Ike Barinholtz on His Rise in Comedy and Success of ‘The Studio’ and ‘Running Point’ (Exclusive)

• Ike Barinholtz is is on a hot streak in his career right now, starring in The Studio, airing weekly on Apple TV+, and writing the Netflix hit, Running Point, out now
• The Chicago native and dad of three tells PEOPLE how his love for comedy was born from a three-week movie marathon that got him kicked out of college but ignited a passion for improv
• He says he’s “truly the luckiest person,” getting to write shows with his best friends while also flying under the radar like a “normal, dorky White guy”

Ike Barinholtz didn’t see this coming.

The 48-year-old writer, actor and comedian is celebrating two back-it-back hits: he’s a writer and executive producer of Running Point, the Netflix comedy starring Kate Hudson, which he created with Mindy Kaling and David Stassen. He’s also starring on Apple TV+’s celebrity cameo-filled series, The Studio, playing Seth Rogen‘s right-hand man.

Right now, he’s soaking it all in — and can’t quite believe his luck. “Oh God, no,” he tells PEOPLE when asked if he ever envisioned this as his career. “No, no, no. I definitely didn’t think that.”

Instead? “My dream probably would’ve been to play basketball, but I just wasn’t good enough. But I really did take a shine to politics,” he says.

If you asked his president-obsessed younger self, politics was the career Barinholtz thought he’d pursue as a kid. He says he found himself “very taken by the world” of local government thanks to his dad’s friend, a committeeman in Chicago.

“I loved two aspects of it,” he recalls of his visits to the precinct office. “One was that you would really see these people talking to their constituents, regular people in their neighborhood, and really honestly helping them. I’m sure I wasn’t privy or wasn’t aware that that was probably just cash bribes going on and all kinds of God-knows-what corruption — but it looked good.”

Then there was “the social aspect of it” that enticed him. “They genuinely cared about these people and had connections with these people.”

The glamor wore off when he started college at Boston University, where he originally was planning to major in political science. “But then I got to college and was like, ‘I just want to be an actor. Why the f— would I want to be a politician?'” he jokes.

He was raised by two theater majors — his mother’s focus was costume design while his dad, Alan Barinholtz, studied acting and later went on to star as the judge in the 2023 reality show, Jury Duty. Aside from “tiny parts” in school plays, Ike never really tapped into that side of himself until college.

“I remember there was a couple of weeks where I was like, ‘I’m not going to class and I’m just going to watch a bunch of movies in my dorm,'” he recalls. “And I watched movies all day, every day, for about two or three weeks. And I think I came out of that and I was like, ‘I really want to do this.'”

The weeks he spent holed up in his dorm also “coincided with me doing very badly at school and getting kicked out,” Ike says.

He went back home to Chicago and saw an improv show. “That’s when it clicked,” he says.

“I saw the Improv Olympics — I think 10th anniversary show at the Vic Theater — and I remember being so blown away,” he says. “I’d never seen improv before. I had seen really very little live comedy. And now, when you look back, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, that was Adam McKay. That was Amy Poehler.’ Tim Meadows in particular was so hysterically funny to me, that I was like, ‘I’m just going to sign up for improv classes.’ So I did that the next day and just really got into that, and that was my path.”

He spent the next several years working his way through the Chicago comedy scene — plus a two-year stint in Amsterdam — alongside Seth Meyers, Jason Sudeikis, Jordan Peele and Poehler.

He credits MadTV and Eastbound & Down as a few “made-it” moments early in his career, but landing The Mindy Project cemented his status — along with Kaling’s and Stassen’s — as a Hollywood comedy writer.

“I do think The Mindy Project is definitely my biggest job to date,” he says, both because of the many “lives” the show has had since its 2012 premiere, and also because it encompassed a lot of big life changes for Ike. “When I joined The Mindy Project, I had no children. And then when I left, I had two, on my way to three. So it was such a big part of my life and such a moment where, I think, I really, fully became the person I am.”

He’s quick to joke: “That’s why I have to Venmo Mindy $5 every day. Every day of the year, I Venmo Mindy $5, which is not a lot, but it adds up.”

He says getting to reunite with Kaling, 45, for Running Point eight years later was “a long time coming.”

“She’s probably the funniest person ever, because her mind is a nonstop take and joke machine, and it’s really wonderful,” he raves of his “dear friend” and collaborator.

He feels similarly about his other “dear friend” Rogen, who wrote the role of Sal Saperstein in The Studio specifically for Ike.

“It’s the best. I always think the laughs you have with people you’ve known longer are just much deeper and richer, just because, you’re not just laughing at what they’re doing now. You’re laughing at everything they’ve ever done in a way. So it is a true joy to be able to get to work with people you love. And I’m very lucky,” he says.

Ike is happy with the sweet spot he’s carved out for himself in L.A., but he also appreciates getting to fly under the radar because he looks “just like a normal, dorky White guy.”

“I have the perfect amount of recognition,” he says. “It’s like if you took a big pinch of The Mindy Project and a heaping of the Seth Rogen universe, and then you sprinkled in little fun things throughout the years, and it’s the nicest group of people. I’m truly the luckiest person. It’s not fair, and yet here we are.”

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New episodes of The Studio premiere Wednesdays on Apple TV+. Running Point is streaming now on Netflix.