Past Guest Bios
Jodie Sweetin (PMC Podcast Ep 114 – click HERE):
Jodie Sweetin played precocious middle child Stephanie Tanner for eight seasons on the hit ABC family sitcom Full House. Her catch phrase, “How Rude!,” is still requested daily by fans.
She got her start in show business in an Oscar Mayer hot dog commercial when she was four years old, and soon got a guest starring role on The Hogan Family before she was cast on Full House. She hosted the short-lived FUSE show Pants-Off Dance-Off , and has appeared on the big screen in Small Bits of Happiness and Redefining Love.
Ian Brennan (PMC Podcast Ep 113 – click HERE):
Ian Brennan is a writer, narrator and co-creator of the hit FOX show Glee.
Glee marked Ian Brennan’s first foray into television writing. Brennan began his acting career in Chicago working with the prestigious Steppenwolf and Goodman Theatres.
He later moved to New York to pursue other opportunities in television and film, and has been involved with off-Broadway plays at the Vineyard, Playwrights Horizons and MCC Theatres. Brennan is a graduate of Loyola University Chicago. He was inspired to write Glee after participating in his high school’s show choir that never won anything and whose director later spent time in prison.
Brent Weinbach (PMC Podcast Ep 112 – click HERE):
Brent Weinbach is a stand-up comedian. He was a winner and recipient of the Andy Kaufman Award, which is given out once a year to recognize innovation in stand-up comedy. He has appeared on Conan, Lopez Tonight, Comedy Central, HBO, and toured with the Comedians of Comedy. He’s the co-host of The Legacy Music Hour podcast, which celebrates the best music from 8-bit and 16-bit era video games. Check him out on brentweinbach.com and his videos on youtube.com/brentweinbach.
Ari Shaffir (PMC Podcast Ep 111 – click HERE):
Standup comedian and actor Ari Shaffir describes his comedy as a puppet show, but way filthier and without the puppets. He hosts the hit podcast Ari Shaffir’s Skeptic Tank. He was a featured standup on the HBO comedy series Down and Dirty with Jim Norton and performed at this year’s Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal. Shaffir’s satirical shorts “The Amazing Racist” for National Lampoon went viral on the internet with millions of views. Additionally, he has appeared on TBS’s Minding the Store, ESPN Classic’s Cheap Seats, and dozens of national commercials.
Shaffir resides in Los Angeles where he is a regular at The Comedy Store, The Improv, and The Laugh Factory. He also headlines around the country and frequently tours with Joe Rogan.
Lamorne Morris (PMC Podcast Ep 110 – click HERE):
Lamorne Morris plays Winston Bishop on the hit FOX comedy New Girl. He hails from Chicago and attended the College of DuPage in Illinois, where he studied acting on a Chris Farley Memorial Scholarship. In 2003, he started performing at The Second City and Improv Olympic. In 2006, he moved to New York to work for BET and performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater and The Pit.
He moved to Los Angeles in 2008 to pursue film and television. His credits include The Assistants and The Middle, as well as numerous national commercials.
Carla Gallo (PMC Podcast Ep 109 – click HERE):
Carla Gallo starred as Lizzie in the Judd Apatow series Undeclared and as Libbie on HBO’s Carnivale. She played Daisy on Bones, Annie on Men of a Certain Age, and has also appeared on Burn Notice, Franklin & Bash, Workaholics, 2 Broke Girls, Key and Peele, Mad Men, Outsourced, House M.D., Crossing Jordan and Californication.
She got her start in David O. Russell’s indie comedy Spanking the Monkey, and has appeared in the films Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Superbad, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Funny People, The Slammin’ Salmon, The 24 Hour Woman and Cameron Crowe’s We Bought A Zoo. She starred as the blind girl Tamara P. on the hit Yahoo! Web series Burning Love.
David Wain (PMC Podcast Ep 108 – click HERE):
David Wain is the director and co-writer of the feature films Wet Hot American Summer, The Ten, Role Models and the upcoming Wanderlust, starring Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston.
On television, he co-created and co-starred in The State on MTV and Stella on Comedy Central. His current series Childrens Hospital, is now its 4th season on Adult Swim.
On the web, David’s (slightly) fictionalized romantic adventures are chronicled on the ongoing series Wainy Days. Wain is a native of Shaker Heights, Ohio, and currently lives in Manhattan with his wife, the actress Zandy Hartig, and their two sons.
More info at davidwain.com
Erinn Hayes (PMC Podcast Ep 107 – click HERE):
Comedic actress Erinn Hayes currently stars as Dr. Lola Spratt on the Adult Swim medical comedy Childrens Hospital. She played Melanie Clayton on the CBS series Worst Week; portrayed Alison McKeller on FOX’s The Winner; and played Becky Sharp on the short-lived Kitchen Confidential.
Other TV appearances include How to Be A Gentleman, Desperate Housewives, Two and a Half Men, Royal Pains, Hawthorne, Parenthood, Romantically Challenged, Grey’s Anatomy and Wainy Days. She’ll soon be seen in the film It’s A Disaster, also starring Julia Stiles, David Cross and America Ferrera.
Rachel Dratch (PMC Podcast Ep 106 – click HERE):
Rachel Dratch was a cast member on Saturday Night Live for 7 years. Before that she was on the Mainstage of Second City Chicago for four years, where she wrote and performed with Adam McKay, Scott Adsit, and Tina Fey. She appeared in a bunch of TV shows, including King of Queens where she had a recurring role as Patton Oswalt’s girlfriend. She’s been in a bunch of movies, most of which are with Adam Sandler. Rachel is really into name-dropping.
Her book, Girl Walks into a Bar was published by Gotham in March of this year. Thank you, and have a wonderful day.
Stephen Tobolowski (PMC Podcast Ep 105 – click HERE):
Stephen Tobolowsky, is one of the leading character actors in film today. USA Today listed Stephen as the 9th most frequently seen actor in movies. He has appeared over 200 movies and television shows. He is best known for playing Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day, Sammy Jankis in Memento, Werner Brandes in Sneakers, Happy Chapman in Garfield, and Mr. Bates in Freaky Friday. On television, he has played Tor Ekland on Seinfeld, Hugo Jarry on Deadwood, Bob Bishop on Heroes, and is currently seen as Sandy Ryerson on Glee and Stu Beggs on Californication.
He wrote and performed Stephen Tobolowsky’s Birthday Party that premiered at the HBO Comedy Festival in Aspen. He wrote True Stories with David Byrne and Beth Henley. He has written and performed his stories on the “The Tobolowsky Files” for Slashfilm.com and on iTunes. They are also broadcast weekly on KUOW in Seattle and on WFPL in Louisville.
PRI (Public Radio International) is now producing broadcasts of his stories to air on stations across the country. His first book of stories, The Dangerous Animals Club, has been published by Simon and Schuster in September 2012.
Fun Fact: He performed with Stevie Ray Vaughn when Stevie was 14 and cut the first songs Stevie every performed.
Dan Harmon (PMC Podcast Ep 101 – click HERE):
Dan Harmon served as creator/executive producer of the beloved NBC comedy series Community for seasons 1-3.
