Ben Sinclair (born May 16, 1984) is an American actor, writer, director, and producer.

Early life and education

Sinclair grew up in Scottsdale,

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. His mother is a

cantor A cantor or chanter is a person who leads people in singing or sometimes in prayer. In formal Jewish worship, a cantor is a person who sings solo verses or passages to which the choir or congregation responds. In Judaism, a cantor sings and lead ...

at a

Reform Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill#The Yorkshire Associati ...

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

; his father is a public school

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

. Sinclair attended

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

Career

Sinclair is the co-creator, writer, and star of ''

High Maintenance ''High Maintenance'' is an American Anthology series, anthology comedy-drama television show, television and web series, web series created by ex-husband and wife team Ben Sinclair (actor), Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld. The show follows The ...

'', a

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...

web series and

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

television series set in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The series is partially inspired by experiences from his personal life, and first aired in 2012. His final performance as his ''High Maintenance'' character was as a small cameo on HBO's ''Betty'', also filmed in New York City. He has also directed four episodes of

FXX FXX is an American basic cable channel owned by the Walt Disney Television unit of The Walt Disney Company through FX Networks, LLC. It is the partner channel of FX, with its programming focusing on original and acquired comedy series and fe ...

’s ''Dave''.

Personal life

Sinclair married his writing partner and ''High Maintenance'' co-creator

Katja Blichfeld Katja Blichfeld (born 1979) is an American writer, director, producer and casting director. She is known for co-creating and directing ''High Maintenance'', a Vimeo web series and HBO television series. She won a Primetime Emmy award for Outst ...

in 2010, after meeting at a 2009 party in Los Angeles. They came up with the idea for the show while on a bicycle ride across the Williamsburg Bridge, and started the show in 2012. Blichfield and Sinclair divorced amicably in 2016, prior to undertaking season two of ''High Maintenance''.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* American television directors Television producers from New York City American television writers Film directors from New York City Living people Oberlin College alumni Showrunners Writers from New York City Screenwriters from New York (state) 1984 births 21st-century American screenwriters {{US-bio-stub