Josh Ostrovsty

Josh Ostrovsky, who went by the moniker "The Fat Jew," was a social media sensation who parlayed his widely-popular Instagram feed into a successful career as an entertainer. Born on Manhattan's Upper West Side, Ostrovsky never intended on a career in show business. In fact, when he entered college, first Skidmore and later State University of New York at Albany, Ostrovsky majored in journalism. He quickly realized, however, that he had more of a knack for making people laugh than writing about the news. During college he became a member of the rap group Team Facelift, which as a budding performer, gave Ostrovsky his first opportunity to perform in front of an audience. Team Facelift started to develop a local following, but Ostrovsky saw himself turning away from music and doing more comedy. He was then hired by the E! Channel where he interviewed celebrities and hosted a short-lived web series called "An Intimate Conversation." His work with E! allowed Ostrovsky to be funny professionally, but he still longed to do comedy work on his terms. With that in mind, he joined Instagram in the early 2010s and started posting outrageously hilarious photos of himself on the site. His pictures were outrageous, but also very funny, and before long the public took notice. By 2015 Ostrovsky had amassed millions of followers on his Instagram account, and landed a deal to write a TV pilot. He also released a book called Money, Pizza, Respect, which became popular with Ostrovsky's fans. In 2015 Ostrovsky hit a bit of a setback, however, when it was revealed that he had lifted jokes from various comedians for his use in his act. Despite denying the allegations, Ostrovsky's pilot deal with Comedy Central was abruptly cancelled. Undeterred, Ostrovsky continued to thrive on Instagram, with companies paying him thousands to endorse their products on his page, thus making him one of the most successful comedy personalities on the web.