Jonah Ray

Jonah Ray Rodrigues (born August 3, 1982) is an American actor, comedian and writer from Los Angeles. He stars as Jonah Heston, the most recent primary host of Mystery Science Theater 3000. He is a former host of The Nerdist Podcast and was the co-host of Comedy Central's The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail. Life and career Originally from Kailua, Hawaii on the island of Oahu, Ray played in local Hawaii rock/punk bands and later moved to Los Angeles. Once there he first pursued opportunities in punk rock, but later started to focus on writing and performing comedy. Beginnings Ray started his TV career as a writer's assistant for The Andy Milonakis Show, as well as working as a writer and performer on Showtime's sketch comedy pilot The Offensive Show. He is also a frequent sketch and stand-up performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles and has made appearances on programs such as Saul of the Molemen, Crossballs, The Sarah Silverman Program, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! He also hosted "Joe Genius", an online program about humor and homegrown science, on Revision3. Previously, he worked as a writer and occasional voice actor on Current TV's program SuperNews!. He previously wrote for Web Soup on the G4 network, and then The Soup on E!. He left The Soup in 2012. The Meltdown and Nerdist Ray co-hosted a weekly comedy show called The Meltdown with Kumail Nanjiani, produced by Nanjiani's wife, Emily V. Gordon, at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles. In late June 2013 Comedy Central announced a television production of the show titled The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail, which debuted in July 2014. The show ended after three seasons in 2016. Ray was one of Chris Hardwick's co-hosts of The Nerdist Podcast and television show. In February 2011, Ray revealed on an episode of the podcast that "Jonah's Arcade", a video gaming-comedy pilot he created and stars in, was not picked up by Comedy Central. The pilot was later released on YouTube, produced by the same producers of Web Soup.