Harmon’s pursuit of minimal work for maximum reward took him from stand-up to improv to sketch comedy, then finally to Los Angeles, where he began writing feature screenplays with fellow Milwaukeean Rob Schrab. Their first deal was with Robert Zemeckis at Imagemovers, for whom they wrote Monster House. They then wrote the Ben Stiller directed pilot Heat Vision and Jack, starring Jack Black and Owen Wilson.
Disillusioned by the legitimate industry, Harmon and Schrab retreated underground, during which time Harmon attended classes at nearby Glendale Community College. It was also during this time that Harmon and Schrab founded Channel 101, an untelevised non-profit audience-controlled network for undiscovered filmmakers, many of whom used it to launch mainstream careers, including the boys behind SNL‘s Digital Shorts. Harmon and Schrab then partnered with Sarah Silverman to create her series for Comedy Central, The Sarah Silverman Program. Harmon served as head writer for multiple episodes.
Harmon then created, wrote and performed in a sketch series for VH1 called Acceptable TV, but the series was short-lived. Then, as part of a blind deal with Sony and inspired by his experience as a community college student, Harmon pitched Community to various network executives and NBC picked up the show immediately. Community marked Harmon’s first network series.
Harmon is working on the stop-motion animated film Anomalisa, scripted by Charlie Kaufman. The two raised the money to independently produce the film through Kickstarter. Harmon is returning to TV in 2013 with Adult Swim’s animated series Rick & Morty.
Harmon is a native of Milwaukee, Wisc. He’s 38; he has chronic heartburn and a cat with no teeth. Wish him luck on this new adventure in life.
Erin McGathy (PMC Podcast Ep 101 – click HERE):
Erin McGathy is a comedian, writer and mediocre painter who has been performing at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre Los Angeles since 2007. She is a proud member of the retired Harold team, Hey! Uncle Gary! and the current Maude Team Bonafide. Other UCB credits include The UCB Magical Magic Show!, Comedy Death Ray Sketch, F’ed Up and Illegal Videos, Sketch Cram, Regifted, The Attack! and many others.
Erin co-created and hosts “This Feels Terrible: The Love Show” with Megan Ganz in which brave comedians spill their most terrible relationship stories for UCB audiences. The live show became the hit podcast of the same name, available on iTunes and the Feral Audio Network. She loves kites, bugs, train sets and studying Gauguin’s Tahitian period.
“Weird Al” Yankovic (PMC Podcast Ep 100 – click HERE):
“Weird Al” Yankovic, the undisputed king of pop culture parody, has sold more comedy recordings than any other artist in history. In a career spanning nearly three decades, he has amassed 28 Gold and Platinum albums, 7 Gold and Platinum-certified home videos and 3 Grammy Awards (with 12 nominations).
Few would have guessed that Yankovic, who as an awkward, accordion-playing teenager got his start sending in homemade tapes to the Dr. Demento Radio Show, would go on to enjoy a varied and successful career that is now entering its fourth decade. He’s won countless awards and accolades for Weird Al classics like “Eat It,” “Like a Surgeon,” “Fat,” “Smells Like Nirvana,” “Amish Paradise” and “The Saga Begins.” Yankovic is also well-known for his cult-hit feature film UHF (1989), his late ’90s CBS Saturday morning series The Weird Al Show and the numerous AL-TV specials that he’s made for MTV and VH1 over the years. He released his 13th full-length studio album “Alpocalypse” earlier this year, which includes the hit Lady Gaga send-up “Peform This Way.” His previous album “Straight Outta Lynwood” (2006), the highest-charting of his career, spawned the Billboard Top 10 single “White & Nerdy,” the video of which spent two months at #1 on iTunes and garnered over 100 million hits on the Internet.
Since then, Yankovic has performed 240 concerts throughout North America, Australia and Europe, including England’s All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival. He released his greatest hits package “The Essential “Weird Al” Yankovic” (Legacy), directed the themed attraction “Al’s Brain: A 3-D Journey through the Human Brain” (featuring cameos by everybody from Fabio to Paul McCartney) and accumulated over 2 million followers on Twitter. And with the recent release of his children’s book When I Grow Up (HarperCollins), Al now adds “New York Times Bestselling Author” to his resume. An app version of the book will be available for the iPhone and iPad soon.
An accomplished director, Al has helmed many of his own award-winning music videos as well as clips for Ben Folds, Jeff Foxworthy, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Hanson and The Black Crowes. His video for “Smells Like Nirvana,” nominated for an MTV Video Music Award in 1992, was chosen by Rolling Stone as one of the “Top 100 Music Videos Of All Time.” Al also created the critically acclaimed title sequence for the Leslie Nielsen feature film Spy Hard. Al has been featured on numerous TV shows and specials, and his profile on VH-1’s Behind the Music remains one of the most popular installments in the history of the series. His “Biography” profile (2007) was the single highest-rated debut in the channel’s history.
Visit him at www.weirdal.com and follow him on twitter @alyankovic
Deborah Ann Woll (PMC Podcast Ep 99 – click HERE):
Deborah Ann Woll currently stars on the highly acclaimed HBO vampire drama True Blood (2008) as the young and fierce vampire girl, Jessica Hamby. She’s had roles in such films as Mother’s Day (2010), Seven Days in Utopia (2011), Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You (2011), Catch .44 (2011) opposite Bruce Willis and Forest Whitaker and Ruby Sparks (2012). TV roles include guests spots on Life, CSI, ER, My Name is Earl and The Mentalist. Deborah was born in 1985, in Brooklyn, New York, from Irish and German heritage.
She took acting, piano and dance classes. She went to high school in Packer Collegiate Institute and graduated from the BFA program at the USC School of Theatre at the University of Southern California – and she’s an original card-carrying Mistie (Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan!) Follow her on Twitter: @deborah_annwoll
EJ Scott (PMC Podcast Ep 99 – click HERE):
E.J. Scott lives his life by a simple mantra: “What if.” What if he was able to run 12 marathons in 12 states in 12 months? What if he could raise $12,000 per race?
But there was a problem. When Scott, now 36, was 27 years old, he was diagnosed with a genetic disorder called choroideremia, a disease that would eventually make him completely blind. Doctors told him the long-term exposure to the sunlight during a race would further damage his eyes. His solution: What if he ran them all blindfolded?
An improv comic by trade, Scott used the LA comedy circuit for charity shows and raised $14,000 from people sponsoring his weight loss. He originally weighed about 267 pounds, but now comes in around 210. (That’s around $200 per pound.) He began his 12 marathons at the start of 2012 – and will finish last one on December 2nd in Las Vegas, NV. A goal of $144,000, he’s around $100,000 now – and needs your help to reach his fundraising aspirations and fund choroideremia research.
Visit him at ejscott.com and see what you can do to help – and follow him on Twitter @ejscott.
Retta (PMC Podcast Ep 98 – click HERE):
Retta stars as fun-loving office mate Donna Meagle on NBC’s critically acclaimed comedy Parks and Recreation.
Retta, born Marietta Sirleaf to immigrant parents from Liberia (yes, she is related to Liberia’s first female president Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf), grew up in New Jersey. An honor student with memberships in every academic club and student government group she could get her hands on, Retta was well on her way to becoming a cliché.
