From the Glitter to the Gold 

       After leaving Hollywood behind, Ari and Nes Blau want you to know exactly what you’re not missing

Six years ago, Ari and Nes Blau were on a successful Hollywood trajectory – he as a late-night comedy writer and she as an up-and-coming actress. Today, raising a Torah family in Jerusalem, they have straight-talk answers to a questioning generation whose senses are flooded with messages from an industry with a subtle yet overarching agenda

There’s a lot to like about Ari and Nes Blau.

They both have a sort of quiet conviction and confidence that you don’t find too often these days, which is even more impressive considering they’re both quite comfortable with being in the public eye. There’s no bluster, no showmanship, just a real clarity about the lives they’ve chosen to lead.
As Mishpacha detailed in “Their Big Break” (Barbara Bensoussan, Issue 753), when they first met, the Blaus were a Hollywood couple. Nes was an actress, featured in TV shows and movies, and Ari was a writer/producer on CBS’s The Late Late Show with James Corden. But in 2017, they left their names in lights behind for the world of Torah.

They never looked back.

After they left Hollywood, the Blaus moved to Israel. Ari learned for two years at Machon Shlomo in Har Nof, after which he started learning in Rav Yosef Elefant’s shiur in the Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He recently started teaching Gemara at Aish HaTorah in the Old City.

A couple of years later, the Blaus started sharing their story. People reached out with their own struggles, asking about meaningful connection to frumkeit in a world bombarded with media. One particular letter they received was from a young Bais Yaakov girl who had been going through a difficult time. She got her hands on a laptop and started obsessing over inappropriate movies and TV shows.