Arjen Lubach

Early life and education

Arjen Henrik Lubach was born on 22 October 1979 in a hospital in Groningen in the Netherlands. He was raised in Lutjegast, where he lived until age 15.

Lubach's parents were both lawyers and his father was a professor at the University of Groningen. Lubach is a great-grandson of mayor Obbe Norbruis of Schoonebeek and Zuilen (1895–1970). He and his two brothers were raised outside of Lutjegast. Lubach felt like an outsider because his family did not speak the Gronings dialect. He describes his younger self as "complex" and a "kid who stayed indoors". Although he was bullied, he considers his youth to have been enjoyable. His family was religious: the children went to the Protestant primary school School met de Bijbel ("School with the Bible"), they prayed every day, read from the Bible (which was used to find a solution to pretty much any problem), and went to church every Sunday.

Lubach was 11 years old when his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died a year later. The loss of his mother, with whom he was very close, left a great impact on him, and increased his doubts about religion. After primary school, he went to the Maartenscollege in Haren. The choice was made in part because his father had promised to raise the children religiously on his mother's deathbed.

At the Maartenscollege, Lubach met his first great love, on whom many of the fictitious characters in his later work were based. Lubach went on to study Spanish at the University of Groningen. When he lost his religion, he concluded that life was pointless, which temporarily led him into an "existential crisis". Later he decided to fill this void by developing his own personal sense of meaning. Lubach then quit his studies and worked as a taxi driver in Groningen for several months, following that by working as a harbourmaster on Vlieland. He subsequently commenced studying philosophy. During the second year, when he also studied Swedish, he met Janine Abbring. With her he made a spontaneous trip to Denmark, where they wrote their first hit single.

Writing

In August 2006, Lubach's debut novel Mensen die ik ken die mijn moeder hebben gekend ("People I Know Who Knew My Mother") appeared, and in April 2008 his novel Bastaardsuiker ("Brown Sugar"), both at Meulenhoff publishing. In March 2011, Lubach's new novel Lubach Magnus was published by Podium, followed by the thriller IV in 2013, which was nominated for the Gouden Strop. Furthermore, he writes for the VPRO radio, columns for CJP magazine, opinion pieces for NRC Next and scenarios for film and theatre.

Lubach previously worked as a freelance textwriter for radio and television, including Vara Laat, Koppensnellers and De Wereld Draait Door.

Theatre

In 2001, Lubach became part of the theatre fellowship Op Sterk Water (with Roel van Velzen and others), with whom he performed at, amongst others, Lowlands, Hard Gelach, Laughing Matters and in theatres in the Netherlands and Belgium. In June 2014, he left Op Sterk Water to present a talkshow.

In the summers of 2009, 2011 and 2013, Lubach performed together with comedian Tim Kamps at the itinerant festival De Parade with the show Het Monica da Silva Trio. In theatre season 2011 and 2012 they played their show in theatres throughout the Netherlands and Belgium.

Radio

Lubach started his radio career at OOG Radio, the local broadcasting organisation of the city of Groningen. As a volunteer, he presented a daily programme for two years.

In 2003, Lubach got a late night programme as Arjen L at 3FM, at first for the NPS and later for the VARA, and he could be heard as the sidekick of Claudia de Breij and Giel Beelen.

In 2007, Lubach did a weekly contribution for the VPRO in the radio programme De Avonden on Radio 6.

Internet and television

Since 2005, Lubach – together with Edo Schoonbeek and Pieter Jouke – has maintained the comedy website Buro Renkema. Some of their items were shown at Pauw & Witteman, Koppensnellers and De Wereld Draait Door. In June 2007, ABN AMRO threatened to sue them, because they created a parody of ABN AMRO online banking. The bank eventually backed off when Buro Renkema refused to take the flash video down.

Early 2007, Lubach was part of the jury in the show Lama Gezocht. From late 2007 on, he presented De Nieuwste Show for BNN from Monday till Thursday together with Patrick Lodiers. Since September 2009, Lubach and Edo Schoonbeek co-produce the "Rap service" under the name "MC T-Lex" for the AVRO show Koefnoen. Arjen Lubach participated in the TV show Wie is de Mol? in 2010, dropping out in the seventh episode. In June 2010, he and five friends founded the website Recensiekoning ("Review King"), for which he writes regularly.

For the NTR and IJswater Films, Lubach wrote the scenarios De Goudfazant ("The Golden Pheasant") and Midzomernacht ("Midsummer Night"). The latter premiered at the Netherlands Film Festival in 2011, and was shown at other film festivals in Uruguay, Brive and Leeuwarden, and was broadcast on Nederland 2 on 2 December 2011. In 2012, Lubach wrote for Talent United Films the scenario for the television film Honderden Brommers ("Hundreds of Mopeds").

On 31 August 2012, he won the finale of the television show De Slimste Mens ("The Smartest Human") against Mark Huizinga and Jan Rot.

From the 13th season of Wie is de Mol?, Lubach presents the programme MolTalk on Radio 1 and on the second screen, where he looks forward to and back on every episode of that day.

In 2013, Lubach and linguist Paulien Cornelisse started a monthly language segment on De Wereld Draait Door.

On Sunday 9 November 2014, the first episode of Zondag met Lubach aired. It is a satirical talkshow, in which he takes a critical look at the last week's news. Because of 22 March 2015 episode in which he mocked the Dutch monarchy by proclaiming himself "Pharao of the Netherlands" and launched a citizens' initiative to confirm it, Lubach was awarded the title of Republican of the Year 2015 by the New Republican Society.

In early 2017, the Zondag met Lubach video "The Netherlands welcomes Trump in his own words" that ridiculed U.S. President Donald Trump while at the same time using self-mockery, went viral and was viewed more than 73 million times worldwide. It inspired the similar German late-night satirical talkshow Neo Magazin Royale of Jan Böhmermann to launch a Europe-wide video contest to let every country make its own parody video.

Music

In 2001, Lubach and Janine Abbring scored a number 3 hit under the pseudonym of Slimme Schemer ft. Tido. This song, Jelle, originated as a joke at the Noorderslag festival, and is a parody of American rapper Eminem and British singer Dido's song Stan. It is about a fan, Jelle, who disappointedly sings (in second person singular) about De Kast singer Syb van der Ploeg, blaming him for not replying to his messages.

In 2015, Lubach secretly released the song "Justified (Sunrise Funk)" under the pseudonym Hartebees, which became a hit. Radio host Domien Verschuuren discovered Lubach was the artist, because his name was listed as 'producer' on Deezer. In July 2016 it became known that Arjen Lubach is part of a danceduo called nl:The Galaxy. The Amsterdam based dj-duo released their Bass Country Club EP in 2015 with the Barong Family label, which was founded by Yellow Claw. The Galaxy released their second EP, Moon & The Stars EP in late 2016.

Views

Lubach described himself as "a republican to the core", and has spoken out against the Dutch monarchy. He considers belief in a God to be something remarkable, and has taken an assertive position against the excesses of religion. Looking back on his own time as a believer, Lubach called it "the biggest brainwash ever. Absolute nonsense". According to him, religion gave him great feelings of guilt about living in sin. He called it "outrageous" that he was taught to pray, but he does not fault his parents. He experienced relinquishing faith as "an enormous liberation" that gave him a greater sense of calm. He is now an atheist.

Awards and nominations