Renny Grinshpan Is The Canuck Who Became Israel’s Social Media Star

How did your career evolve from that point?

I left Toronto when I was 18 years old, and I moved to New York to go to college. I did my second degree there, while I was doing my first year of long distance with my now-husband. I studied history and journalism – nothing in the realm of comedy. But I’d always grown up loving musical theatre and comedy and music. 

When I came here, I really wanted to do short, documentary-style stuff. But it’s so much work on the back of one person… I didn’t want to go into hard news. From that moment, I freelanced, doing anything and everything I could. I was modelling and acting. Then, I got to HaIsraeliot.

After an audition with them – my audition footage was used in the first few videos advertising HaIsraeliot –it did so well that they sat me down and said, ‘So, what do you want to talk about?’

I said, ‘Maybe I’ll write stuff about Israelis and Israeli culture. My dad is Israeli. I grew up making fun of him for his accent and all sorts of stuff.’

I did those first few videos about pot and weddings in Israel and the Hebrew dictionary – none of those were really intending to be funny. I really was just writing observations and insights. Turns out, that’s comedy. It’s just pulling on truths and insights.