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Anthony J. Barbieri (born August 26, 1963, in Framingham, Massachusetts) is an Italian-American comedic writer and performer. He is most famous for his appearances as the Jimmy Kimmel Live! character "Jake Byrd." He is also known for playing the character of "Walter 'Mole' Molinski" for the "Perry Project", a long term prank by Barbieri and fellow comedian Don Barris on Perry Caravello which has included the Big Three Podcast as well as the feature film Windy City Heat.

Career

Barbieri was the writer of the monthly satirical Monroe comic strip for Mad Magazine from 1997 to 2010.

In 1999 he got his first writer's credit for television while working on The Man Show. Barbieri went on to write for the sitcoms That's My Bush! and That '80s Show

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Barbieri began writing for Jimmy Kimmel Live! in 2003, and in 2004 started appearing on the show as the character Jake Byrd. Byrd is portrayed as a good-natured man obsessed with celebrities, and his bits involve him satirizing excessive media attention to celebrity spectacles such as the Michael Jackson trial or the arrest of Paris Hilton. Byrd usually interacts with the fans while they are being interviewed by the media or inserts himself into press conferences. He has successfully fooled major media outlets into thinking he is a real person, including The New York Times, who quoted him in a May 1, 2004 article about the Michael Jackson trial, before running a redact five days later noting that he was a character. Despite this, the Times wrote again about him, as if he were a real person, during the 2007 O. J. Simpson robbery case.

In 2008 Barbieri won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics for the Jimmy Kimmel Live! song "I'm F**king Matt Damon". He was nominated for another Emmy in 2013 as part of Kimmel's writing staff for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series.

Filmography

The following list includes shows or films in which he has a small, but credited, role as a writer or actor.

• Rick and Morty (2015) – (TV program) – (Voice Actor)
• Windy City Heat (2003) – (TV movie) – (Writer/Actor)
• Jimmy Kimmel Live! (2003–) (Talk show on ABC) – (Writer/Actor) – His own pieces, including his well-known character Jake Byrd.
• That '80s Show (2002) (TV program) – (Writer)
• Crank Yankers (2002–present) (TV program) (Writer/Voice Actor)
• That's My Bush! (2001) (TV program) – (Writer/Actor) – A political comedy spoofing George W. Bush (Appeared in one episode).
• The Man Show (1999–2004) (TV program) – (Writer)
• Delta Force: Land Warrior (2000) (Video game) (Voice Actor)
• Pledge Night (1988) (movie) – Horror film.

References

1. "Tony Barbieri".
2. "Tony Barbieri".
3. "Jackson, on Time to Hearing, Pleads Not Guilty". The New York Times. May 1, 2004.
4. Friess, Steve (September 20, 2007). "O.J. Simpson Released on Bail". New York Times. Retrieved February 23, 2020.
5. "Tony Barbieri".

External links

• Tony Barbieri at IMDb
• Paris Hilton News conference, with Jake Byrd reference
• Picture of Jake Byrd appearing in Santa Barbara News-Press
• Santa Barbara News-Press story on the Jake Byrd hoax
• Radar Magazine quoting Jake Byrd
• New York Times Article mentioning Jake Byrd along with a correction regarding his actual identity
• Complete list of Barbieri's articles for MAD Magazine

• 1963 births
• Living people
• American male screenwriters
• American television writers
• American comics writers
• American satirists
• People from Framingham, Massachusetts
• American male television writers
• Mad (magazine) people
• Screenwriters from Massachusetts
• American people of Italian descent