But upon graduating pre-med from Duke University with a degree in Sociology, Retta decided to take a year off before medical school and worked as a contract chemist for GlaxoSmithKline. While working on the drug Combivir, she decided drugs/medicine wasn’t her calling. She wanted her own sitcom. Realizing there were several sitcom stars that started as comedians (Roseanne, Drew Carrey, Tim Allen, Brett Butler) she began doing stand-up at Charlie Goodnights in Raleigh NC. Having tasted some comedy success and coming to grips with the fact that there were no sitcoms to be had in North Carolina, she decided to move to LA.
Retta started performing at open mics all over the Los Angeles and eventually started showcasing for NACA (National Association for Campus Activities). She became a must-see act on the college circuit and soon was nominated for female comedian of the year by Campus Activities Magazine. She was Comedy Central’s first winner of their Laugh Riots Stand-Up Competition, which led to an appearance on the New Faces Showcase at Montreal’s “Just For Laughs” Comedy Festival. This performance led to a development deal with ABC/Disney. Retta was also featured in Essence Magazine’s as one of 2005 Class Clowns alongside Sherri Shepherd, Niecy Nash and Tony Rock.
Retta’s television appearances include It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, Jimmy Kimmel Live, Freddie, Comics Unleashed, The Soup, Premium Blend and Comedy Central Presents . . . Retta. Her film credits include Fracture with Anthony Hopkins, First Sunday with Ice Cube and Katt Williams, Sex & Death 101 with Simon Baker, and Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star with David Spade.
Follow her on twitter: @unfoRETTAble
Matt Walsh (PMC Podcast Ep 97 – click HERE):
Matt Walsh is a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade where he continues to perform and teach today. Credits for Walsh include starring in Comedy Central’s critically acclaimed Dog Bites Man, acting as a correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart from 2001-2002, and regular appearances in MTV’s Human Giant. He has appeared in such movies as Semi-Pro, Old School, Bad Santa, Road Trip, and Elf. He also wrote and starred in the cult indie-comedy Martin & Orloff. More recently, Matt has appeared in The Hangover opposite Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis for Warner Bros, David Wain’s Role Models opposite Paul Rudd for Universal, Adam McKay’s Step Brothers opposite Will Ferrel for Columbia, Cyrus opposite Marisa Tomei, John C. Reilly, and Jonah Hill, and Due Date with Robert Downey Jr., and Jamie Fox. Walsh consulted on the 2009 comedy Bruno starring Sacha Baron Cohen. Matt can next be seen recurring on HBO’s Hung and recently on the NBC series Outsourced and guest starred on NBC’s Community.
His directorial debut, which he also co-wrote is entitled High Road starring Abby Elliott, Rob Riggle, and Lizzy Caplan. His 1/2 hour comedy series Players premiered last year for Spike TV, which Matt created, executive produced, wrote, and starred in. He is currently shooting a series regular role in the HBO television series VEEP, opposite Julia Louis-Dreyfus. He will also soon appear in Queens of Country, opposite Lizzy Caplan and Ron Livingston and in TED, directed by Seth MacFarlane for Universal.
Layla Kayleigh (PMC Podcast Ep 96 – click HERE):
Layla Kayleigh is a presence, and that’s precisely why she’s such a magnetic and masterful TV host. Co-hosting Randy Jackson Presents America’s Best Dance Crew with Mario Lopez, Layla magnanimously coaches contestants, while never missing a beat for a joke. She’s stunning, sharp, smart and savvy. For Layla, hosting is more than simply standing in front of a camera; it’s about creating a memorable experience for the viewer that can inspire as it entertains.
Growing up in London, Layla’s been determined to host a TV show since she was a kid. “I always knew I wanted to be a host; there was never any doubt,” she says. “I even used to make videos of myself doing fake interviews and fake radio shows!” However, it took a little inspiration from the most unexpected avenue. She set out for Los Angeles at 18 and instantly immersed herself in Hollywood culture. Layla’s vibrant personality and unforgettable charm landed her a spot as an extra on Friends and opened up the door to modeling.
After a stint on Al Gore’s Emmy-Winning Current TV, Layla became a correspondent on G4’s massively popular Attack of the Show in 2006. Writing and producing her own segments, she soon became a favorite host on the channel. Her multi-dimensional talents and prominence on G4 led to segments on Fox Sports Best Damn Sports Show Period and The World Poker Tour. Her resume soon ensured she wouldn’t have to steal letterhead anymore, and then MTV came calling.
Having grown up watching Daisy Fuentes and Down Town Julie Brown on MTV, one call from the channel brought everything full circle for Layla. After meeting with an executive two years prior, MTV hired Layla to co-host Randy Jackson Presents America’s Best Dance Crew in 2008.
Follow her on twitter: @laylakayleigh
Jim O’Heir (PMC Podcast Ep 95 – click HERE):
Jim O’Heir stars as Associate Director Jerry Gergich in NBC’s critically acclaimed comedy Parks and Recreation. A Chicago native, O’Heir has worked successfully in every medium as a well-known character actor. His ability to move easily between drama and comedy in role after role is a testament to his skill and adeptness. Upon moving to Los Angeles in the late 90′s, he got rave reviews on stage in the cult classic Stumpy’s Gang which garnered him a Dramalogue Best Actor Award.
With his love for theater, he always made sure he continued his passion while on camera as well. But his work in TV and film kept him busy, as he’s worked in over 60 different series, movies of the week and feature films. Having been cast in numerous pilots, he also worked as a regular character on two Comedy Central series, Strip Mall & Knee High P.I. Other memorable portrayals were in Raising the Bar, Boston Legal, Without a Trace, Cold Case, and Friends. O’Heir has been involved in many animal charities and believes animals should be adopted from rescue organizations. Follow him on Twitter: @jimoheir
Ryan O’Nan (PMC Podcast Ep 94 – click HERE):
Ryan O’Nan is an award-winning actor, screenwriter and playwright with a diverse array of credits. Brooklyn Brothers Beat The Best is his feature film directorial debut; he also wrote the film and stars as Alex.
As an actor, O’Nan recently finished filming a lead role in the 2012 release Freelancers, opposite Robert De Niro, Forest Whitaker, Dana Delaney and 50 Cent, and 513, opposite Taryn Manning, Tom Sizemore and Michael Madsen. Other notable film credits include the lead role in The Dry Land (Official Sundance Film Festival 2010 Selection) starring America Ferrera, Melissa Leo, Jason Ritter and Wilmer Valdarrama, You’ve Got Male, which won him the award for Best Actor at the Asian American Film Festival, as well as Eat Pray Love, starring Julia Roberts and Watching TV with the Red Chinese, based on the critically acclaimed novel, starring Gillian Jacobs and Leo Nam. His television work includes ABC’s The Unusuals opposite Jeremy Renner, Adam Goldberg and Amber Tamblyn.
O’Nan spent the last year as a writer on the MTV hit series Skins, based off the award-winning UK series. His feature screenplay Chu and Blossom took the Grand Prize for Best Feature at The Expo Screenwriting Conference. His comedic play Animals, which premiered at the 2007 International New York Fringe Festival, has been produced on both coasts, and his latest play Under a Full Pink Moon: Chronicles of a Gay Werewolf, has received a public reading at The Atlantic Theater Company in New York. Other produced works written by O’Nan include: I Love You More Than Brains: A Zombie Musical (book/lyrics/music) at the George Street Playhouse, and 1984 and the Little Prince at the 2011 Humana Festival.
