Jake Fogelnest started a television show from his New York City bedroom when he was fourteen years old. SQUiRT TV made its debut in January of 1994 on Manhattan public access. The show, which Fogelnest wrote, produced and directed, featured his opinions on music, film and television. The one-man show quickly became a cult success in Manhattan, attracting with its quirky style, sense of humor and edgy commentary a fan base of night owls, including The Beastie Boys, Janeane Garofalo and Eric Bogosian.
SQUiRT TV soon moved from public access to MTV (a trajectory that echoed the movie Wayne's World, released in 1992). Still recorded from Jake's bedroom, the show featured more celebrity guests, including Adam Sandler, Beck and The Kids in the Hall--some of whom had appeared on SQUiRT TV in its original public access incarnation.
Fogelnest is a regular commentator on VH1's I Love The... series. Other television credits include a special for Comedy Central, MTV's 12 Angry Viewers, Upright Citizens Brigade, and guest appearances on The Jon Stewart Show, Howard Stern and Late Night With Conan O'Brien. He's working on project for MTV called Ten Years Later. Fogelnest had a cameo in the film Wet Hot American Summer and can be seen for eleven seconds in Gigantic: A Tale Of Two Johns, the documentary on They Might Be Giants.
Fogelnest served on the writing staff of the VH1 series Best Week Ever, and regularly contributes jokes to on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update." He's written for magazines such as Spin, Ray Gun, Bikini, Alternative Press and Jane, and he's appeared in the "Say Something Funny" feature of The Onion.
Fogelnest co-directed Jerry Minor Is a Black Man for the Saturday Night Live alum. He served as assistant director for Sarah Silverman's one-woman show Jesus Is Magic at Joe's Pub. He's worked on tour with the Upright Citizens Brigade, and has developed numerous comedy projects at their downtown New York City theatre. There he co-directed (with SNL's Amy Poehler) the two-person show Eye Candy, starring Dannah Feinglass and Danielle Schneider, which was selected for the 2002 HBO US Comedy Arts Festival. Fogelnest's most acclaimed UCB production is George Bush Is a Motherfucker, which featured many members of Respecto Montalban, and was produced by Adam McKay.
Fogelnest was named best director of 2003 by the Emerging Comics Of New York Awards. In 2004, he won a New York City A.I.R. Award for hosting the "Top 92 Worst Xmas Songs of All-Time" on the former WXRK, where he worked as a DJ before the station changed formats and became WFNY-FM.
He formerly hosted a radio show with blank">Jackie Clarke called Jake and Jackie on _WFNY-FM in New York (blank">92.3 FreeFM, formerly known as WXRK KRock). The show was a combination of pop culture discussion and radio sketch comedy, featuring characters such as MC Steinberg (an insomniac 19 1/2-year-old "hip-hop rapper" who works at a dollar store that caters to the Latino community) and The Whizzer (aka Johnny Wiznewski, an old-fashioned disc jockey from _CBS Radio). The show also featured many frequent guests, including Penn Jillette, Michael Musto, Tom Scharpling, Rob Huebel, Chuck Nice, blank">John Gemberling, Curtis Gwinn, Andy Rocco, Jawnee Conroy, Bobby Moynihan, James Eason, and _Paul Scheer (the show's Hollywood correspondent).
Currently he has a show on Sirius Satellite Radio's College Rock/Indie Rock channel, Left of Center, every day from 6 am to noon ET.
