James Stephen "Murr" Murray (born May 1, 1976) is an American improvisational comedian, actor, author, and producer from the New York City borough of

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...

. He is a member of

The Tenderloins The Tenderloins are an American comedy troupe composed of James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn, and Sal Vulcano. The group stars in the television series ''Impractical Jokers'', which premiered on December 15, 2011. The program airs on truTV ...

, a comedy troupe also consisting of Brian Quinn,

Sal Vulcano Salvatore Edward Anthony Vulcano (born November 6, 1976) is an American improvisational and stand-up comedian, actor, and producer from the New York City borough of Staten Island. He is a member of The Tenderloins, a comedy troupe consisting o ...

, and formerly

Joe Gatto Joseph Anthony Gatto Jr. (born June 5, 1976) is an American improvisational comedian, actor, and producer from the New York City borough of Staten Island. He was a member of the Tenderloins, a comedy troupe consisting of Sal Vulcano, James Mu ...

. Along with the other members of The Tenderloins, he stars in the television series ''

Impractical Jokers ''Impractical Jokers'' is an American hidden camera Reality television#Hidden cameras, reality show with improvisational elements. Produced by NorthSouth Productions, ''Impractical Jokers'' premiered on truTV on December 15, 2011 starring the m ...

'', which premiered December 15, 2011, on

TruTV TruTV (stylized as truTV) is an American basic cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The channel primarily broadcasts comedy, docusoaps and reality shows. The channel was originally launched in 1991 as Court TV, a network that focu ...

Early life

Murray was raised in the borough

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 ...

and is of Irish and Italian descent. He attended

Monsignor Farrell High School Monsignor Farrell High School is an American Catholic high school for boys, located in the Oakwood section of Staten Island, New York. Opened in 1961, the school is named in honor of Monsignor Joseph Farrell, a Catholic priest, as well as a re ...

in that borough, meeting his future comedy partners

, Brian Quinn, and

there in freshman year. He graduated in 1994. Murray later graduated from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Career

Early career

In 1998, Murray produced, wrote, and directed a film titled ''Damned!,'' starring Jeremy Guskin as Jesus in an alternate retelling of Bible. Rather than paying for a

Ford Taurus The Ford Taurus is an automobile that was manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United States from the 1986 to 2019 model years. Introduced in late 1985 for the 1986 model year, six generations were produced over 34 years; a brief hiat ...

, Murray's parents paid for the production of this film at his request. After being apart for years, Murray, Gatto, and Vulcano reunited after graduating from college and began practicing improvisation at Gatto's house, going on to tour as an improv & sketch comedy troupe in 1999, and calling themselves

. The Tenderloins began producing comedy sketches together, posting them on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

, MySpace, and

Metacafe Metacafe was an Israeli Video hosting service, video-sharing website, launched in July 2003. During the mid-2000s, it was one of the largest video-sharing websites, though eventually began to be superseded by YouTube, Vimeo and Dailymotion. In Aug ...

, and subsequently accumulating millions of views online. In 2007, the troupe won the $100,000 grand prize in

NBC's The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

"It's Your Show" competition for the sketch "Time Thugs".

''Impractical Jokers'' and other television shows

'' premiered on December 15, 2011, on

, which was watched by over 32 million viewers in its first season. The show has become the most popular series on TruTV. In 2019, Murray, along with the other members of The Tenderloins, starred in '' The Misery Index'', which is hosted by

Jameela Jamil Jameela Alia Jamil (born 25 February 1986) is a British actress and presenter. She began her career on Channel 4, where she hosted a pop culture series in the T4 strand from 2009 until 2012. She then became the radio host of ''The Official Cha ...

and is based on Andy Breckman's card game "Shit Happens". '' Impractical Jokers: The Movie'' was released on February 21, 2020.

Other ventures

Murray worked at

NorthSouth Productions NorthSouth Productions is a television production company in the United States that was founded by Charlie DeBevoise and Mark Hickman in 2000. NorthSouth creates and produces original programming for a variety of broadcast and cable networks incl ...

, where he was the senior vice president of development, leaving in February 2018. In 2018, he released a sci-fi/horror novel entitled ''Awakened'', which was co-written by Darren Wearmouth, and revolves around the discovery of an intensely hostile race of intelligent,

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The relative abundance of methane on Eart ...

-breathing monsters living beneath the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

and the sinister Foundation for Human Advancement - an almost equally cruel and ruthless organization dedicated to the destruction of that race through

world domination World domination (also called global domination or world conquest or cosmocracy) is a hypothetical power structure, either achieved or aspired to, in which a single political authority holds the power over all or virtually all the inhabitants ...

. A sequel, called ''The Brink'', was released in 2019. In 2020, Murray and Wearmouth co-wrote another horror novel, ''

Don't Move ''Don't Move'' ( it, Non ti muovere) is a 2004 Italian film directed by Sergio Castellitto. It stars Penélope Cruz, Claudia Gerini, Elena Perino and the director himself. Both Castellitto and Cruz received critical praise for their performanc ...

'', which follows a group of campers being hunted by a giant arachnid. In 2021 they published a thriller, ''The'' ''Stowaway'', about a serial killer on board a cruise ship. In 2021, Murray began a solo standup tour, ''Murr Live.'' The family-friendly show consists of stories relating to the TV show, videos, and hidden camera challenges.

Personal life

As a result of a triple punishment on ''Impractical Jokers'', Murray has a tattoo of a ferret skydiving as a reference to an earlier punishment. On March 13, 2014, Murray married Sal Vulcano's sister, Jenna Vulcano, as a result of Sal's punishment in the season 3 finale, "Brother-in-Loss"; they annulled the marriage shortly after. In 2019, Murray became engaged to Melyssa Davies, whom he met at his launch party for his book ''Awakened''. Murray married Davies on September 25, 2020. Murray is a

Kentucky Colonel Kentucky Colonel is the highest title of honor bestowed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and is the most well-known of a number of honorary colonelcies conferred by United States governors. A Kentucky Colonel Commission (the certificate) is ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Web series

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, James 1976 births Living people 21st-century American comedians American people of Irish descent American people of Italian descent Comedians from New York City Georgetown University alumni Monsignor Farrell High School alumni People from Staten Island The Tenderloins