In addition to writing and directing theater, O’Nan has appeared on stage in New York, where he starred as Konstantin in Chekhov’s The Seagull, alongside Dianne Wiest, Alan Cumming, Annette O’Toole and Kelli Garner. Born and raised in San Diego, California, O’Nan now resides in New York.
Michael Weston (PMC Podcast Ep 94 – click HERE):
Michael Weston garnered much recognition for his pivotal role as “Jake” in HBO’s acclaimed series, Six Feet Under and also for his recurring role on the Fox’s House, opposite Hugh Laurie. Among his several film credits are The Last Kiss, in which he starred opposite Zach Braff, State of Play for director Kevin McDonald, Garden State directed by Zach Braff, Dukes of Hazzard and Hart’s War. He recently completed production on Love, Wedding, Marriage directed by Dermot Mulroney, Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best, directed by Ryan O’ Nan, Right Angle directed by Michael Uppendahl and Liberal Arts directed by Josh Radnor. He is currently in production on the independent feature, Gus for director Jessic McCormack and starring Radha Mitchell and Michelle Monaghan.
Weston’s other television credits include The Good Guys, Psych, Burn Notice and Saved, and recurring roles on the hit shows Scrubs and Law and Order:SVU.
Weston’s theatre credits include Extinction (off-broadway), Snakebit (off-broadway), The Grapes of Wrath (LA Theatre Works), Kenny Lonnergan’s The Waverly Gallery (Pasadena Playhouse), and several plays at the Williamstown theater festival.
Born and raised in New York City, Weston is a graduate of Northwestern University.
Cree Summer (PMC Podcast Ep 93 – click HERE):
Cree Summer is a Canadian American actress, musician and voice actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as college student Winifred “Freddie” Brooks on the NBC sitcom A Different World. As a voice actress, Summer is best known for voicing Susie Carmichael on Rugrats, and All Grown Up, Elmyra Duff on Tiny Toon Adventures, Princess Kida in Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Valerie Gray in Danny Phantom, Foxxy Love in Drawn Together, and Numbuh 5 in Codename: Kids Next Door.
Summer’s career began in 1983 when she was cast as the voice of niece Penny on the original cartoon version of Inspector Gadget. Her unique, throaty voice was instantly recognizable to casting agents (as well as viewers even today), who began frequently casting her in animated programs. Many of these were part of cult franchises, like The Care Bears Movie (1985) and Ewoks (1985, part of the Star Wars franchise).
Audiences finally had a chance to put Summer’s voice to a face when she was cast as Winifred “Freddie” Brooks in The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World. She remained a regular cast member of the show from 1988 through its end in 1993.
In all, Summer has voiced over 100 animated characters, many of them African-American girls. These have spanned the realm of video games, cartoon television series, animated films and commercials. Other voice work includes Mary Melody, Aka Pella in Histeria!, Dulcy the dragon in Sonic the Hedgehog, Cree Lincoln in Codename: Kids Next Door, Penelope in Barbie As Rapunzel, Miranda from As Told by Ginger, Tiff on My Life as a Teenage Robot, octogenerian villain Granny May on WordGirl and Blackarachnia in Transformers Animated (2008).
Summer is a frequent co-star of Canadian-American actress Tara Strong: the two are childhood friends, both having grown up in Toronto, Ontario.
Follow her on twitter: @iamcreesummer
Maurice LaMarche (PMC Podcast Ep 93 – click HERE):
Maurice LaMarche is an Emmy Award winning Canadian voice actor and former stand up comedian. He is best known for his voicework in Futurama as Kif Kroker, as Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters, Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Big Bob Pataki in Hey Arnold!, Dizzy Devil in Tiny Toons, The Brain in Animaniacs and Pinky and The Brain, and his portrayal of Mr. Freeze in Batman: Arkham City.
His extensive resumes also includes voice work on The Critic, GI Joe, Freakazoid!, The Tick, Taz-Mania, Talespin, The Littler Mermaid, King of the Hill, Sonic Underground, Disney’s House of Mouse, Mickey Mouse Works, and Inspector Gadget. He also dubbed the voice of Orson Welles over Vincent D’Onofrio’s on-camera performance in Ed Wood. Follow him on twitter: @mauricelamarche.
Tara Strong (PMC Podcast Ep 93 – click HERE):
At age thirteen, she landed the title role in Hello Kitty’s Furry Tale Theater and starred in the short-lived CBC Television sitcom Mosquito Lake. Strong is the voice behind a multitude of North American animated characters, including main roles in The Fairly OddParents as Timmy Turner and Poof; The New Batman Adventures as Batgirl; Fillmore! as Ingrid Third; Rugrats and All Grown Up! as Dil Pickles; The Powerpuff Girls as Bubbles; Ben 10 as Ben Tennyson, Upgrade, Benwolf, and Buzzshock; Xiaolin Showdown as Omi; Teen Titans as Raven; Drawn Together as Princess Clara and Toot Braunstein; The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World as Hip/Lemmy and Hop/Iggy Koopa; Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends as Terrence; Transformers Animated as Sari Sumdac, Slipstream, Slo-Mo, Strika, Red Alert, Mayor Edsel’s press secretary, and additional voices; Sym-Bionic Titan as Ilana Lunas; Chowder as Truffles; the singing voice of Meg Griffin and additional voices on Family Guy; 101 Dalmatians: The Series as Spot/Two-Tone; My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic as Twilight Sparkle; and currently voices Betty Boop in commercials with Tress MacNeille.
She has also lent her voice to English-language localizations of Japanese anime such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, as well as several video games, including her work as Elisa and Ursula in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops; Paz Ortega Andrade in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker; Seth Balmore in Lost Odyssey; Rikku in Final Fantasy X, its sequel Final Fantasy X-2, and Kingdom Hearts II; Norma Beatty in Tales of Legendia; Talwyn Apogee in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and its sequel, Ratchet & Clank Future: Quest for Booty (both of which reunite her with her Final Fantasy X and Drawn Together co-star James Arnold Taylor) and Harley Quinn in Batman: Arkham City. In June 2012, she voiced the main character “Juliet Starling” of Lollipop Chainsaw.
Follow her on twitter: @tarastrong
Arden Myrin (PMC Podcast Ep 92 – click HERE):
Comedian and actress Arden Myrin has made over 70 appearances on Chelsea Lately and was a cast member on MadTV for four years. The Boston Globe said of her “Arden mostly reminds us of Amy Poehler…but funnier.” She now wants to marry The Boston Globe. Arden’s acting credits Hung, Suburgatory, Reno 911, Party Down, Delocated, Friends, Gilmore Girls, Hot In Cleveland, Morning Glory, Kinsey, The Lucky Ones, Deconstructing Harry, Bubble Boy, and the upcoming movie The Bachelorette produced by Will Ferrell. Arden recently sold a pilot to MTV called The Bottomfeeders that she will co-write, executive produce and star.
