David Brian Ury (born September 30, 1973) is an American actor, stand-up comedian,
YouTuber
A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006.
Influence
Influen ...
, and Japanese translation specialist.
Early life and education
Ury was born and raised in
Sonoma, California
Sonoma is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Sonoma is one of the principal cities of California's Wine Country and the center of the Sonoma Valley AVA. Sonoma's ...
. He graduated from
Sonoma Valley High School, where he acted in theatre productions. He earned a bachelor's degree in linguistics at
Evergreen State College
The Evergreen State College is a public liberal arts college in Olympia, Washington. Founded in 1967, it offers a non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study towards a degree or follow a p ...
in
Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region.
Europea ...
and studied abroad in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, where he became fluent in
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
.
Ury is a descendant of
German Jewish
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
impressionist painter
Lesser Ury
Leo Lesser Ury (November 7, 1861 – October 18, 1931) was a German Impressionist painter and printmaker, associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.
Life and career
Ury was born in Birnbaum in what was then Prussia (now Międzych� ...
.
Career
Since studying abroad in
Tokyo, Ury and has worked as a translator in film, television, and manga and currently () translates and writes English adaptations for
manga
Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is used ...
. Ury moved to Los Angeles in August 2001 where he began performing stand-up comedy.
Cartoonist
Keith Knight, a neighbor of his, described Ury's acting career as "Spooge man" and "a cavalcade of
reprobate
Reprobation, in Christian theology, is a doctrine which teaches that a person can reject the gospel to a point where God in turn rejects them and curses their conscience. The English word ''reprobate'' is from the Latin root ''probare'' (''Eng ...
s, sleazeballs,
derelicts, & weirdos."
Appearances
TV Series and Movies
Ury has made several film and television appearances, including an episode of
Tim Kring's ''
Crossing Jordan
''Crossing Jordan'' is an American crime drama television series created by Tim Kring, that aired on NBC from September 24, 2001, to May 16, 2007. It stars Jill Hennessy as Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh, a crime-solving forensic pathologist employed i ...
'' and in ''
Shoot 'Em Up
Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs
) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of charact ...
''. He also appeared in ''
Heroes
Heroes or Héroes may refer to:
* Hero, one who displays courage and self-sacrifice for the greater good
Film
* ''Heroes'' (1977 film), an American drama
* ''Heroes'' (2008 film), an Indian Hindi film
Gaming
* ''Heroes of Might and Magic'' ...
'', ''
Malcolm in the Middle
''Malcolm in the Middle'' is an American family television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for Fox. The series premiered on January 9, 2000, and ended on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes.
The series follows a dysfunctional ...
'', ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy trans ...
'', ''
Without a Trace
''Without a Trace'' is an American police procedural drama television series created by Hank Steinberg that aired on CBS from September 26, 2002 to May 19, 2009 with the total of seven seasons and 160 episodes. The series focuses the cases of ...
'', ''
Breaking Bad
''Breaking Bad'' is an American crime drama television series created and produced by Vince Gilligan. Set and filmed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the series follows Walter White (Bryan Cranston), an underpaid, overqualified, and dispirited hi ...
'', ''
Better Call Saul
''Better Call Saul'' is an American crime and legal drama television series created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. Part of the ''Breaking Bad'' franchise, it is a spin-off of Gilligan's previous series, '' Breaking Bad'', and serves as a ...
'', ''
Zeke and Luther
Zeke is a masculine given name and nickname, sometimes a shortened form ( hypocorism) of Ezekiel, which may refer to:
People
* Caleb Bailey (nickname "Zeke", 1898-1957), US Marine Corps brigadier general and athlete
* Zeke Bella (1930–2013), Am ...
'', and ''
The Librarians''. In March 2015, Ury was cast for
Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie (born Robert Bartleh Cummings; January 12, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, filmmaker, and voice actor. His music and lyrics are notable for their horror and sci-fi themes, and his live shows have be ...
's slasher film
31 as Schizo-Head.
A character actor, Ury has died on screen in almost every role he has portrayed.
YouTube
Ury also has several YouTube channels/accounts/personalities and alter-egos, which include ''Karaoke Steve'' and ''Ken Tanaka,'' the fictional adopted twin brother of David Ury. Tanaka is described as an
Ashkenazi Jewish
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
man adopted as an infant by Japanese parents Hideo and Mari Tanaka, and raised in
Shimane Prefecture of Japan; he returns to Los Angeles to find his birth parents Jonathan and Linda Smith.
Filmography
Film
Television
Video games
References
External links
*
David Uryat the
ISBN Database
Ken Tanakaat the
ISBN Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ury, David
1973 births
Living people
Jewish American male actors
Male actors from California
American male film actors
American male television actors
People from Sonoma, California
21st-century American Jews
Male YouTubers
Japanese translators
American expatriates in Japan