Ari Teman (May 10, 1982 -, in Brooklyn, NY) is an award-winning comedian, co-founder of NextGen:Charity and NextGen:Health conferences, founder of international volunteer organization JCorps, an author, designer, programmer, actor and TV personality. He has received numerous awards for his comedy, charity, and design work. He is the 2009 Jewish Community Hero of the Year, as named by the Jewish Federations of North America.
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Teman received a B.A. with Honors in Psychology and Studio Arts from Brandeis University in 2005.[1]
Teman is a regular at A-list clubs in New York City and has appeared in commercials on Vh1, and began appearing in January, 2011 as a regular panelist on MSNBC. He appeared on a BBC special, Planet Fry with comedian Stephen Fry. He is frequently hired to perform at charity events and colleges around North America. He is the winner of the TimeOut NY Joke of the Week and can be seen on commercials for Vh1 and Tic Tac.
On December 16, 2009, Teman was an official guest of The White House Hanukkah Party. There, he shared one of his Obama jokes with President Barack Obama, to which the president laughed, said "That's great!" and hugged him. [group1 1]
Teman is the co-founder, along with Jonah Halper, of the internationally renowned NextGen:Charity conference, which brings together leading thinkers to discuss innovation in the non-profit and philanthropy sectors. Speakers have included best-selling author and blogger Seth Godin, founder of Dress for Success and DoSomething.org CEO Nancy Lublin, Scott Belsky, Scott Case, Scott Harrison, Jonathan Greenblatt, and other notable leaders. Videos of the conference talks, which are under 20 minutes, are available free to the world.
Teman is the founder and volunteer Executive Director of JCorps International, an international volunteer network operating in the USA, Canada, and Israel. JCorps groups Jewish young adults ages 18–30 to volunteer for a few hours on a Sunday (Friday in Israel) or weeknight. JCorps feeds over 20,000 meals a year, visits hundreds of seniors in centers, children in hospitals, and beautifies acres of parks and beaches. For founding JCorps, Teman was named the Jewish Community Hero of the Year in 2009 and to the Jewish Week's "36 Under 36" in 2008. Teman runs JCorps as a volunteer.
Teman is the creator of GatherGrid, an event-time polling service called,"the most useful interface I've seen to-date" by,[group1 2] and recommended by Inc Magazine.
In November, 2010, Teman released the first edition of Effective Gratitude for Organizations and Individuals, a short book with direct advice on harnessing gratitude for use in corporate and personal productivity. The book builds upon Positive Psychology and Neuro-Linguistic Programming. The forward is written by Nancy Lublin, founder of Dress for Success and CEO of Do Something.