Arden’s television appearances as a guest and a comedy panelist include Chelsea Lately, Late Night With Conan O’Brian, The Howard Stern Show, Loveline, RuPaul Drag Race, Good Day LA (where Ryan Seacrest called in and said he “Couldn’t get anything done because she was the funniest thing he had ever seen.”) Good Day NY, Good Day Chicago, Good Day Boston, Redeye, It’s On with Alexa Chung, The Nate Berkus Show, and the upcoming FOX show Tonightly with Kevin Smith. She was also on the FOX show That’s So Hollywood for which she was nominated for an Emmy.
Arden has performed comedy all over the country as both a stand-up and an improviser. She hosts a monthly show at Union Hall in Brooklyn, NY called The Party Machine that has featured such performers as Zach Galifianakis, Louis CK and Jason Sudeikis. She studied improvisation with improv Guru Del Close and Charna Halpern in Chicago at ImporvOlympic, and at UCB and the Groundlings in Los Angeles, and regularly still performs at UCB and IOWest.
Arden grew up in Little Compton, Rhode Island. Unlike the cooler Compton there were no gang members, only pink men in pink pants, a general store and an illiterate chief of police. Arden attended Colorado College where she was voted Valedictorian by her classmates. Most of them were probably stoned when they voted.
Currently, Arden lives in New York City and on JetBlue planes to Los Angeles where she is an actress, writer, and stand-up comedian. Mostly, Arden is just a very, very, very silly girl.
April Richardson (PMC Podcast Ep 92 – click HERE):
Hey! I’m April Richardson — I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, and now reside in Los Angeles. I really, really enjoy performing stand-up comedy and have done so at places like Comedy Death-Ray, Portland’s Bridgetown Comedy Festival, Seattle’s Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, and more fancy names that may (or may not?) impress you. (I also made Glenn Danzig laugh once — true story — so I’M LEGIT.)
I’ve written things for MTV and been published in various magazines and books (remember those?), so that’s pretty cool, right? I spend my days working on E!’s hit show Chelsea Lately, and my nights watching Food Network.
Guy Branum (PMC Podcast Ep 92 – click HERE):
Guy Branum is a writer and comedian best known for serving as “Staff Homosexual” on Chelsea Lately and his performance as Natalie Portman’s sassy gay friend in No Strings Attached. Noticing a trend? He’s appeared on E!, MTV, G4, CurrentTV and lots of other channels you’d need to upgrade your cable to watch.
He’s also a writer for the new season of Punk’d on MTV and Fashion Police on E!. That means he’s watched the Grammys at Joan Rivers’s house. Jealous? Guy also writes for the “Gay Voices” section of The Huffington Post and occasionally makes web videos where he dances around without his shirt on. But mostly, Guy is very, very beautiful and good at having sex.
Iain Morris (PMC Podcast Ep 91 – click HERE):
English writer and producer Iain Morris is best known as the co-creator and co-writer of the smash UK series The InBetweeners, and its big screen counterpart The InBetweeners Movie, which owns the distinction of being the most successful comedy of all time at the British box office. He’s also written for The Flight of the Conchords, and Swinging, and served as executive producer on The Persuasionists, Free Agents and Meet Ricky Gervais.
He was also the long-time host of a show on the London radio station XFM along with comedian Jimmy Carr. He is currently executive producing the American MTV series remake of The InBetweeners.
Jesse Thorn (PMC Podcast Ep 90 – click HERE):
Jesse Thorn is the host and producer of Bullseye and Jordan, Jesse, Go!, and the co-host and producer of Judge John Hodgman. He’s also the proprietor of MaximumFun.org.
He founded The Sound of Young America in 2000, while a student at the University of California at Santa Cruz. In 2007, the show began to be distributed by Public Radio International, making Jesse the youngest national host in public radio history. The show became Bullseye in 2012. In addition to his work at MaximumFun.org, he hosts and helps produce Put This On, a video series and blog about men’s style. He also hosted The Grid, a culture recommendation program on IFC.
A native of San Francisco’s Mission District, Jesse lives in Los Angeles with his wife, son Simon and two dogs.
Lake Bell (PMC Podcast Ep 89 – click HERE):
Gorgeous, witty, and a woman with impeccable comedic timing, Lake Bell is a talented actress, writer, and director.
Bell has been busy writing, producing, directing and starring in her film, In A World…, a father-daughter competition comedy about a two-bit vocal coach, Carol Solomon, who gets pitted against her father, the patriarch of the voice over industry. Bell was also recently seen at this year’s Sundance Film Festival in the film Black Rock, directed by Katie Aselton. At the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Bell was proud to have her first short film accepted. She wrote and directed the film, Worst Enemy, which is a comedy about a female misanthrope (Michaela Watkins) who gets herself stuck in a full body girdle. It also played at the 2011 Nantucket Film Festival and she was awarded The Showtime Tony Cox Award for Screenwriting in a Short Film.
She also starred in A Good Old Fashioned Orgy, which made its debut at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. The plot centers around a group of 30-year-olds who have been friends since high school who attempt to throw an end-of-summer orgy. She stars opposite Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte, Nick Kroll and Tyler Labine. Prior to that, she starred in Paramount’s hit comedy No Strings Attached, opposite Natalie Portman, Ashton Kutcher, and Kevin Kline.
For the small screen, Bell recently wrapped production on the fourth season of the critically acclaimed Adult Swim series Children’s Hospital, created by Rob Corddry, which will air this fall. She also recently starred in season 2 of HBO’s How to Make It in America opposite Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rasuk.
Bell is The Hollywood Reporter’s Automotive Contributing Editor where she pens her “Test Drive” column, which covers the glamorous wheels and auto-trends of Hollywood. She has reviewed the Maserati Gran Turismo, the Porsche Panerma 4S, the Jaguar XXR Coupe, the Cadillac CTS-V Coupe, Fiat 500, Porsche 911S, and the Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Spyder.
Past film credits include Nancy Meyer’s It’s Complicated, starring opposite Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, What Happens in Vegas opposite Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher, Pride and Glory opposite Colin Farrell, Over Her Dead Body opposite Paul Rudd, Christopher Landon’s Burning Palms with Zoe Saldana, Little Murder opposite Terrence Howard and Josh Lucas, and the independent film Under Still Waters, for which she received the Newport Beach Film Festival award for “Outstanding Performance in Acting.”
Past television credits include NBC’s Surface, ABC’s critically acclaimed drama Boston Legal opposite James Spader and William Shatner, and NBC’s Miss Match opposite Alicia Silverstone. Additionally, Bell starred opposite Jeff Goldblum in the NBC telefilm War Stories which followed journalists covering the civil war in Uzbekistan in the wake of the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan.
Bell completed her four years of drama conservatory training in London at The Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama. She also received certification from the British Academy of Dramatic Combat for sword, dagger, and rapier. Her conservatory theatre credits include The Seagull, Six Degrees of Separation, The Children’s Hour and The Pentecost.
Bell was born in New York City and currently splits her time between New York and Los Angeles.
