About kennyhotz
Kenneth Joel “Kenny” Hotz (born May 3, 1967) is an international award winning Canadian producer and comedian. He is a former South Park writer, creator/star of the Comedy Central television show Kenny vs. Spenny creator and writer of the FX series Testees and the creator/star of Kenny Hotz’s Triumph of the Will. He is the only Canadian entertainer who has the achievement of creating two television series that have premiered on separate American networks at the same time (FX and Comedy Central). He also has the largest online fan base for a Canadian TV celebrity. He is the co-owner of The Hoxton, a concert venue and the co-owner of the Dog & Bear restaurant in Toronto, Ontario. He is Chair of the Comedy Advisory Board for Banff World Media Festival and an executive consultant at the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal.
Hotz was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1967. At the age of 7 years old, Kenny was sent to a film camp where he made his first animated short film, the film was screened for Henry Winkler on his visit to the city in 1974. Hotz attended high school at Forest Hill Collegiate Institute. Throughout his youth Hotz continued making short films and worked in candid and fashion photography, he had been working on various photo essays as a photographer since the age of 13, photographing numerous countries and historic world events. The subjects of his photo essays include Gulf War 1991, Auschwitz, Dachau, Needle Park (Zurich, Switzerland), David Koresh’s Mount Carmel in Waco, and New Years’ in Times Square 2000. In 1999 he came up with the idea to develop a television show in which he and a friend competed in a series of challenges to prove who was the best, which eventually evolved into Kenny vs. Spenny. He graduated from Ryerson University’s media arts program.
At the age of 21, Hotz was the only registered Canadian freelance artist to document the Gulf War in 1991. After returning to Canada Hotz sold his series “life Behind the mask” to various Canadian Museums and Universities, allowing him to fund future projects. In 1994 Hotz completed the award winning comedic short documentary film about the life and death of a foul-mouthed homeless dwarf in Toronto It Don’t Cost Nothin’ to Say Good Morning with his high school friend Spencer Rice. In 1996, he created and starred (with Rice) in the internationally acclaimed 35mm documentary film Pitch that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 1997. The film had numerous cameos’ including Al Pacino, Samuel Z. Arkoff and Neil Simon. Hotz then moved to Los Angeles with help from Will Smith and his company Overbrook Entertainment to develop television programming. Eventually, Hotz created the concept for Kenny vs. Spenny and began to pitch it to American networks and studios. MTV originally picked up the concept but they passed on the series but USA network did the original pilot “Who can gain the most weight?” which was leaked to ifilm.com and went viral. Kenny commented “It is the original Super Size Me because all I ate was McDonalds for an entire week and filmed it”.
Kenny vs. Spenny was the largest comedy 1st season series order by CBC Television. It went on to be nominated for a 8 Gemini awards and a Rose D’or for best international series. Hotz was a guest with Rice on Jimmy Kimmel, Tom Green’s House Tonight, Carson Daly and Late Night with Conan O’Brien in New York. Hotz notes “Conan asked me to sit next to him”. In 2004, he finished his second feature film titled The Papal Chase, a documentary about Hotz trying to meet the Pope John Paul II. The film is directed by and stars Hotz, and features cameos by The Rolling Stones and Pope Pope John Paul II. Hotz was given a $10,000 prize by a jury when the film won the inaugural Phillip Borsos award for Best Canadian Feature Film in 2004, at the awards Hotz commented, “Now I can make 10 more films”. He also created the concept for the online game “Versusville” for the Kenny vs. Spenny series and was nominated for the Canadian New Media Awards for “Excellence in Gaming”. “Kenny vs. Spenny” is the largest international selling comedy format in Canadian history.
Hotz worked as a consultant on South Park, providing material for “Follow That Egg!” and “Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow”. He also worked as a writer for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1987.
In 2008, He developed a sitcom called Testees for the Fox-owned FX that year, producing 13 shows centering around two roommates who work as guinea pigs for a mediocre product testing facility. The show lasted 13 episodes and started airing in October 2008 on FX and the Canadian-owned Showcase cable channel.
