Jeff Ross
Jeffrey Ross Lifschultz (born September 13, 1965)[2] is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is best known as the "Roastmaster General" for his insult comedy, his multiple appearances at celebrity roasts held by the New York Friars Club, the Comedy Central Roast television series, and the Netflix historical comedy series Historical Roasts.[3][4][5][6] In 2009 the Chicago Tribune called Ross "the new millennium Don Rickles."[7] His directorial debut, the 2006 documentary Patriot Act: A Jeffrey Ross Home Movie, won the prize for Best Film at the Comedia film festival held at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal.[8][9]
"Jeffrey Ross" redirects here. For other uses, see Jeffrey Ross (disambiguation).Jeff Ross
Roastmaster General
Jeffrey Ross Lifschultz[1]
September 13, 1965
Stand-up, television, film
1989–present
Jewish culture, popular culture, self-deprecation, sex, current events, religion
Early life[edit]
Ross was raised in Newark, New Jersey, until he was in second grade; then his family moved to Union, New Jersey, and later to Springfield, New Jersey, where he attended Jonathan Dayton High School.[10][11] He is Jewish and has a younger sister named Robyn.[2][12][13] His mother Marsha died from leukemia when he was 14 years old.[10][13][14] His father died of drug-related causes when Ross was 19 years old and attending college.[10][14] His father owned and ran Clinton Manor Catering, a business that was started by Ross's great-grandmother.[15] The business was located in Newark, and later moved to Union.[15]
Ross attended Boston University as a broadcasting and film major with a minor in political science.[16][17] He graduated from the Boston University College of Communication in 1987.[17] Ross also worked as the music director at the university's student-run radio station WTBU in addition to working for the university's public radio station WBUR where he was an audio engineer.[17]
Ross credits his tough upbringing in New Jersey for helping him develop his talent for insult comedy, which he says he developed as a defense mechanism.[18][19] Ross stated in an interview with The Atlanta Constitution: "Everyone in my family was good at [roasting]. I had to quickly learn not just to take a joke but to give it back. My uncle Murray was the first to bust my chops. We called him Mean Murray."[19]
Career[edit]
Stand-up, writing and roast comedy[edit]
Ross began performing stand-up in 1989 after attending a comedy class.[20] He appeared on A&E's An Evening at the Improv in 1994.[1] By 1995 he was performing at iconic New York clubs like the Comedy Cellar and Stand Up NY.[21] That same year he was invited by the New York Friars Club to participate in a roast of actor Steven Seagal.[16][18]
Ross became a regular at the Friars Club roasts and was given the title of "Roastmaster General".[22][23] The Friars Club's first televised event was the roast of Drew Carey that was broadcast on Comedy Central in 1998.[13][24] Ross credits a particular joke that he made at the expense of attendees Bea Arthur and Sandra Bernhard at the 1999 roast of Jerry Stiller for taking his roasting career to the next level.[25] That same year Jimmy Kimmel hired Ross as a writer on The Man Show and Ross also wrote some of the punchlines for Billy Crystal's monologue at the Oscars in 2000.[13]
In 2003 Comedy Central began producing their own celebrity roasts.[24] Ross has been a roaster at all Comedy Central roasts since the 2005 roast of Pamela Anderson.[3][16] During his Comedy Central Roast appearances Ross became known for dressing-up in edgy and sometimes controversial costumes: He roasted Charlie Sheen dressed as Muammar Gaddafi; he roasted Rob Lowe dressed as Purple Rain-era Prince on an episode that aired five months after the musician's death; he roasted Roseanne Barr dressed as the late football coach Joe Paterno during the height of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal; he also roasted James Franco wearing cornrows and a neck tattoo in reference to Franco's character in the 2012 film Spring Breakers.[13][26]
Ross has participated as a roaster on the following Comedy Central Roasts:
Sexual misconduct allegation[edit]
In June 2020, an allegation that Ross had engaged in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old when he was 34 was published in the media; his accuser, Jessica Radtke, had also posted these allegations on her Facebook page in 2019.[47][48] Ross denied the allegations.[49][50]
In November 2020, Ross filed a defamation suit in the New York State Supreme Court, in which multiple named witnesses (including Radtke's father) refuted her allegations; Radtke was accused of extorting Ross for "significant sums of money".[51] He dropped the case in March 2023.[52]