Ian Edwards (PMC Podcast Ep 88 – click HERE):
Ian Edwards was born in England and raised in Jamaica. His family moved to NY when he was 17. The United States is a great place to live, but not when you have a third world accent and are friendless. While he was literally slanging burgers at Burger King in East Meadow, Long Island, he turned to see his co-workers laughing. Another employee Greg Ellis had them on the floor in stitches. Everyone loved Greg, because he was funny, and when you worked with him, he made an 8-hour shift fly by. That’s when it hit Ian. He needed to tap into his funny side. In England and Jamaica he was a funny kid, but somehow he’d forgotten that part of him. From then on he became the second funniest person at Burger King. He even made the prince, Greg laugh. One day a customer whose order he’d taken at the drive thru, told him he was funny, and should try stand up. He was 21, and needed to do something with his life. Ian went down to Governors Comedy Club and bombed his ass off. He put on a clinic of, what not to do. Only one joke worked, because he managed to say it right. So Ian figured, once he controlled his nerves, he’d be all right.
Since then, Ian has obtained some of the most prestigious credits such as SNL (writer), MTV’s hit show Punk’d (regular cast member) and HBO’s Def Comedy Jam (performer). Most recently, Ian was a writer on Fox’s In The Flow (sketch comedy show Executive Produced by Jamie Foxx) and wrote on the 2011 BET Awards. He also performed on both Conan and Lopez Tonight in 2011, and is slated to appear as a performer on Comedy Central’s Russell Simmons Presents the Ruckus in 2012.
Ian has also been invited and is set to perform at The Vancouver Comedy Festival in 2012, and in years past has performed at Montreal and Chicago Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, HBO’s Comedy and Arts Festival in Aspen and Bridgetown’s Comedy Festival. In previous years, Ian was a writer on MTV’s The Lyricist Lounge, Comedy Central’s Chocolate News, ABC’s My Wife and Kids, ESPN’s Mohr Sports and The Cartoon Network’s The Boondocks. In addition, Ian has performed on Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham, HBO’s Bad Boys of Comedy, Showtime’s Live Nude Comedy and The BBC’s The World Stands Up.
Website: www.ianedwardscomedian.com
Twitter:@ianedwardscomic
Barry Bostwick (PMC Podcast Ep 87 – click HERE):
From his portrayal of the quintessential all American Brad Majors in The Rocky Horror Picture Show to the hilarious Mayor Randall Winston on ABC’s Spin City, Barry Bostwick has had quite a career spanning all genres and mediums of show business.
Barry has had starring roles in many highly acclaimed television film and miniseries. He portrayed George Washington in the two part Peabody award winning CBS miniseries epic George Washington and won a Golden Globe for his performance as Lieutenant “Lady” Aster in ABC’s thirty-hour presentation of War and Remembrance. He also starred in Moviola, Deceptions, A Woman of Substance, Murder by Natural Causes, Betrayed by Innocence, The Chadwicks, You Can’t Take it With You, Once Upon a Family, Red Flag, Uncommon Love, Body of Evidence, Addicted to Love, Parent Trap III, Hawaiian Holiday, The Great Air Race, Captive, Challenger, three adaptations of Judith Krantz novels: I’ll Take Manhattan, Scruples, and ’Til We Meet Again, as well as Danielle Steele’s miniseries Once in a Lifetime. He starred in the ABC series Foul Play, and Dads, the Lifetime Special Santa and Me and the science fiction thriller Tales from a Parallel Universe for The Movie Channel. Aside from George Washington, he also played another President in Men in White, National Lampoon’s spoof of Men in Black for the Fox Family Channel.
Additionally, Barry has appeared in several television musical specials for PBS including Broadway Plays Washington, The Best of Broadway, In Performance at the White House, Irving Berlin’s 100th Birthday Celebration at Carnegie Hall, and an adaptation of the Broadway hit Working. He has hosted the Great American History Quiz on the History Channel and he hosted the Disney California Adventure Special, which celebrated the opening of Disney’s newest theme park. He also hosted the NBC television special celebrating the grand re-opening of Radio City Music Hall. He has hosted A Capital Fourth, the PBS Fourth of July Special, live from the steps of the U.S. Capital six years in a row, in addition to hosting Saturday Night Live and dancing and singing with Carol Burnett in her special Men, Movies and Carol on CBS. Barry also is a reader for audio books.
Barry made his professional stage debut when he was a sophomore at San Diego’s U.S.I.U. School of Performing Arts in the summer stock production of Take Her, She’s Mine, with Walter Pidgeon. He attended NYU’s Graduate School of the Arts and made his Broadway debut soon thereafter with the APA Phoenix Repertory Company in the title role in Sean O’Casey’s Cock-a-Doodle-Dandy. He was in the American premiere of Jean Genet’s The Screens. His first Tony nomination was for his characterization of “Danny Zuko” in Grease. his second nomination was for his portrayal of “Joey” in They Knew What They Wanted for the Phoenix Theater. Barry won the coveted Tony for “Best Actor in a Musical” for his portrayal of The Robber Bridegroom, a role he originally created at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. He performed in the all-star revival of She Loves Me at Town Hall and appeared at Lincoln Center in the New York City Opera Production of L’Histoire du Soldat. He was the “Pirate King” in the Joseph Papp productions of The Pirates of Penzance in Los Angeles and Toronto. In 1991, he returned to Broadway to star in Nick and Nora.
Barry’s recent film credits include the upcoming, Finding Joy, FDR: American Badass, Home Run Showdown, The Selling, Some Guy Who Kills People, and Moby Dick: 2010. He has also recently appeared in Bedrooms, Miss Nobody, Destiny’s Stand and Hannah Montana: The Movie with Miley Cyrus. His other film credits include Evening with Meryl Streep, Nancy Drew, Skulls III for Universal, the independent feature Swing, Disney’s animated 101 Dalmatians Part 2, Chestnut-Hero of Central Park, Weekend at Bernie’s 2, Stanley Donen’s Movie, Movie, Spy Hard with Leslie Nielson, 800 Leagues Down the Amazon, and, of course, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In the television world, Barry has recently recurred on several hit television series including Cougar Town and Ugly Betty, and has guest starred on Supernatural, Ghost Whisperer, and Glee.
Gabriel Diani & Etta Devine (PMC Podcast Ep 87 – click HERE):
Diani & Devine (Gabriel Diani & Etta Devine) are an award-winning comedy duo who are often compared with classic comedy teams like Nichols and May and Burns and Allen. Admiring the groundbreaking comedians of the 50′s and 60′s like Nichols and May, Bill Cosby, and Bob Newhart, they set out to create an act that was smart, funny, and (relatively) clean. They performed at comedy festivals all over the country before refocusing their energy on creating film and internet content such as their feature film The Selling which premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival and is launching on DVD/VOD later this year, their $30k+ fundraising campaign on Kickstarter to replace the “n-word” with “robot” in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (satirically, of course), and their web series Mary Olson which has over 1.3 million hits on Youtube.
They are currently recording an audio book version of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [Robotic Edition], prepping a second season of Mary Olson, and developing several feature film screenplays.
Kathleen Rose Perkins (PMC Podcast Ep 85 – click HERE):
Kathleen Rose Perkins stars as network yes-woman Carol Rance on Showtime’s fab series Episodes. She grew up in New Baltimore, Michigan, a small town just outside of Detroit. The sister of four older brothers, she enjoyed her alone time making up plays and putting them on for people in the neighborhood. This inevitably led to a high school career in which she was very involved with the school’s drama and choir program. Kathleen attended Western Michigan University, and in just over three years she acquired a BFA in Musical Theatre. After traveling parts of the Midwest performing in various regional theatres, Kathleen made her way to Los Angeles. She spent a few years in odd jobs and acting classes, then started working with a management company she could trust.
