Ben O'Brien (born November 4, 1984) is an American

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...

and filmmaker from

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. They are a member of the

Wham City Wham City is an art and performance collective based in Baltimore, Maryland. Members of Wham City include musicians Dan Deacon and Ed Schrader, visual artists Jimmy Joe Roche, Peter Ryan O'Connell, Mason Ross, Adam Endres, Dina Kelberman, April Ca ...

arts collective and founding member of Wham City Comedy. They have directed videos for

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

and

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expande ...

. They are the co-creator of the web series Showbeast (2006–2013) and they manages and performs with Wham City Comedy (2010–present). The website

Brightest Young Things ''Brightest Young Things'', or BYT Media Inc., is an online magazine and event production and marketing agency based in Washington, D.C. and New York City. Founded in 2009 by Svetlana Legetic, a former Architecture Designer from Serbia, ''Brighte ...

posted this about Wham City Comedy "...you should make a point to see them, as they’re super funny and doing DIY comedy like few others." Most prominently they have co-created multiple short films and live performance shows on Adult Swim along with

Alan Resnick Alan Resnick (born July 16, 1986) is an American comedian, visual artist, and filmmaker. He is a member of the Wham City arts collective and founding member of Wham City Comedy. Work Before working on Adult Swim, Resnick first gained recogni ...

, Cricket Arrison, and Robby Rackleff, including Live Forever as You Are Now with Alan Resnick, Unedited Footage of a Bear, and This House Has People In It which aired on

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

the week of March 14, 2016.

Life and education

O'Brien was born and raised in Oswego, New York, and went on to attend college at

SUNY Purchase The State University of New York at Purchase (commonly Purchase College or SUNY Purchase) is a Public college, public Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Purchase, New York. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges ...

where they met

. In 2008 they moved to

where they maintained a studio at the

Copycat Building The Copycat Building is a former manufacturing warehouse at 1501 Guilford Ave, Baltimore, Maryland, today used as an artists' studio and living space. Built in 1897, it is home to the city's creative class and a landmark of the Station North Arts ...

and joined

, an arts and music collective.

Live Performance

Ben performs live, doing standup comedy and multimedia performances with their group Wham City Comedy, and has toured with found footage group

Everything is Terrible! Everything Is Terrible! is an artist collective based in Los Angeles that finds and manipulates unusual, dated, and campy clips of VHS tapes from the late 20th century and early 21st century. It was founded in 2007 by a group of friends who met i ...

and electronic musician Dan Deacon. In April 2015 they began performing as Earth Universe, a spiritual guru who claims to be the reincarnation of Emanuel Bronner.

Video Work

Their notable projects include multiple music videos for Dan Deacon, a music video for the band

Wye Oak The Wye Oak was the largest white oak tree in the United States and the State Tree of Maryland from 1941 until its demise in 2002. Wye Oak State Park preserves the site where the revered tree stood for more than 400 years in the town of Wye M ...

for the song "The Tower," the short films for

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

, and their self-produced web series "Showbeast".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Ben State University of New York at Purchase alumni Living people 1984 births Comedians from Maryland People from Baltimore 21st-century American comedians