Ethan Klein

Ethan Klein
Ethan Klein in April 2023
Aliases	h3h3productions
Occupation	Host of H3 Podcast
Biographical information
Marital status	Hila Klein (m. 2012)
Date of birth	June 25, 1985 (age 38)
Place of birth	Ventura, California, U.S.
Physical description
Height	5'11"
Weight	Less than 200 lbs.
Eye color	Dark brown (not hazel)

Ethan Edward Klein (born June 25, 1985) is the host of the H3 Podcast. He first found fame with the YouTube channel h3h3Productions, created and hosted by him and his wife, Hila Klein, whom he also hosts the After Dark show with. Klein joined YouTube in 2011, and started the H3 Podcast in 2017.

Personal Life

Ethan Edward Klein was born in Ventura, California in 1985 to Donna and Gary Klein. He has two older siblings, Sean and Jessica. He attended Buena High School. He has a bachelor's degree in English literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

On Frenemies #12, Ethan discusses how he and his family moved to Ajijic, Mexico, where they lived for 5 years. While they lived there, his mother Donna owned a hairdressing salon. According to Ethan, gang warfare involving "grenades and automatic rifles", broke out between different drug cartels. It was reported by Reuters in 2012 that this gang warfare was between the Sinaloa and Los Zetas drug cartels. After the outbreak in violence, the Kleins moved back to the United States.

He met his wife, Hila, at the Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem in Israel in 2007 when he was on his Birthright Israel trip, and Hila was serving in the Israel Defense Forces. They married in 2012. During the early years of their YouTube careers, they lived together in Florentin, Tel Aviv, Israel, before moving to New York, and eventually settling in California.

The Kleins have two sons, Theodore (born 2019) and Bruce (born 2022), with a third son (tentatively named Scotty) on the way. They also have one pet dog, Alfredo. They previously owned a pet dog named Shredder, who passed away on August 30, 2023. They currently live in Bel Air, California.

Klein is brother-in-law to Trisha Paytas and Moses Hacmon, who met each other on the BacH3lor segment of his podcast. Klein also hosted Frenemies with Paytas from 2020-2021.

Klein has described himself as non-practicing secular Jewish. He holds dual-citizenship in both the United States, as well as Israel. A DNA test showed that he is 99.7% Ashkenazi Jewish. Klein has Tourette's syndrome, and has minor tics which are at times visible on camera.

Career

Ethan Klein and his wife Hila Klein joined YouTube in 2011, under the channel name h3h3productions. The name comes from the two 'H' letters of Hila Hacmon (her maiden name), as well as '3' being a backwards 'E' to represent the two initials from Ethan Edward (his middle name).

The first episode of the H3 Podcast was uploaded to the H3 Podcast YouTube channel on April 7, 2017. It featured Justin Roiland. The channel has since launched several shows on the podcast, including After Dark, H3TV, and Off The Rails.

The H3 Podcast also spawned two spin-off podcasts. Frenemies (2020-2021) co-hosted with Trisha Paytas, as well as Leftovers (2021-2023) co-hosted with Hasan Piker.

Controversies

NRA Convention Joke

In May 2022, the H3 Podcast channel was suspended when Ethan joked on air that someone should bomb the conservative NRA convention to put their lives in danger in "the same way they endanger the lives of school children".

Ben Shapiro Joke

In October 2022, the H3 Podcast channel received a strike and one week suspension following comments directed at Jewish conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro, in which Ethan stated he hoped "Ben gets gassed first." in the event of a second Holocaust. In a statement, a YouTube spokesperson said that the channel was given a strike for "violating the platform's harassment policy". Ethan responded later that "[a] few white supremacists successfully lobbied YouTube to suspend me, a Jewish dual citizen of Israel & USA, for antisemitism."

Apology to QTCinderella

See full article: Chestnuts Incident

In January 2023, Klein and many members of the podcast received backlash in the aftermath of an interview with Rebecca Black. After the interview had concluded and Black had left, Klein continued the podcast, talking about drama involving Twitch streamer QTCinderella. Klein watched a video clip in which a teary-eyed QTCinderella responds to a website selling inappropriate deepfakes of herself and other female broadcasters. While the video is playing, podcast crew member Zach (under instruction from Klein) played a slowed-down version of Nat King Cole’s ‘Christmas Song,' performed by Anuc Attitawan over the video, causing Klein and several crew members to burst into laughter.

Klein immediately received critical responses from his own crew, including Sam who was visibly upset during the laughter. After a moment passed, he apologized for laughing and claimed that he supported QT amid the ongoing situation. Nevertheless, the clip went viral on social media, prompting Klein to issue a full apology to QTCinderella, and Ludwig (her partner and fellow Twitch streamer), both in Twitter DMs and publicly.

Following the incident with QTCinderella, the podcast crew purchased a button which allows Klein, or producer Dan, to have the livestream on a 30-second delay, allowing them to erase the last 30 seconds of footage from the livestream before it airs. This goal of having this button is to prevent future YouTube content strikes, or backlash, and has been effective thus far.

Lawsuits

• Matt Hosseinzadeh v. Ethan Klein and Hila Klein
• Triller Fight Club II LLC v. The H3 Podcast

Trivia

• Ethan's biological paternal grandfather was American film/television producer, writer, and director Leonard Katzman, most notable for being the showrunner of the CBS soap opera Dallas.