Quick Facts
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Biography
Ian Harris (born August 24, 1971) is a comedian, director and mixed martial arts fighter. He integrates skepticism and critical thinking into his comedy and has a unique fighting style he calls "Fight Science".
Career
Comedy
At age 21 in the year 1992, Ian moved to Los Angeles from Santa Cruz, California, with a friend. There they wrote the script Armaghetto, which they unsuccessfully tried to sell. Shortly after his arrival in Los Angeles he was asked, after an audition, to close the show Annex Sunday Night at the comedy club The Ice House. After that he toured the U.S. performing at comedy shows. He often appeared in the comedy club Punch Line.
In 2000 he moved back to Los Angeles, where he earned a reputation for being brash and irreverent in his comedy. However, in 2006 he stopped doing stand-up comedy and touring, because of his production work and the birth of his daughter in 2005.
In 2011 Harris came back to stand-up comedy, integrating skepticism and critical thinking into his act. He has made fun of Vaccine controversies, glucose intolerance, politics and religions. Six months after his comeback, Harris toured with comedians Jason Relser and Maurice Northup, doing a secular comedy show The Evolution of Comedy Tour.
On December 21, 2012 he recorded his comedy special Ian Harris: Critical & Thinking.
Ian is also a regular contributing writer for US Weekly magazine's Fashion Police.
Harris has performed his comedy act at several atheist and skeptical events:
- 2012 Ascent of Atheism Convention in Denver
- 2013 American Humanist Association National Convention in San Diego
- 2013 CFI Summit in Tacoma, Washington
In 2014 he hosted a Sunday Assembly in Los Angeles and in 2013 he performed for Atheists United.
Comedy achievements
In the year 2001 he was on the Top 100 Comedians list of the Entertainment Business Journal, and he was a semi-finalist in Comedy Central's Laugh Riots Competition. Backstage West called him Top Character Comedian in Town, and he was a finalist in the San Francisco Comedy Competition.
Comedy awards and events:
- 1995 Finalist Cal State Chico Comedy Competition
- 1998 Finalist UCSF Comedy Competition
- 2000 Finalist San Francisco International Comedy Competition
- 2001 Semi-finalist Comedy Central Laugh Riots Competition
- 2013 Ventura Comedy Festival
Film
After some years of comedy, Ian wrote and directed his first movie It Burns When I Laugh. This film was presented in festivals, where it had a moderate success, then it was distributed on home video. Ian directed some other movies, short movies and music videos, and in 2013, he began to direct comedy specials for other fellow comedians.
Voice-over
In 2003 Ian began performing voice-overs in a commercial for Universal Orlando Resorts that aired on the Super Bowl of the same year. Since then he has performed voice-over for commercials, television shows, network promos, video games and animation. Clients have included DirecTV, Lays Potato Chips, Full Tilt Poker, Round Table Pizza and the networks Disney XD, Bravo and Fuel. Ian was the narrator for Fuse's Mad Genius, Pepsi/Twitter Live for Now and Scripps Top 3 of Everything. He also does some voice over on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
MMA
Ian began boxing at age six. He wrestled for two and a half years and trained Kenpo Karate, Wing Chun and Japanese Jujutsu for nine years. He also trained from 1992 to 2005 with Richard Bustillo, a Bruce Lee student. With him, Ian trained Jeet Kune Do and Muay Thai. In 1996 he also began to train Brazilian jiu-jitsu with Claudio Franca. He began training other fighters in 2003. Ian has been featured in Tapout Magazine and Grappling Magazine teaching techniques and was showcased in the book MMA Lessons, a collection of the best MMA techniques from Tapout Magazine. Ian coined his MMA fighting style Fight Science.
He currently trains fighters out of Systems Training Center in Hawthorne California.
Awards
Film Awards and Accolades:
- Official Selection, 2007 Newport Beach Film Festival
- Official Selection, 2007 Del Rey Beach Film Festival
- Best Short Nominee, 2007 Swansea Bay Film Festival
- Official Selection, 2006 Montreal Just For Laughs Comedy Festival
- Best Feature Film, Seattle Underground Film Festival
- Best Director, 2005 48 Hour Film Project, Los Angeles
- Best Use of Genre: 2005 48 Hour Film Project, Los Angeles
- Official Selection, 2005 Dances with Films Film Festival
- Official Selection, 2005 Best of LA Shorts Festival
- Audience Choice, 2004 48 Hour Film Project, Los Angeles
- Best Music, 2004 48 Hour Film Project, Los Angeles
- Finalist, 2003 Fade-In Magazine Short Film Awards
- Best Film, 2003 Zephyr Short Film Festival, Los Angeles
- Audience Choice Award, 2002 Colfax Film Festival
- Official Selection, 2003 Cal State Fullerton Call to Arts Festival
Filmography
Director
- "Ty Barnett: Issues" (2013) hour comedy special
- "Bryan Kellen: Ballet Komedico" (2013) Hour Comedy Special
- “Pashittu” Short Film (2006)
- “The Cult” Television Pilot (2006)
- “Booking Tacoma” Feature Film (2004)
- “It Burns When I Laugh” Feature Film (2003)
- “Silver Patriot: The Final Chapter” Short Film (2005)
- “The Paul Decca Story” Short Film (2004)
- “Ring Tone Blues” Short Film (2004)
- “Dual” Short Film (2002)
- “A.P.U. Art, Pot & Underwear” Short Film (2003)
Music videos
- “Darkest Days” Good Riddance, 2006 Fat Wreck Chords
- “Smoother than You” Danny Hamilton, 2005 Koala Records
- “Dance of Shiva” OUTLIE, 2004 Porterhouse Records
- “You Burn Me Up” The Haywoods, 2000 Wormtone Records
Personal life
Ian was born and grew up in Santa Cruz, California, USA. He was interested in stand-up comedy, writing short stories, boxing, martial arts and surfing.
He lives with his wife Jeaninne and their daughter Bella in Los Angeles, California, USA.