Ben O'Brien

Ben O'Brien
O'Brien performing as Earth Universe in Portland, May 2015
Birth name	Benjamin Franklin O'Brien
Born	November 4, 1984 (age 31) Oswego, New York, United States
Alma mater	SUNY Purchase
Website	BenOBrien.net

Ben O'Brien (born November 4, 1984) is an American comedian and filmmaker based out of Baltimore, Maryland. He is a member of the Wham City arts collective and founding member of Wham City Comedy.^[1] He has directed videos for Adult Swim and Merge Records.^[2] He is the co-creator of the web series Showbeast (2006–2013) and he manages and performs with Wham City Comedy (2010–present). The website Brightest Young Things posted this about Wham City Comedy "...you should make a point to see them, as they’re super funny and doing DIY comedy like few others."^[3]

Most prominently he co-created along with Alan Resnick and Robby Rackleff, multiple shorts for Adult Swim, including Live Forever as You Are Now with Alan Resnick, Unedited Footage of a Bear,^[4] and most recently This House Has People In It. Which aired on Adult Swim the week of March 14, 2016.

Life and Education

Ben was born and raised in Oswego, New York and went on to attend college at SUNY Purchase where he met Alan Resnick. In 2008 he moved to Baltimore, Maryland where he maintained a studio at the Copycat Building and joined Wham City, an arts and music collective.^[5]

Live Performance

Ben performs live, doing standup comedy and multimedia performances with his group Wham City Comedy,^[6] and has toured with found footage group Everything is Terrible!^[7] and electronic musician Dan Deacon.^[8] In April 2015 he began performing as Earth Universe, a spiritual guru who claims to be the reincarnation of Emanuel Bronner.^[9][10]

Video Work

His notable projects include multiple music videos for Dan Deacon,^[11][12] a music video for the band Wye Oak for the song "The Tower,"^[13] the short films for Adult Swim, and his self-produced web series "Showbeast".^[14]

References