has also had supporting roles in the comedy films '' H ...
and
Brett Gelman
Brett Clifford Gelman (born October 6, 1976) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Murray Bauman in Netflix's horror-supernatural series ''Stranger Things'' and as Martin on the BBC comedy '' Fleabag''.
Gelman beg ...
. Blitz appeared in Season 4 of ''
Arrested Development
The term "arrested development" has had multiple meanings for over 200 years. In the field of medicine, the term "arrested development" was first used, ''circa'' 1835–1836, to mean a stoppage of physical development; the term continues to be use ...
'' and the movie '' Table 19''. He continues to perform stand-up comedy.
Blitz is the brother of filmmaker
Jeffrey Blitz
Jeffrey Blitz is an American film director, screenwriter and producer best known for the documentary '' Spellbound'' (2003), ''The Office'' (2007 - 2010), the fiction film '' Rocket Science'' (2007) and ''Comedy Central’s'' '' Review'' (2014 - ...
, who is best known for directing the 2002 documentary '' Spellbound'' and the 2007 film '' Rocket Science''.
''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' characters
*As himself, going apartment-hunting with Conan, and shortly thereafter with Conan helping to furnish his apartment. Blitz lugging his malfunctioning computer to a call center in Hyderabad, India. Blitz hailing a New York City yellow cab and taking it all the way to Toronto Canada due to his fear of flying.
* Awful Sports Chanter
* Chuck Aloo, of the parody series "60"
*Leonard Diesel,
Vin Diesel
Mark Sinclair (born July 18, 1967), known professionally as Vin Diesel, is an American actor. One of the world's highest-grossing actors, he is best known for playing Dominic Toretto in the '' Fast & Furious'' franchise.
Diesel began auditi ...
's timid brother. (Blitz later played a different character named Osama bin Diesel on the
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
sketch comedy series ''
Human Giant
''Human Giant'' is a sketch comedy show, starring writer/performers Aziz Ansari, Rob Huebel, and Paul Scheer, and directed primarily by Jason Woliner. The show ran for two seasons on MTV. In interviews, the group has mentioned that they were o ...
''.)
*A member of the singing trio The Slipnutz
*An elections supervisor during the 2000
Florida election recount
The 2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida was a period of vote recounting in Florida that occurred during the weeks after Election Day in the 2000 United States presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Go ...
, who constantly yelled at election volunteers and advised them, "If you don't know who the person voted for, you put the ballot in the milk!"
*A participant on "Masturdate," a parody of dating shows.
*A ghost rejected from the novel A Christmas Carol