Since then, Kathleen has worked solely as an actress in film and television. She’s collaborated with such performers as Chris O’Donnell, Courteney Cox, Christina Applegate, as well as many other fine actors. Credits include Miss Duffy on ‘Til Death, Amy on Trust Me, and roles on Without a Trace, How I Met Your Mother, Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas, HBO’s Tell Me You Love Me and Michael Bay’s The Island. She plays a Vegas hooker in Diablo Cody’s still-untitled new film, set for release in early 2013. She has also devoted time to projects personally important to her, such as an award-winning short film she wrote and starred in, a documentary about her family, and a black belt in tae kwon do. Follow her on twitter @kroseperkins.
Jake Fogelnest (PMC Podcast Ep 84 – click HERE):
Jake Fogelnest is a comedian, producer, writer and director, who started a television show, Squirt TV, from his New York City bedroom when he was 14 years old. Squirt TV made its debut in January 1994 on Manhattan Public Access Cable Television. The show, which Fogelnest wrote, produced, and directed, featured his opinions on music, film and television. The one-man show quickly became a cult success in Manhattan, attracting with its quirky style, sense of humor and edgy commentary a base of night owls, including Beastie Boys, Janeane Garofalo, and Eric Bogosian.
It soon moved from public-access television to MTV (a trajectory that echoed the movie Wayne’s World, released in 1992). Still recorded from Fogelnest’s bedroom, the show featured more celebrity guests, including Adam Sandler, Beck, and The Kids in the Hall–some of whom had appeared on Squirt TV in its original public-access television incarnation.
Fogelnest is a regular commentator on VH1’s I Love the… series. Other television credits include a special for Comedy Central, MTV’s 12 Angry Viewers, Upright Citizens Brigade and guest appearances on The Jon Stewart Show, Howard Stern and Red Eye with Greg Grutfield. In 2005, Fogelnest created Ten Years Later for MTV, a fictional documentary which followed Jake’s life if he “never grew out of ‘Squirt TV.’”
Fogelnest had a cameo in the film Wet Hot American Summer and is interviewed in Gigantic: A Tale Of Two Johns, a documentary on the band They Might Be Giants. He also appears as himself in the Amy Heckerling film Vamps.
In 2004, he won a New York City A.I.R. Award for hosting the “Top 92 Worst Xmas Songs of All-Time” on the former WXRK, where he worked as a DJ before the station changed formats and became WFNY-FM. He formerly hosted a radio show with Jackie Clarke called Jake and Jackie on WFNY-FM in New York (92.3 Free FM, formerly known as WXRK K-Rock). The show was a combination of pop culture discussion and radio sketch comedy. The show also featured many frequent guests, including Penn Jillette, Michael Musto, Tom Scharpling, Fred Armisen, Horatio Sanz, Rob Huebel, Chuck Nice, John Gemberling, Curtis Gwinn, Andy Rocco, Jawnee Conroy, Bobby Moynihan, James Eason, and Paul Scheer (the show’s Hollywood correspondent).
Currently, he has a show on Sirius XM’s College rock/Indie rock channel, Sirius XMU, every day from 6 am to noon ET. He can also be heard from Noon to 6 pm on Sirius XM Alt Nation. Fogelnest also does live webcasts on Stickam. Follow him on twitter @jakefogelnest and on his website, jakefogelnest.com.
Elizabeth Laime (PMC Podcast Ep 83 – click HERE):
Elizabeth Laime is a comedy writer and performer living in Los Angeles. She’s the host of the popular podcast Totally Laime, which was the winner of the first-ever reality podcast competition on Earwolf. Her funny stuff has been seen on stage (The Comedy Store, The Laugh Factory, The Groundlings, The National Comedy Theatre, and the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre,) on the tele (Saturday Night Live,) and in Independent Films (Bachelor Man and Apple Pie.) She was a proud member of an original UCB sketch Maude team, “Gunderson!” and had a superfun run of her one woman show, “Dear Diary,” a Time Out New York’s critic’s pick, at UCB in New York and LA. Her comical story of a failed athletic endeavor, “Swim Team 1996″ was recently published in the hilarious book, “Rejected,” edited by UCB’s Jon Friedman.
If none of this impresses you, this should do the trick: she narrated the 1998 VHS unauthorized documentary of Leonardo DiCaprio, Hangin’ With Leo, which can now be bought on EBay for about two bucks. It’s amazing that she is still so down to earth! In her free time she enjoys playing with her dog, Ruby, and attempting to be an uber cool Silver Lake hipster but fails miserably because everything about her screams wholesome Midwesterner and she should just accept it.
Joe Dante (PMC Podcast Ep 82 – click HERE):
Joe Dante began his filmmaking career with an apprenticeship in 1974 as a trailer editor for Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. He made his directorial debut in 1976 with Hollywood Boulevard (co-directed with Allan Arkush), a thinly disguised spoof of New World exploitation pictures, shot in ten days for $60,000. In 1977 Dante made his solo debut as a film director with Piranha, which went on to become one of the company’s biggest hits and was distributed throughout the rest of the world by United Artists. During his tenure at New World, Dante edited Ron Howard’s directorial debut Grand Theft Auto and co-wrote the original story for Rock n Roll High School. For Avco-Embassy Dante next directed the highly praised werewolf thriller The Howling (1981), followed by the It’s a Good Life segment of the episodic Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983).
Having worked with Steven Spielberg on Twilight Zone, Dante was chosen to helm one of the first Amblin Productions for Warner Bros. Gremlins (1984) became a runaway hit and grossed more than $200 million worldwide. Dante followed up with Explorers for Paramount, a sci-fi fantasy about three kids who build their own spaceship, and then Innerspace (1987) for Guber/Peters, Amblin and Warner Bros., an action comedy in which miniaturized test pilot Dennis Quaid is injected into the body of supermarket clerk Martin Short. Tom Hanks starred in Dante’s next film for Imagine/Universal, The ‘Burbs (1989), which was followed by Gremlins 2: The New Batch for Warner Bros. in 1990. Matinee featuring John Goodman as a huckster showman premiering his new horror film during the Cuban Missile Crisis, was a production of Dante and partner Mike Finnell’s Renfield Productions for Universal in 1993. Dreamworks/Universal’s Small Soldiers was released in 1998, followed in 2003 by Warner Bros. Looney Tunes: Back in Action featuring one of Dante’s favorite actors, Bugs Bunny. Dante’s Homecoming, an episode of Showtime’s Masters of Horror series, debuted in December 2005 to rave reviews from critics and audiences alike and was named to numerous “Top 10″ critics lists. The Sitges and Brussels International Film Festivals both honored Homecoming with Special Jury Recognition Awards, and the New Yorker called it the best political film of 2005. More recent work includes The Screwfly Solution, also an episode of Masters of Horror, and the Halloween 2007 episode of CSI: New York. His new 3D thriller, The Hole, for Bold Films recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it garnered the first-ever award for Best 3D Feature. Dante also produces the critically-acclaimed webisode/mobile phone series, Trailers from Hell. Along the way Dante contributed several comedy segments to the multi-part Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) spoof produced by John Landis, and directed various episodes of the tv series Amazing Stories, Twilight Zone, Police Squad!, Night Visions and Picture Windows. He also directed the network pilots for Caleb Carr’s The Osiris Chronicles (1995) and the NBC series Eerie, Indiana, on which he was creative consultant throughout its run. Dante received Cable Ace nominations for his direction of Showtime’s Runaway Daughters (1994) and HBO’s The Second Civil War (1997).
