Theo Von
Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski III, known professionally as Theo Von is an American stand-up comedian, podcaster, television personality, and actor.
Early life
Theo Von was born Theodor Capitani von Kurnatowski to Gina Capitani and Roland Achilles. His father was originally from Bluefields, Nicaragua, and was 70 years old when Theo was born. Von is of Italian and British descent on his mother's side and of primarily Polish as well as Native American descent on his father's.Von grew up in Covington, Louisiana with his older brother and two younger sisters, all of whom currently reside in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Von was legally emancipated at age fourteen. He graduated from Mandeville High School in Mandeville, Louisiana. He attended Louisiana State University for a time, as well as Loyola University New Orleans, University of Arizona, College of Charleston, and Santa Monica College. Von received his undergraduate degree in 2011 from the University of New Orleans.
Career
Television and film
2000–2008: ''Road Rules'' and reality television
Von began a professional career in entertainment at age nineteen when he starred in MTV's ' in 2000. He was recruited to the show while studying at Louisiana State University.Following his season of Road Rules, Von was on four seasons and nearly seventy episodes of MTV's reality game show The Challenge, formerly known as Real World/Road Rules Challenge. The show was a spin off of MTV's The Real World and Road Rules. He was part of the cast of the seasons ', ', , and '. Von was runner-up in 2002 and won the following two seasons. Concurrently to the airing of Real World/Road Rules Challenge in 2006, Von competed on Last Comic Standing.
He returned to reality TV in Spring 2008, when Von was a panelist on the 2008 short-lived ABC Family reality competition show America's Prom Queen. In the summer of 2008, Von was one of the members of the Comedy Central sketch/competition show Reality Bites Back. Von won the show, beating out fellow comedians Amy Schumer, Bert Kreischer, and Tiffany Haddish, among others.
2012–present: Host of ''Primetime in No Time'' and ''Deal with It'' and screen acting
Beginning in 2011, Von took over as a host of the popular Yahoo online TV recap show Primetime in No Time. Von hosted the TBS hidden camera show Deal With It, executive produced by Howie Mandel, for its run of three seasons from 2013 to 2014.During this period, Von began appearing in cameo acting roles in a few television shows including Inside Amy Schumer and Why? with Hannibal Buress. He has said that he was not more interested in acting earlier on, despite having opportunities to do pilots and sitcoms, because he was not excited about particular projects and that they often conflicted with his touring and podcasting schedules.
In Spring 2018, Von's three-episode scripted comedy show Man Up was released on Comedy Central. In August 2019, Von announced that he had been cast in the big-budget film Ghost Draft and had been recruited to the project by its star Chris Pratt. A few weeks later, Von announced on his podcast that he had dropped out of the movie due to the time commitment.
Stand-up
Von began performing stand-up comedy as a young man in Louisiana. At age 23, after his tenure on MTV, he decided to move to Los Angeles and professionally pursue stand-up. For some time, he had difficulty as an entertainer in Hollywood as talent agents would not give him a chance, viewing him as a reality TV star. It took years to shake this image and establish himself as a comedian.Von achieved one of his first major comedic accomplishments a few years later in 2006 when he won the title of Fan Favorite on the online competition aligned with the fourth season of Last Comic Standing. Around this time, Von also began touring his set nationally. He also took part in five international tours for the USO which included performing at Guantanamo Bay.
In 2009, Von popularized "crank texting", and began his "crank texting" blog, which was picked up as a column by CollegeHumor a year later.
On June 1, 2012, Von was the featured comedian in an episode of Comedy Central's The Half Hour, now known as Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents. He also promoted his comedy on The Arsenio Hall Show, Hello Ross, Chelsea Lately, Watch What Happens Live, @midnight, and This Is Not Happening, among other television shows. In 2016, Netflix released Von's debut hour-long comedy special No Offense. The show was taped at the Civic Theatre in New Orleans, Louisiana. In Summer 2019, Von embarked on a three-month national tour called The Dark Arts Tour.
Podcasting
As of 2020, Von hosts two podcasts, This Past Weekend and The King and The Sting. Von is a recurring guest on many comedian's podcast including Joe Rogan's The Joe Rogan Experience, Joey Diaz’s The Church of What’s Happening Now, Bryan Callen and Brendan Schaub's The Fighter and the Kid, Bobby Lee’s TigerBelly among others.2011–2018: Early ventures
In April 2011, Von began his first podcast, The Comedy Sideshow. Taped at the Improv Comedy Club in Hollywood, Von would interview comedians and other entertainers. The show had twenty-three episodes, the last of which premiered in November of that year.In 2015, Von started a weekly podcast with Matthew Cole Weiss called Allegedly with Theo Von & Matthew Cole Weiss. Two totally opposite friends – comedian Theo Von and filmmaker/journalist Matt Cole Weiss - compete to see who has better “alleged" tales of celebrities, hilarity, trauma, dating, success and failure from their years living in Hollywood. The podcast lasted three years and had a total of 123 episodes.
2016–present: ''This Past Weekend'' and ''The King and The Sting''
Von began a new podcast in December 2016, This Past Weekend. The show is a long-form video podcast which features Von storytelling, answering fan voicemails, as well as thoughtful guest interviews. Von released his two-hundredth episode in May 2019.In December 2018, Theo Von and comedian Brendan Schaub started a new podcast called The King and The Sting. At the podcast's release, The King and The Sting debuted #1 on the iTunes Podcast charts in the United States and also reached the top charts in the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain and Australia.
Personal life
Von lives in Los Angeles, California.Appearances in media
Selected filmography| Year | Title | Notes | - |
| 2000 | ' | Contestant | - |
| 2002 | ' | Contestant | - |
| 2003–2004 | ' | Contestant | - |
| 2004-2005 | ' | Contestant | - |
| 2005 | Battle of the Network Reality Stars | Contestant | - |
| 2006 | Contestant | - | |
| 2006 | Last Comic Standing | Won the title of most Comic Downloaded. | - |
| 2008 | America's Prom Queen | Panelist | - |
| 2008 | Live at Gotham | Season 3 | - |
| 2008 | Reality Bites Back | Contestant along with Donnell Rawlings, Bert Kreischer, Amy Schumer, Mo Mandel, and Chris Fairbanks. | - |
| 2012 | Primetime in No Time | Host; replaced former host Frank Nicotero. | - |
| 2012 | The Half Hour | - | |
| 2013–2014 | Deal With It | Host | - |
| 2016 | Acting Out | Himself | |
| 2016 | No Offense | Comedy special | - |
| 2016–Present | This Past Weekend | Podcast host | - |
| 2017 | 30lb Bag of Hamster Bones | Comedy album. On March 6 it placed #1 on the iTunes Comedy Album charts and #4 on Billboard. | - |
| 2018–Present | The King and The Sting | Podcast host | - |
| 2019 | Hot Ones | - | |
| 2019 | Impaulsive | - |