Jón Gnarr

Jón was a well-known comedian and actor starting in the 1990s, including teaming with Sigurjón Kjartansson as the duo Tvíhöfði on radio and television.

[6] Jón was misdiagnosed with severe intellectual disability as a child and was treated between the ages of five and seven at the children's psychiatry ward at the State Hospital at Dalbraut, Reykjavík.

[9] During the 1980s, he and his future wife, Jóhanna "Jóga"[10] Jóhannsdóttir, became acquainted with the members of the Reykjavík-based alternative rock band the Sugarcubes, including Björk Guðmundsdóttir and Einar Örn Benediktsson.

His graduation work was his own performance of the ancient Icelandic poem Völuspá from the Poetic Edda[12] In 1994, Jón teamed up with Sigurjón Kjartansson to form the radio duo Tvíhöfði.

He worked as a creative writer and actor at the Icelandic advertising agency EnnEmm, producing several popular TV ads.

[citation needed] Jón ended up defeating the centre-right Independence Party-led municipal government of Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir, which came as "a shock" to Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir.

[16] His political platform included promises of "free towels in all swimming pools, a polar bear for the Reykjavík zoo, all kinds of things for weaklings, Disneyland in the Vatnsmýri area, a 'drug-free' Althing by 2020, sustainable transparency, tollbooths on the border with Seltjarnarnes, to do away with all debt, free access to Hljómskálagarðurinn (orchestral rotunda park).

[19] Ultimately, his Best Party entered into a coalition with the social-democratic Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin) as its junior partner to govern Reykjavík.

[20][21] As mayor, he appeared at the 2010 Gay Pride parade as a drag queen,[22][23] posted a video holiday greeting wearing a Darth Vader mask and a Santa Claus cap,[24] and suggested a merger with neighboring municipality Kópavogur.

[31] In January 2015 Jón joined the Center for Energy and Environmental Research in the Human Sciences (CENHS) at Rice University as their first writer in residence.

[32][33] After the incumbent President of Iceland, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, announced on 1 January 2016 that he would not run in the upcoming presidential election, it was speculated that Jón would put forward his candidacy.

Jón in drag at the head of the Gay pride march through downtown Reykjavík on 7 August 2010