Christian Rudder (born September 1, 1975) is an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

, writer, and musician.

Education

Rudder graduated from

Little Rock Central High School Little Rock Central High School (LRCHS) is an accredited comprehensive education, comprehensive public high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, Little Rock, Arkansas, Secondary education in the United States, United States. The school was the Littl ...

in 1993. He attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, graduating with a degree in

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

in 1998.

SparkNotes

Rudder joined SparkNotes in October 1999, a few months after its founding. Rudder was the creative voice of TheSpark.com, which was the viral content arm of SparkNotes during the site's early rise to popularity. He became TheSpark's

creative director A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...

in March 2001. Soon after the site's sale to

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...

, Rudder and the SparkNotes founders (Chris Coyne,

Sam Yagan Sam Yagan (born April 10, 1977) is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as the co-founder of OkCupid. In 2013, he was named to ''TIME'' Magazine's '100 Most Influential People in the World' list. He is the Vice-Chairman of the e-dating ...

, and Max Krohn) left and began working on

OkCupid OkCupid (often abbreviated as OKC, but officially OkC) is a U.S.-based, internationally operating online dating, friendship, and formerly also a social networking website and application. It features multiple-choice questions to match members. ...

, a

dating site Online dating, also known as Internet dating, Virtual dating, or Mobile app dating, is a relatively recent method used by people with a goal of searching for and interacting with potential romantic or sexual partners, via the internet. An onlin ...

. OkCupid launched in February 2004.

OkCupid

Rudder was a co-founder of OkCupid. In the years immediately following the site's creation, he worked on the front-end product and developed the site's editorial voice. From 2009 - 2011, OkCupid published statistical observations and analysis of members' preferences and connections; the blog posts were written by Rudder and gained widespread media attention. In February 2011, OkCupid was sold to IAC, the owner of Match.com and other dating properties, for $90 million. After the sale to IAC, Rudder assumed day-to-day control of OkCupid as President and General Manager until he left in 2015.

''Dataclysm''

Rudder expanded his writings for OkCupid into the non-fiction book ''

Dataclysm ''Dataclysm: love, sex, race, and identity'' is a book by OkCupid founder Christian Rudder that discusses how the vast trove of aggregated online data about individuals helps explain everything from political beliefs to speech patterns. Much of th ...

'', which became a

New York Times Best Seller ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. John Bear, ''The #1 New York Times Best Seller: intriguing facts about the 484 books that have been #1 New York Times ...

in September 2014 and was a finalist for the

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Prizes currently have nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), history, mystery/thriller ( ...

that year, in the Science & Technology category.

Bishop Allen

He plays guitar in

indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...

band

Bishop Allen Bishop Allen is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, United States. The band's core members are Justin Rice and Christian Rudder, who are supported both on stage and in the studio by a rotating cast of musical collaborators. The ...

and, with

Justin Rice Justin Rice is an American musician and actor. Music career Since 2001, he has played guitar for indie (music), indie rock band Bishop Allen. He also co-wrote the music for the documentary ''The Bully Project'' with band-mate Christian Rudder., ...

, co-writes the band's songs. On Bishop Allen's first three albums, Rudder played most of the instruments except drums and piano. Through Bishop Allen, Rudder has contributed to the soundtracks of the movies '' Saved'', ''

Sleepwalk with Me ''Sleepwalk with Me'' is a 2012 American independent comedy film co-written by, directed by, and starring Mike Birbiglia. It also stars Lauren Ambrose, James Rebhorn, Carol Kane, and Cristin Milioti. Before making the film, Birbiglia had already t ...

'', '' No Strings Attached'', ''

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist ''Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist'' is a 2008 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Peter Sollett and starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings. Written by Lorene Scafaria and based on the novel of the same name by Rachel Cohn and Davi ...

'', ''

Bully Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively wikt:domination, dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by ot ...

'', and several other smaller films and commercials.

Film work

He appeared in

Andrew Bujalski Andrew Bujalski (born April 29, 1977) is an American film director, screenwriter and actor, who has been called the "godfather of mumblecore." Life and career Bujalski, born in Boston in 1977, is the son of artist-turned-businesswoman Sheila ...

's film, ''

Funny Ha Ha ''Funny Ha Ha'' is a 2002 American film written and directed by Andrew Bujalski. It has been described as the first mumblecore film. The film was shot on 16 mm film on a very low budget. It deals with the lives of people in their twenties as they ...

'', as Alex, and appeared as himself in

Peter Sollett Peter Sollett (born January 1, 1976) is an American film director and screenwriter known for his feature films '' Raising Victor Vargas'' (2002) and '' Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist'' (2008). Early life Sollett was born in Bensonhurst, Brook ...

's film, ''

''.

Personal life

Christian met his wife, Reshma Patel, at a concert in Boston. Patel runs a public relations firm. They live in New York and have a daughter together.

Bibliography

References

External links

Bishop Allen
- Rudder's band.
OkTrends
Rudder's blog on statistics derived from

's database. *
''Dataclysm''
Rudder's book about big data and social science at

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

American humorists Living people Harvard University alumni 1975 births {{US-musician-stub