Amir Blumenfeld
Amir Shmuel Blumenfeld (Hebrew: אמיר שמואל בלומנפלד) is an Israeli-American comedian, actor, writer, television host, and member of the American comedy duo, Jake and Amir. Born in Israel, he moved to Los Angeles when he was two, and was hired by the New York City-based CollegeHumor in 2005. As well as contributing to its books and articles, he has written and starred in original videos for the comedy website—appearing in series such as Hardly Working and Very Mary-Kate—and was a cast member on its short-lived MTV program The CollegeHumor Show. Amir first came to national prominence in 2004 when he was a semi-finalist during Yahoo's inaugural national IM Live contest, losing to the eventual champions. Now, he is best known for appearing in the web series Jake and Amir with Jake Hurwitz, in which he plays an annoying and exaggerated version of himself. Originally made by Hurwitz and Blumenfeld in their spare time, the series was then produced by CollegeHumor. Blumenfeld's acting in the series gained him a Webby Award for Best Individual Performance in 2010. The Prank War series, which depicts Blumenfeld and Streeter Seidell as they play a series of escalating practical jokes on each other, became popular and led to the two appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! In 2009. MTV later hired Seidell and Blumenfeld to host Pranked, a clip show featuring prank videos from the Internet. Blumenfeld and Seidell later admitted that the original series was staged. Outside of CollegeHumor, Blumenfeld has appeared in the short film The Old Man and the Seymour, the television series Louie and I Just Want My Pants Back, and the 2011 film A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas. He also wrote for ESPN The Magazine and Mental Floss.