Kenny is Jewish, as evidenced in one episode of Kenny vs. Spenny (“Who Can Eat the Most Meat?”). As he blends up a “meat smoothie,” to which he adds pork, he notes that “my rabbi is going to kill me. He also pretends to sing in his local synagogue choir in “First to Stop Singing Loses” (against the rules of that particular competition) and he mentions it in the “Who Do Old People Like More” episode, where he believes it will help him win. He is fluent in Hebrew, as noted in “Who’s the Better Jew”. However, in an interview, Hotz stated that he is apathetic toward religion and considers himself an atheist.
Kenny was embroiled in a deliberate controversy with the British Columbia Human Rights Commission for his actions in the episode “Who Can Piss Off More People”, where he paid to have a plane fly over Toronto dragging a banner that reads “Jesus Sucks”. Though he claimed his friend Jesus was getting married and it was not directed towards a religion.
Hotz had a cameo in Kevin Smith’s 2008 film Zack and Miri Make A Porno, starring Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks. Kenny made a cameo appearance as a homeless man in the second episode of the Pure Pwnage television series, as well as a cameo in Degrassi Takes Manhattan in 2010. Kenny, in collaboration with Spencer Rice, completed the final episode of Kenny vs. Spenny (“The Kenny vs. Spenny Christmas Special”). He has currently completed his new series Kenny Hotz’s Triumph of the Will, which premiered on July 22, 2011. The series has garnered numerous accolades and the Canadian Comedy Awards recently nominated him the 2012 “comedian of the year”. Hotz is currently working on an a viral ad agency. Hotz recently sold a T-shirt worn in Kenny vs. Spenny for a record $10,200 (U.S.) it was the highest selling article of clothing in north American history as well as the highest selling t-shirt internationally on ebay.com.
Filmography
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1988)[6]
It Don’t Cost Nothin’ to Say Good Morning (1994)
Pitch (1997)
Kenny vs. Spenny (2003–2010)
The Papal Chase (2004)
Elton vs. Simon (2005)
Testees (2008)
Zack and Miri Make A Porno (2008) as Zack #2
South Park – Season 9 (2009)
Pure Pwnage (Cameo as a homeless man) (2010)
Degrassi Takes Manhattan (Cameo as the record peddler) (2010)
Kenny vs. Spenny Christmas Special (2010)
Kenny Hotz’s Triumph of the Will (2011–present)
Awards and nominations
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (1996) – Best Canadian documentary for It Don’t Cost Nothin’ to Say Good Morning
Whistler Film Festival (2004) – Phillip Borsos Award For the Papal Chase (Inaugural Winner)
Gemini Awards (2004) – Gemini for Best Comedy Program or Series for: Kenny vs. Spenny
Brooklyn international film festival (2005) – Audience award (best documentary) for The Papal Chase
Canadian Filmmakers’ Festival (2005) – Audience award (documentary) for The Papal Chase
Vice Magazine (2006) – First Annual Story Awards (Winner)
Gemini Awards (2006) – Gemini for Best Comedy Program or Series for: Kenny vs. Spenny (Nomination)
Gemini Awards (2008) – Gemini for Best Comedy Program or Series for: Kenny vs. Spenny (Nomination)
Gemini Awards (2009) – Gemini for Best Comedy Program or Series for: Testees (Nomination)
Gemini Awards (2009) – Gemini for Best Comedy Writing in a program or Series for: Testees (Nomination)
Gemini Awards (2010) – Gemini for Best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Program or Series for: Kenny vs. Spenny (Nomination)
Canadian Comedy Awards (2010) – Best Director in a Comedy Program or Series (Winner)[7]
The Rockies (2012) – Best International Comedy Series (Nomination)[8]
Canadian Comedy Awards (2012) – Best Director in a Comedy Program or Series (Nomination)
Canadian Comedy Awards (2012) – Comedy Person of the Year (Nomination)
News and Press Releases
January 12.2012 - The WA Magazine
November 11.2011 - Split Sider
July 29.2011 - Fan Quarterly
July 21.2011 – National Post
June 01.2011 – National Post
January 20.2011- The Hollywood Reporter
December 10.2009 – MacLeans Magazine
October 09.2009 – The Washington Post
October 09.2008 – LA Times
October 06.2008 – News Day
October 02.2008 – Toronto Life Magazine
Aug 02.2008 – Canada.com
July 07.2008 – The Toronto Star
September 27.2007 – Reuters
September 27.2007 – USA Today
March 01.2006 – Canada.com
January 14.2006 – Reality TV Magazine
January 12.2006 – Vice Magazine
November 22.2005 – TV Show on DVD
August 25.2005 – Show Case Canada
July.28.2005 - Orlando Weekly
June 23.2004 – the Stranger
Kenny Hotz 
Congrats man. Im sure it\’ll blowup in the states if its on comedy central.
