Jonathan Ames is the author of the novels I Pass Like Night, The Extra Man, and Wake Up, Sir!, and the essay collections What's Not to Love?, My Less Than Secret Life, and I Love Your More Than You Know. He is the editor of Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs. His next book, a graphic novel, The Alcoholic, with artwork by Dean Haspiel, will be published in 2008 by DC Comics.

He is the winner of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a former columnist for New York Press.

Wake Up, Sir! and The Extra Man are in development as films, with Mr. Ames writing the screenplays. He adapted What's Not to Love? as a TV pilot for the Showtime network and he played himself. At the time, he said, "It's the role I've been waiting for!" Unfortunately, the pilot did not go to series -- Mr. Ames did not portray himself with enough accuracy according to the network. Mr. Ames performs frequently as a storyteller (often with The Moth) and has been a recurring guest on the Late Show with David Letterman.

He has had two amateur boxing matches, fighting as "The Herring Wonder," and he had a one-man show off-off-Broadway, entitled "Oedipussy." Mr. Ames had the lead role in the IFC film "The Girl Under the Waves" and was a porn-extra in the porn film "C-Men." The picture in the center of this website shows Mr. Ames with hair. This is no longer the case, but his face is more or less the same.