On this date in 1979, satirist and writer Arjen Henrik Lubach was born in Groningen, the Netherlands, to parents who were both lawyers. His father was a professor at the University of Gronigen in the nation’s sixth-largest city, with about 250,000 residents.
The family regularly attended Protestant church services, and Lubach and his two brothers enrolled at School met de Bijbel (School with the Bible). Their mother died of breast cancer when he was 12. Her death contributed to his burgeoning doubts about religion that led eventually to his atheism, Lubach later wrote.
He interspersed his university studies with jobs driving taxi and working as a harbormaster before teaming up professionally with songwriter Janine Abbring. He did stand-up comedy work, performed as part of a theater fellowship and presented a daily program at OOG Radio for two years as a volunteer. He wrote novels, magazine columns and scenarios for film and theater.
Between 2014-21 he hosted the weekly news satire TV show “Zondag met Lubach” (Sunday with Lubach) on the public broadcasting channel NPO 3. Following that in 2022-24, he hosted “De Avondshow met Arjen Lubach (The Evening Show with Arjen Lubach) on NPO 1. A new show called “LUBACH” on the nation’s top commercial network RTL Nederland started airing in the spring of 2025.
Also fluent in English and dubbed by some as the Dutch Jon Stewart, Lubach is extremely popular in the Netherlands, with his shows generating well over a million views online. After his scathing takedown of the Disney Network for firing late-hight ABC host Jimmy Kimmel in 2025, Lubach got a lot of publicity in the U.S. and worldwide for his segment reimagining Disney classics under the Trump regime.
“Hakuna Matata” from “The Lion King” became “Hakuna MAGA-ta.” In a clip parodying “Beauty and the Beast,” Maurice says “Oh Belle, you’re so hot. If you weren’t my daughter, I’d probably be dating you.” Aladdin and Princess Jasmine are yanked off their magic carpet ride and into an ICE van as “A Whole New World” plays. “OK, now I’m gonna grab you by the pussy,” Prince Eric tells “Little Mermaid” Ariel. The show’s YouTube racked up 300,000 views in its first 24 hours. (LateNighter, Sept. 20, 2025)
Sources as of 2026 list Lubach as unmarried but as having a long-term relationship with writer-producer Martine de Jong. She was also art director on “Zondag met Lubach.”
PHOTO: Lubach in 2016; photo by R. van Elst under CC 4.0.
