Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Forward 50 2015

Ike Barinholtz

Isaac “Ike” Barinholtz almost became a politician. Instead, Barinholtz is now the writer and actor behind one of TV’s funniest characters, Morgan Tookers, the ex-con-turned-nurse on Hulu’s “The Mindy Project,” and will play opposite Amy Poehler and Tina Fey in the upcoming “Sisters.”

Growing up, the Chicago native attended the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School and then The Latin School of Chicago for high school. But it was when the Boston University dropout went to a show at Second City that he was bitten by the improv comedy bug. Barinholtz, 38, performed at local theaters before moving to Los Angeles, where he couldn’t find a job and was even, he says, passed over for the role of the Onion in a Quiznos commercial. He was devastated.

But endless auditions helped him land a role as a cast member on “MADtv.” A recurring role on “The League” and a hilarious stint as a Russian baseball phenom in HBO’s “Eastbound & Down” followed, getting the attention of Mindy Kaling and propelling his career.

Barinholtz is reprising his role as Seth Rogen’s clueless sidekick in the comedy “Neighbors 2” and will star in one of the most awaited films of 2016, “The Suicide Squad.”

He is married to TV producer Erica Hanson, with whom he has a daughter. Speaking to Interfaith Families about the joys of fatherhood, Barinholtz said that when it comes to religion, “one of the best things to do is educate them to the point where they have an understanding of it and can make their own decisions.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.