Ike Barinholtz

Ike Barinholtz is an American actor, comedian, and writer born on February 18, 1977, in Chicago, Illinois. He made his Broadway debut in 2025 in All Out: Comedy About Ambition.

Barinholtz grew up in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood as the son of Peggy and Alan Barinholtz, the latter an attorney and actor. His brother Jon Barinholtz is also an actor. He attended Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School before enrolling at The Latin School of Chicago for high school, where he was a member of the Scholastic Bowl team that won the state championship in 1994. That same year he competed in the Texaco Star National Academic Championship at Rice University. He later enrolled at Boston University but dropped out, subsequently working for the Chicago Transit Authority. A comedy show at The Vic Theatre prompted him to pursue performance, and he went on to study at The Second City, ImprovOlympic, and Annoyance Theatre. He is a founding member of The Lindbergh Babies, an improv group directed by Del Close. He also spent two years in Amsterdam performing with the comedy troupe Boom Chicago alongside Jordan Peele, Josh Meyers, and Nicole Parker.

Barinholtz joined the cast of the sketch comedy series MADtv in 2002 as a featured performer for its eighth season, later being elevated to repertory performer status. He remained with the show through 2007, when he chose not to renew his contract for the thirteenth season. During his tenure he developed recurring characters including Abercrombie and Fitch model Dutch and Principal Lankenstein from the Coach Hines sketches, and he frequently partnered in sketches with fellow cast members Josh Meyers and Bobby Lee. His celebrity impressions on the show included Arnold Schwarzenegger, Matt Damon, Tom Hanks, Mark Wahlberg, and Vin Diesel, among many others.

His television career expanded significantly when he joined the cast of the HBO series Eastbound and Down in 2012, playing Ivan Dochenko, Kenny Powers' Russian rival, in the show's third season. That same year he became a series regular on The Mindy Project, portraying nurse Morgan Tookers through 2017 while also serving as a writer and story editor on the series. He subsequently appeared in Bless the Harts from 2019 to 2021, the Apple TV+ mystery comedy The Afterparty in 2022, and History of the World, Part II in 2023. Beginning in 2025, Barinholtz has starred in the Apple TV+ comedy series The Studio as Sal Saperstein, a role that earned him the Critics' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, along with nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

His film credits include Neighbors opposite Seth Rogen in 2014, Sisters in 2015, Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and Suicide Squad in 2016, Snatched in 2017, Blockers in 2018, Late Night in 2019, The Hunt in 2020, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent in 2022. He co-wrote the 2016 action comedy Central Intelligence with Dave Stassen, a collaborator he has known since high school. In 2018 he directed, wrote, produced, and starred in the comedy film The Oath. He has also been confirmed to portray Elon Musk in director Luca Guadagnino's upcoming AI-themed film Artificial.

Barinholtz has accumulated notable winnings across multiple game show appearances. On February 2, 2023, he won the inaugural primetime season of Celebrity Jeopardy!, defeating Patton Oswalt and Wil Wheaton in the finals and earning one million dollars for his charity, Pacific Clinics. He subsequently competed in the 2024 Tournament of Champions, winning his quarterfinal match before losing in the semifinals. On April 22, 2020, he won $125,000 for Uplift Family Services on a separate game show appearance. On August 14, 2024, Barinholtz and his father Alan became the first duo and the second celebrities overall to win the one-million-dollar top prize on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, with their winnings directed to the ASL Program at Los Encinos School. His cumulative game show earnings total $1,635,000, making him the thirteenth highest-earning game show contestant of all time.

In his personal life, Barinholtz is married and has three daughters. While filming Blockers, he suffered two fractured cervical vertebrae in his neck during a stunt involving a fall.