Michael G. Polk Jr. is an American comedian, actor, TV commentator, and newspaper columnist, known primarily for his sketch comedy and viral videos.

Early life and education

Polk was born in

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval A ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. After being raised in

Newton Falls, Ohio Newton Falls is a village in southwestern Trumbull County, Ohio, United States. The population was 4,557 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area. The city takes its name from the two sets of waterfalls within ...

, he attended

Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a public research university in Kent, Ohio. The university also includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio and additional facilities in the region and internationally. Regional campuses are located in ...

as an undergraduate and earned a degree in communications and psychology in 2002.

Career

Polk created the YouTube series Runaway Box / Man in the Box. His work has also appeared on HBO,

Cinemax Cinemax is an American pay television, cable, and satellite television network owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. Developed as a companion "maxi-pay" service complementing the offerings shown on parent ...

and

TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...

's ''

Inside the NBA ''Inside the NBA'', branded for sponsorship purposes as ''Inside the NBA presented by Kia'', is the postgame show for '' NBA on TNT'' broadcasts. The program features host Ernie Johnson with analysts Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille ...

''. He sang his

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and 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 Google, and is the second mo ...

song "One Semester of Spanish - Love Song" for

Kim Kardashian Kimberly Noel Kardashian (formerly West; born October 21, 1980) is an American socialite, media personality, and businesswoman. She first gained media attention as a friend and stylist of Paris Hilton, but received wider notice after the s ...

on Spanish television channel

Telemundo Telemundo (; formerly NetSpan) is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, a division of NBCUniversal, which in turn is owned by Comcast. It provides content nationally with pr ...

. That video has received over 9.4 million views on

. He thanked his viewers as "Spanish Mike" when the video hit 2 Million views. Some of his other work includes "Ooh Girl!" - An Honest R&B Song", "The Great Office War", "The Factory of Sadness" and two different versions of a "Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video" all of which have about 20 million views combined on

. The tourism spoof video actually prompted Cleveland's convention and tourism bureau to solicit other videos in a 'counterattack' to Polk's not-so-flattering work. Segments of the Cleveland tourism videos were also featured in the Michael Moore documentary film '' Capitalism: A Love Story''. In 2012, Polk became a weekly contributor on ''The Rizzo Show'' - a Sunday night sports/comedy program airing WJW channel 8 in Cleveland (the local

FOX Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

affiliate). Polk also contributed to the sports section of the nightly news broadcast with ''Browns Hangover'', a recurring segment providing comedic commentary after

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

games. Polk has also worked for

Funny or Die Funny or Die is a comedy video website and film/television production company owned by Henry R. Muñoz III that was founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Mark Kvamme, and Chris Henchy in 2007. The website contained exclusive material from a re ...

and his current comedy troupe Last Call Cleveland. In 2016, Polk became a writer for the

Cleveland Plain Dealer ''The Plain Dealer'' is the major newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio, United States. In fall 2019, it ranked 23rd in U.S. newspaper circulation, a significant drop since March 2013, when its circulation ranked 17th daily and 15th on Sunday. As of M ...

, doing periodic columns about pop culture and humor. In 2019, Cleveland

NBC 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 ...

affiliate

WKYC WKYC (channel 3) is a television station in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. Its studios are located on Tom Beres Way (a section of Lakeside Avenue in Downtown Cleveland named after the station's lon ...

channel 3 hired Polk as a feature reporter and contributor, that same year - with the 2019 MLB All-Star Game occurring in Cleveland -

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

solicited Polk to make a third "Hastily Made Tourism Video" for Cleveland, which he released on July 9, 2019.

Awards

Polk was named as one of Cleveland Magazine's Most Interesting People of 2010. In 2013 readers of ''Scene Magazine'' voted him to be Cleveland's Best Local Comedian and Best Local Author for his book ''Damn Right I'm From Cleveland''. in 2022, Polk won three

Lower Great Lakes Emmy Awards The NATAS Lower Great Lakes Chapter is one of 19 regional chapters of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The Lower Great Lakes Chapter (formerly Cleveland Chapter) was founded in 1969. In addition to granting Emmy® Awards to pro ...

in various categories in his role as commentator/host on

.53rd Annual CGL Emmy Awards Recipients - Great Lakes Emmy Awards
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Bibliography

''Damn Right I'm From Cleveland'' (2012 )

References

External links

* * https://www.youtube.com/user/mikepolkjunior {{DEFAULTSORT:Polk, Mike G Jr American male film actors American stand-up comedians American male television actors American male voice actors Kent State University alumni Living people Male actors from Cleveland People from Warren, Ohio People from Newton Falls, Ohio Year of birth missing (living people)