Personal life

Benson was born and raised in San Diego, California, to parents Wendy (Young), a pharmacy clerk, and Robert Matthew Benson, a former English teacher turned salesman. After attending Grossmont College, a community college in El Cajon, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career. Benson was raised Methodist.

Career

Early career

While in Los Angeles, Benson began doing stand-up after he and two other friends dared each other to. One of them didn't show, and the other one signed up too late. Benson claimed that "I went in anyway and did my three minutes of whatever I could come with and people actually laughed." At the age of 22, Benson began performing regularly as a stand-up comedian; however, it wasn't until 28 that he became a stoner, after a week's worth of gigs smoking pot afterwards alongside Brian Posehn and Greg Proops. He made his earliest television appearances as a stand-up in the late 1980s and early 1990s on programs such as Comedy Central's The A-List and Two Drink Minimum and was one of the featured comedians in the cast of Joel Hodgson's sketch-comedy pilot The TV Wheel which aired on Comedy Central in 1995. One of Benson's earliest jobs in television was writing for the MTV game-show Trashed in 1994.

Along with comedian friends Arj Barker and Tony Camin, Benson co-created and performed in the comedy stage-show The Marijuana-Logues. He also hosted High Times ' 6th annual Stony Awards with rapper Redman.

Comedy albums

Benson appeared on the comedy compilation album Comedy Death-Ray.

On August 4, 2009, Benson's second album, Unbalanced Load, was released by Comedy Central Records. His third album, Hypocritical Oaf was released on August 31, 2010. Benson aims to record a new album every April 20 (with a subsequent summer release date) for as many consecutive years as possible. Benson's fourth album, Potty Mouth, was released on August 29, 2011. The pattern continued with the release of his fifth album, Smug Life, which was released on July 3, 2012, and Gateway Doug, his sixth album, released on July 9, 2013. On July 8, 2014, Doug released a sequel to Gateway Doug entitled Gateway Doug 2: Forced Fun. His latest album release is Promotional Tool which came out on June 9, 2015.

Doug Loves Movies podcast

In 2006, Benson began hosting a weekly comedy podcast, titled Doug Loves Movies (formerly I Love Movies with Doug Benson), which is recorded in front of a live audience at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles. The show typically tapes weekly, and is later archived on iTunes for fans to listen to for free. Benson and guests talk about movies and comedy both. Benson's guests have included such notables as Daniel Van Kirk as Mark Wahlberg, John Lithgow, Leonard Maltin, Brian Posehn, Joe Rogan, Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Silverman, Patton Oswalt, Jon Hamm, Adam Carolla, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Scott Aukerman, Adam Scott, Bill Simmons, Aziz Ansari, Amy Poehler, Wayne Federman, Elisabeth Shue, Aubrey Plaza, Michael Cera, Edgar Wright, Paul F. Tompkins, T.J. Miller, Kumail Nanjiani, Gillian Jacobs, Michael Sheen.

A regular feature of the podcast is the Leonard Maltin Game, which has been described as Name That Tune with movies instead of songs. The game consists of Benson reading excerpts from a Leonard Maltin review and guests wagering how many names, read from the bottom of the cast list up, it would take for them to identify the movie.

Other regular features of the podcast include the segments Tweet Relief: Tweets About Movies, Watch This/Not That, Not for Emetophobes, and From the Corrections Department, as well as the games Build a Title, Name a Movie, A-B-C-Deez Nuts, How Much Did This Shit Make?, Lincoln or Bane?, Love, Like, Hate, Hate-Like, Doing Lines with Mark Wahlberg, The Seth Rogen Game (A.K.A. Last Man Stanton), Whose Tagline Is It Anyway, Now Buscemi Now You Don't, Tell The Truth! and F Marry Kill: Movies.

At the conclusion of many of the early podcasts, Doug would state "As always, Willem Dafoe is a Shithead," which resulted in so many people wondering about why, that Google searches began to automatically complete the phrase as a suggested match. The Willem Dafoe comment started as a joke based on the fact that it would seemingly be the only bad words ever uttered about Dafoe, but many people didn't catch on and, after explaining it a few times, Benson decided to let Dafoe rest. Now, the runners up in the Leonard Maltin game are allowed to name one shithead as a consolation prize.

In 2010, Benson started an annual, 2 hour Twelve Guests of Christmas special every holiday season. This episode features 12 guests (occasionally more) rather than the usual 3 guests and they play an elimination style Leonard Maltin Game. Scott Aukerman won the first year, while Graham Elwood dominated the next two years in a row. The 2013 champion was podcast fan and Pardcast-A-Thon auction winner, Sean Sakimae. Sakimae also qualified for the next Tournament of Champions for naming the film Titanic in negative names and winning the game. Riki Lindhome beat Jimmy Pardo in the finals of the 2014 edition when Pardo couldn't get the name Lori Singer when going negative three on Footloose. Scott Aukerman bested Sarah Silverman for his second win in 2015.

In addition to Doug Loves Movies, Benson has begun recording "The Benson Interruption" and releasing it as a monthly podcast for $1.99 and has appeared on numerous other podcasts, including Comedy Bang Bang, The Joe Rogan Experience, WTF with Marc Maron, The Adam Carolla Show, Nerdist with Chris Hardwick, Mohr Stories, You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes, Never Not Funny, and Who Charted with Howard Kremer and Kulap Vilaysack.

