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 
As usual I\’m Looking forward to the new season.I\’m curious though why this season will only be 10 epsiodes.Aabid
Good luck man! I\’m thinking slipping viagra into Spenny\’s food might do the trick 😉
Much love,
Matt.
thanks for all the info
Nice, Keep it pimpin
Hey man as I said before in the last comment thing, right after South Pak is the place to be. Keep it real
The seasons are getting shorter and shorter. I would of loved more than just 10 episodes. Anyway it should still be great. Maybe if you do season 5 you can do more than just 10 because us kvs fans can\’t get enough.BEN
Kenny, you are so awesome. If you ever need a heart or kidney, I\’d be happy harvest it from a homeless guy for you.
October is so far away! Sounds like its going to be an awesome (albeit short) season!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! AWESOME! I CAN\’T WAIT!!
Finally, ive tape recorded all ur episodes to date. lol im just playing i bought both season 1 and season 2 dvds waiting for season 3, dvd still can\’t wait for season 4. 10 episodes is way to short in my opinion but looking forward to you decimating spenny again.
1 more thing i forgot to mention for that boner episode, try the old orange juice trick and just crush a shit load of viagra into his orange juice.
hey kenny awesome compotition but kinda short but it is better than nothing
P.S. hope u do who could smoke more pot LOL 🙂
Thank god you\’re still airing on Showcase buddy. And before US too. So that means I have no worries for censorship (I mean, f*** censorship.) Just a question that you won\’t answer: Do you know if they are gonna edit down the Comedy Central episodes? I hope not, but at least Showcase will be a total cussfest. With all this Comedy Central bullshit, I really thought you had sold out. I thought they were gonna fucking change the show and you wouldn\’t be aloud to do anything anymore, but as always you continue to impress (not to mention arouse) me.So, uh, thanks for not selling out, KvS is my favorite show, and good luck on the season.
That should make for an interesting first season 4 episode. I can already hear the opening conversation on the couch:
Kenny: "I feel that I\’m at a disadvantage in this competition. My penis is so large that I may lose because the judges think I have a boner even though I don\’t. Spenny has the opposite problem, he\’s so small that he may actually have a boner and the judges won\’t even notice."
Spenny: "That comment is beyond the pale of all decency."
hey buddy good luck on season four crush spenny\’s ass
The second the competition starts, stand up, pull down your pants, and Kenny my friend… ;)Spenny will lose.
Hi it’s me Spenny.Kenny if I find out after
the boner episode you slipped some viagra into my food I will freak out and I
wont let you anywhere near my mother again. I mean it! Why not compete fairly,
its because your afraid I’m going to win and your scared. You know I would
whoop your ass and the only way you can beat me is trough cheating.
KVS fans don’t think
Kenny’s cool and it’s good to cheat. Cheating is wrong and you’re a better
person if you stand up to what you believe in. I always try to be the best
Spenny I can and that’s trying to win without cheating. I’ve always said it’s a
story about Good Vs Evil and I’m proud to represent good. Don’t let Kenny make
you think he’s the best and he’s good because he’s evil, take when we were kids
and we had a competition who could stay in a sauna the longest. He took a piss
on the sauna rocks and it turned into the most horrific smell and it was
horrible. Kenny also thinks its his job in life to crush me, but without me
he’s nothing. He would be like a lost boy in a jungle and doesn’t know where to
go. I just want you the KVS fan to start to like me more than Kenny because
good should always win over evil and Kenny is mean, cruel, nasty, unkind,
smelly, dirty, spiteful, vindictive and malicious. Me Spenny tries to be good
and stands up to Kenny.
So like me.
Spenny
I think Spenny would be horrified to be aroused by a really taboo subject like bestiality or something – so don\’t just make him loose,
really crush him by challenging his sexuality and make him really question who he \’is\’
Then take a jizz on him….I can only imagine the humiliation for this one- in your face SPENNY.
JP
PS- in relation to previous post LAME, why bother?
Aww Spenny, you know we love you too.. a lot..
hey spenny we like u as much as we like kenny but kenny wouldnt be funny if there wasnt u there so congrat kenny on makin\’ ur ass famous
Hey, Spenny i used to respect u in this show until i saw the who can kiss more women episode, you are one big F@ck up! But if it wasn\’t for you being a retard and making the show more entertaining with you being so paranoid the show would be a disaster. P.S if Kenny uses the Viagra thats just going to make ths episode 1000X better. DO IT KENNY
I love you guys so much. Anyway, have you thought of shooting an eating competition?
how come you guys dont do more episodes like 15 or 20
I am soooo stoked for Season 4!
Kenny you are my idol! I love you sooo much. I can\’t wait to see what you pull on spenny.
have a good one
~stephy~
Kenny FTW! You rock dude, kick Spenny\’s bony ass! I like you to Spenny but you are pussy, you need more balls. Make Spenny cry like a little bitch..plz gl hf guys
YEH!!! Woot! Kenny vs Spenny is finally coming back to the U.S. now i dont have to bittorrent your shows anymore
Going on last 2 episodes of 2nd season, waiting to see 3rd and already filming 4?Im going to catch up.Oh and Spenny, be more smart in the competitions because Kenny is just doing it for fun XD
Hi Kenny. Is the new season (season 4) of kvs going to air in the UK?If so will it be shown on the FX channel?You can let me know through my YouTube channel here.http://uk.youtube.com/profile?user=CoolMAXukThank you.
whicked, i just found out the new season starts on octorber 16
Hey bro wehn does you next session start. you guys should make a who can ride a bull the longest or who is the better dragracer or who can take the biggest shit and make a session finally humiliation loser shaves there fucking head lol that be great