Congrats guys! And much thanks to Matt and Trey! I\’ve been watching Southpark since Season 1.
You guys are going to have to make this the best season ever. The only problem is I don\’t think you can use the f word on Comedy Central.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=CoolMAXuk
aw hell to the mother fucking yeah, im excited to finally be able to watch you guys on my tv every week, and you guys are on comedy central, shit thats tits, matt and trey are the shit
Hi Kenny all ready for season 4.So KVS is going to be on a good TV channel in the US. Now all we have to do is get it on a good TV channel in the UK. Not that crap FX channel. Please Kenny get KVS on a good UK TV channel. Please. I will let you win the first comp.
WOW… SEASON 4!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG I\’m pumped you have no idea and I see that your going on in the US. I really don\’t care though since I\’m a Canadian like you. We get lot\’s of KvS here which is awsome. I just hope for all those Americans that you guys air at night after South Park because that\’s when there is usually no bleeps. Also I just got season 1 on DVD even thugh I had already seen it a million times…. that\’s how much I like you guys but when I was wathing those clips from different versions around the world I saw that there was Who Can Get The Sickest. That would funny and I would like to see it but knowing you Kenny I think you would go crazy on yourself but you know just a little idea. Anyway keep it up both of you and Season 4 IS COMING!!!!! HELLS YA!!!
Congratulations man, that\’s such good news! It was only a matter of time before the show got picked up. People are gonna love it. Keep up the good work.
HI Kenny,
That\’s wonderful and fantastic that \’Kenny VS. Spenny 4\’ is going to be shown in the U.S.
(Comedy Central) this fall, I can\’t get the cable channel, but I\’ll talk to my mom and my
brother about it, see if they can subscribe to it. Thx to Matt and Trey for making that deal,
I love them too! Are you going to be taping in the fall? I\’m hoping to be able to go up there
to Toronto and meet you , that\’ll be alot of fun, and maybe be on one of the episodes!!
Cynthia D.
catsmeow040161@netzero.net
Just keep doing what you guys do!
Congratulations!! Hope you\’ll make enough money so you can visit us here in Sweden and sign dvd\’s or something..!
you rock
Finally now that the greatest show ever made has more coverage in USA, Australia might finally be able to get some KVS Boxsets over here!
Are you guys still gonna be on Showcase in Canada??
I hope so!!
Keep it coming guys!
Oh shit, does this mean you can\’t cuss as much anymore? I\’ll be royally pissed. Also, are you still airing on Showcase, cause we can\’t watch Comedy Central in Canada. That would be a huge kick in the nuts; you guys are filming in Toronto and the US gets to see it first.
Great stuff.
I\’m an Australian fan here, so it\’ll take quite a while for the season to show down here (there seems to be a huge US-to-Aus lag in the way of TV shows), but I know it\’ll be worth it.
Great stuff.
I\’m an Australian fan here, so it\’ll take quite a while for the season to show down here (there seems to be a huge US-to-Aus lag in the way of TV shows), but I know it\’ll be worth it.
Kenny you are going to be so popular in the states. But Spenny is going to be universally hated. If it wasn\’t for you I wouldn\’t even be able to watch the show. Spenny is so awful and boring. All he does is complain and he is clearly mentally unstable.
Thanks guys, i dont normally comment on my own space but add kenny on msn basf_40@hotmail.com and just spam his life =) we got new ideas ur all goin 2 luv for the show WOOT WOOOTT
i\’ll spread the word. i\’ve got all my friends loving the show. unfortunately i only have 1 friend so not much help to your ratings.
hi im from the uk and ive been watching kenny vs spenny season 1 and 2 but havent seen much of 3. watch it all the time converted a couple of mate to it as well but its a shame that its on such a non watched channel over here because i bet there would probabily be millions watching it lol luke