Spike Feresten Biography
Birth Name: Spike Feresten
Spike Feresten was raised in West Bridgewater, MA, where he attended public school and got his first job as a bag boy at the local supermarket. With a dream to be the next Jimi Hendrix, Feresten attended Berklee College of Music in Boston.
One night, disillusioned with his career choice, Feresten thought he might feel
better if he dropped four-foot fluorescent light bulbs out the window of his dorm
room - just to watch them shatter on the sidewalk eight stories below. He got
caught and was evicted. Soon after, Feresten saw David
Letterman performing the exact same stunt on his late-night talk show, and
a real light bulb went on: If network television encouraged this sort of behavior,
he might have a future after all. Thus, a career in TV comedy was born.
Feresten came up through the ranks of television, working first as an intern at
NBC in New York. His career took on a Hollywood fable quality when his job as
the receptionist for "Saturday Night
Live" led him to pass jokes he had written to "Weekend Update's" Dennis
Miller. Eventually, Feresten's full-time job at SNL led to a staff-writing
position in 1990 at "Late Night with David Letterman," where he wrote for five
years and earned five Emmy nominations.
In 1995, Feresten left the late-night realm to join the writing staff of the groundbreaking
sitcom "Seinfeld," where he wrote for three
seasons, becoming supervising producer in 1998. During his "Seinfeld" tenure,
Feresten garnered an additional three Emmy nominations, including one for his
famed "Soup Nazi" episode, which remains part of the pop-culture vernacular.
In addition to "Seinfeld" and "Letterman," Feresten has written and developed
other television comedy, penning episodes of THE
SIMPSONS, "Space Ghost Coast
to Coast" and "The Jamie
Kennedy Experiment." Continuing to work with Jerry Seinfeld, Feresten co-wrote
the screenplay for the animated feature "Bee Movie,"
scheduled for release in fall 2007.
Feresten and his wife, Erika, live in Los Angeles.
One night, disillusioned with his career choice, Feresten thought he might feel
better if he dropped four-foot fluorescent light bulbs out the window of his dorm
room - just to watch them shatter on the sidewalk eight stories below. He got
caught and was evicted. Soon after, Feresten saw David
Letterman performing the exact same stunt on his late-night talk show, and
a real light bulb went on: If network television encouraged this sort of behavior,
he might have a future after all. Thus, a career in TV comedy was born.
Feresten came up through the ranks of television, working first as an intern at
NBC in New York. His career took on a Hollywood fable quality when his job as
the receptionist for "Saturday Night
Live" led him to pass jokes he had written to "Weekend Update's" Dennis
Miller. Eventually, Feresten's full-time job at SNL led to a staff-writing
position in 1990 at "Late Night with David Letterman," where he wrote for five
years and earned five Emmy nominations.
In 1995, Feresten left the late-night realm to join the writing staff of the groundbreaking
sitcom "Seinfeld," where he wrote for three
seasons, becoming supervising producer in 1998. During his "Seinfeld" tenure,
Feresten garnered an additional three Emmy nominations, including one for his
famed "Soup Nazi" episode, which remains part of the pop-culture vernacular.
In addition to "Seinfeld" and "Letterman," Feresten has written and developed
other television comedy, penning episodes of THE
SIMPSONS, "Space Ghost Coast
to Coast" and "The Jamie
Kennedy Experiment." Continuing to work with Jerry Seinfeld, Feresten co-wrote
the screenplay for the animated feature "Bee Movie,"
scheduled for release in fall 2007.
Feresten and his wife, Erika, live in Los Angeles.
Browse More Actors:
