Jonathan Ames

Two of his novels have been adapted into films: The Extra Man in 2010, and You Were Never Really Here in 2017. Ames was a co-screenwriter of the former and an executive producer of the latter.

• Name — Jonathan Ames • Born — 23 March 1964 • Birthplace — New York City, U.S. • Occupation — Novelist, television showrunner • Education — Indian Hills High School Princeton University Columbia University (MFA) • Genre — Memoir, literary fiction, television comedy • Period — 1989–present • Children — 1

Raised in Oakland, New Jersey, Ames is Jewish. He attended Indian Hills High School. Ames graduated with an English degree in 1987 from Princeton University, and where he authored his senior thesis entitled Eye Pity Eye: (The Collected Writings of Alexander Vine). He also holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in fiction from Columbia University. He has been an infrequent faculty member at Columbia, The New School, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Ames became known as a raconteur in New York City following his 1999 one-man stage show, "Oedipussy," and continues to perform frequently with the New York-based storytelling organization The Moth. He has also been a guest on the Late Show with David Letterman several times and played the lead role in the 2001 IFC film The Girl Under the Waves, an on-screen experiment in improvisational acting. In 2004, Showtime commissioned Ames to develop a pilot based on his writings, titled What's Not to Love? Ames starred as himself, but it was not developed into a series, instead airing as a one time special in the winter of 2007–2008. Ames also appears in The Great Buck Howard, directed by Sean McGinly and starring John Malkovich, which debuted at Sundance in 2008. Ames created the HBO series Bored to Death, which stars Jason Schwartzman as a struggling Brooklyn novelist named Jonathan Ames who moonlights as an unlicensed private detective. The show debuted on September 20, 2009. He also started to guest-star as Irwin during the second season, appearing fully nude in one scene. On December 20, 2011, it was reported that Bored to Death was cancelled by HBO after airing its third season. The film adaptation of Ames's novel The Extra Man, starring Kevin Kline, John C. Reilly, Katie Holmes, and Paul Dano, was released in 2010. The film adaptation of You Were Never Really Here was theatrically released in April 2018. The author produced the movie based on his book, which was directed by Lynne Ramsay. It premiered at the 70th Cannes Film Festival, where Ramsay won the award for Best Screenplay and Joaquin Phoenix won the award for Best Actor. Ames has also appeared in HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm in the Season 8 episode "Car Periscope," playing a brief role as Larry David's business manager. In 2015, Ames teamed up with Patrick Stewart and Seth MacFarlane to create Blunt Talk, which aired on the STARZ network for two seasons. For his performance in the starring role, Patrick Stewart was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Television Series Musical or Comedy and a Critics' Choice TV Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series.

• I Pass Like Night (1989) • The Extra Man (1998) • Wake Up, Sir! (2004) • You Were Never Really Here (2013 and expanded version in 2018)

• A Man Named Doll (2021) • The Wheel of Doll (2022) • Karma Doll (2025)

• What's Not to Love?: The Adventures of a Mildly Perverted Young Writer (2000) • My Less Than Secret Life (2002) • I Love You More Than You Know (2006) • The Double Life Is Twice As Good: Essays and Fiction (2009)

• Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs (2005)

• The Alcoholic, with Dean Haspiel (2008)

• Bored to Death (creator/writer/producer, 2009–2011, as well as a cameo appearance as "Irwin") • Blunt Talk (creator/writer/executive producer, 2015–2016) • Drunk History (as Junius Booth, 2013)