Getting Doug With High podcast

Benson started a weekly talk-show podcast, entitled Getting Doug with High, that generally airs live every Wednesday at 4:15 p.m PST. Benson invites featured guests to recreationally smoke marijuana with him at 4:20. He asks them questions and discusses topics (usually related to marijuana), and at the end of the segment, he makes them watch a magic trick. Notable guests on the show include Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong, Kevin Smith, Jay Chandrasekhar, Jack Black, Andy Richter, Dan Harmon, Michael Ian Black, Sarah Silverman, Pete Holmes, David Cross, Aubrey Plaza, Greg Proops, Joey Diaz, Horatio Sanz, Jenny Slate, Ron Funches, Jeff Ross, Doug Stanhope, Todd Glass, Brian Posehn, Anthony Jeselnik, Margaret Cho, Kyle Kinane, and Reggie Watts as well as comedy groups Trailer Park Boys, Workaholics, and Broad City. Occasionally, the show is done in front of a live audience in Los Angeles where the performers take turns inhaling from bags of vaporized marijuana.

Film and television

Super High Me

In 2008, Benson was the protagonist of the film Super High Me (a play on the name and concept of the film Super Size Me), released on DVD on June 10, 2008. In the movie, Benson compares the results of not smoking any marijuana at all for 30 days versus the effects of smoking as much marijuana as possible for the same amount of time. The film was produced by Red Envelope Entertainment. The results of the experiment were that it had little or no negative effects on Doug's health. Doug is currently suing the people who made the original film to stop a sequel.

The Benson Interruption

On November 5, 2010 Comedy Central began airing The Benson Interruption, hosted by Benson. The show is based on the live stand-up comedy showcase of the same name that he has hosted in Los Angeles for many years. Special guests for the series include comedians Chris Hardwick, Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Adam Carolla, Nick Swardson, Rob Huebel, Nick Kroll, Thomas Lennon, Mary Lynn Rajskub and Eugene Mirman.

The show spun off into a monthly audio-only podcast on January 21, 2011, which took the TV show's format and altered it slightly by allowing the performances and conversations to play out in longer unedited episodes.

Other film work

While working as a stand-in on numerous movies in the 1980s, he had visible roles as an extra in films such as Blade Runner, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, About Last Night and a backup dancer in the Disney theme park attraction Captain EO.

Other television work

In the mid to late 1990s, Benson had small roles on HBO's Mr. Show with Bob and David, which was co-created by his friend David Cross. He also had small roles on Curb Your Enthusiasm, How I Met Your Mother, The Sarah Silverman Program, Yes, Dear and Friends.

In 2007, Benson was a contestant on fifth season of the NBC reality show Last Comic Standing. He was voted off the program during the ninth episode, earning him 6th place overall.

In the 2000s, the comedian regularly appeared on the VH1 show Best Week Ever and taped several episodes of Comedy Central Presents.

On December 29, 2009, Benson had a documentary special called The High Road with Doug Benson air on the G4 network. The special followed Benson and comedian Graham Elwood on one of their stand-up comedy tours.

"Red Eye" incident

On March 17, 2009, the host of the Fox News comedy program Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld joked, among other things, that the United States should invade Canada. Benson, who was appearing on the show, also made jokes about Canada's military. These comments were made during Canada's deadliest month in Afghanistan since operations there began in 2002. The Canadian government demanded an apology from Fox News as well as the panelists for "despicable, hurtful and ignorant comments."

Benson was scheduled to appear in Canada at Edmonton's The Comic Strip April 3 through April 5, 2009, but the shows were canceled after the owner received threats of "bodily injury" toward the American comic. "Some were saying he wouldn't make it from the airport to the club. For everyone's safety, we decided it was best to avoid the scenario altogether," manager Rick Bronson said. On March 24, Benson apologized for the remarks on CTV News Channel's Power Play with Tom Clark.

Discography

Compilation

• Comedy Death-Ray (2008)

Albums

• Professional Humoredian (2008) AST Records
• Unbalanced Load (2009) Comedy Central Records
• Hypocritical Oaf (2010) Comedy Central Records
• Potty Mouth (2011) Comedy Central Records
• Smug Life (2012) Comedy Central Records
• Gateway Doug (2013) AST Records
• Gateway Doug 2: Forced Fun (2014) AST Records
• Promotional Tool (2015) AST Records

Filmography

• Captain EO (1986)
• Return of the Living Dead Part II (1988)
• Friends (1998)
• Curb Your Enthusiasm (2001)
• Run Ronnie Run (2002)
• Yacht Rock (2005)
• Heckler (2007)
• Super High Me (2007)
• Last Comic Standing (2007)
• How I Met Your Mother (2008)
• The High Road with Doug Benson (2009)
• The Benson Interruption (2010)
• The Greatest Movie Ever Rolled (2012)
• The Jeselnik Offensive (2013)
• @midnight (2013-)
• Doug Dynasty (2014)
• ChronicCon Episode 420 A New Dope (2015)
• "Trailer Park Boys 3 Episode" (2016)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]