Mary Lynn Rajskub (PMC Podcast Ep 81 – click HERE):
An original cast member of HBO’s Mr. Show, Mary Lynn became wildly popular portraying CTU analyst “Chloe O’Brien” on FOX’s 24. Other TV roles include appearances on The Larry Sanders Show, Veronica’s Closet, Modern Family, Royal Pains, Kelsey Grammer Presents The Sketch Show, Newsradio, and King of Queens. On the big screen she can be seen in Sunshine Cleaning, Little Miss Sunshine, Dude, Where’s My Car?, Punch-Drunk Love, and The Anniversary Party. She plays Roxie in the new interactive web series Dirty Work, in which viewers can click on side options like phone calls, texts and additional videos, which is available on Ride.tv. She also portays the title character on the My Damn Channel series Dicki, following a quirky 40-year-old who still lives with her parents. An avid painter, she also performs stand-up and has done a few solo shows at clubs and theaters throughout the country.
Ken Marino (PMC Podcast Ep 80 – click HERE):
Ken Marino was a cast member on MTV’s The State and on the Starz comedy Party Down. He currently co-stars on the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital.
Ken Marino was born in West Islip, New York to an Italian family. He studied at the Lee Strasberg Institute and Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. He had early success on television as a member of a comedy troupe on the MTV sketch comedy series The State in 1993, of which he was also a founding member. Marino co-starred with Rob Schneider in the second season of Men Behaving Badly. He had a recurring role as Prof. Wilder on the TV series Dawson’s Creek and in You Wrote It, You Watch It. He made multiple appearances on Charmed and Rock Me Baby, and appeared in three seasons of Veronica Mars as private detective Vinnie Van Lowe. He was a cast member in the beloved but short-lived Starz original series Party Down. He also starred as a gay demon on the TV series Reaper. He currently plays Dr. Glenn Richie in the satirical television series Childrens Hospital.
Marino also made guest appearances in Will & Grace, Angel, Reno 911!, Stella, Grey’s Anatomy, Monk and Private Practice. Film work includes Wet Hot American Summer, The Ten and Role Models, and had a cameo in the end of The Baxter. He also starred in the Hallmark Channel movie Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door. Marino wrote the screenplay for Diggers, a coming-of-age film set in mid-1970s Long Island, as well as and co-writing/producing The Ten and Role Models with David Wain. Marino and Wain most recently wrote the screenplay for the recently released Wanderlust starring Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston. Look for his new web series, Burning Love, a fun take on The Bachelor, coming soon!
Jenny Mollen (PMC Podcast Ep 79 – click HERE):
Actress/writer/artist/Twitter champ Jenny Mollen was recently named one of the 18 funniest females on Twitter (where you can follow her as @jennyandteets). She also has a long-standing blog called The Smoking Jacket on Playboy.com. As an actress, she recurred as werewolf/love interest Nina Ash on Angel, and had roles on the shows Crash, Viva Laughlin, Suits, CSI:NY, Law & Order: LA, and Medium.
Film work includes Crazy, Stupid Love, D.E.B.S., Return of the Living Dead: Rave to the Grave, National Lampoon’s Cattle Call, My Best Friend’s Girl and Life Happens. In addition to a ton of theater work for places like The Old Globe and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, she’s also an accomplished artist, exhibiting and selling pieces in New York, Arizona, San Diego, Los Angeles and London. She is married to actor Jason Biggs.
Damien Fahey (PMC Podcast Ep 78 – click HERE):
Damien’s hosting resume starts with having been the longtime host of MTV’s flagship program TRL. He took over for Carson Daly on TRL in 2002 and in 2004 was hand picked by David Letterman as one of the four TV personalities to take over The Late Late Show on CBS. Since then he has also sat in for Regis Philbin on LIVE! with Regis and Kelly numerous times and co-hosted I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here on NBC. Damien also covered The Grammy awards for CBS’ The Early Show doing backstage interviews with this year’s Grammy winners. Damien lent his voice to two episodes of Family Guy called, “Peter’s Daughter”, & “I Dream of Jesus”. Fahey’s voice can also be heard in the animated movie, Robots. On the radio front, he currently hosts a weekly syndicated radio show, which airs on over 80 radio stations, called The MTV Weekend Countdown. Whether appearing on radio, daytime TV or late-night TV, Damien Fahey’s confidence, humor and ease enable him to pull off any hosting job.
Since joining TRL in 2002, he has interviewed countless celebrities, including Madonna, Johnny Depp, Bono, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Beyoncé, Justin Timberlake, Harrison Ford, Janet Jackson, Jay Z and The Dave Matthews Band.
Born on June 1, 1980, in Massachusetts, Damien Fahey’s obsession with radio started when, at age 14, he emptied his savings account and built a “radio studio” in his bedroom. At 15, he got an internship and on-air DJ position playing adult contemporary hits at 94.7 FM WMAS. He worked his way up the ranks and eventually nabbed a coveted DJ position at Boston’s legendary KISS 108 FM at age 19. Damien worked at KISS 108 for three years before hearing of an MTV casting call in Boston. After nailing his MTV audition, he moved to New York City to take over for Carson Daly on TRL, a daily show he helmed for seven straight years. Damien is a total “drum-nerd” and music lover. He played the drums in a band called, The Classic Futures, which released a music video and CD in 2008. The Classic Futures played live on TRL on MTV in July of 2008. Damien’s favorite bands are Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and U2.
Daniel O’Brien (PMC Podcast Ep 77 -(click HERE):
A seasoned comedy writer, Senior Columnist Dan O’Brien has played an instrumental role in the successful expansion of Cracked.com, America’s Only Humor & Video Site. He regularly flexes his creative muscles in his column, ‘Dan Dan Revolution’ and as the co-creator for ‘Agents of Cracked,’ the web comedy series that earned the website an ‘Audience Choice’ Streamy Award. Dan also stars alongside Michael Swaim, Soren Bowie and Katie Willert, in Cracked.com’s ‘After Hours’ web series that is best known for its funny, four-way, no-holds barred analysis of movie myths and famous plotlines.
As a long-time fan of the website, O’Brien was attending Rutgers University to study English with a concentration on creative writing and a minor in music, when he took a chance and submitted an unsolicited article to the editors during his senior year. Although Cracked.com was not accepting submissions at the time, the editors were so impressed by his talent, they began hiring him as a freelancer to edit and add original jokes to articles and other content. His quick wit was called upon regularly to punch up article submissions and web series scripts to include the Cracked voice we know and love today, Dan took the role of Contributing Editor of Cracked.com soon after.
Soren Bowie (PMC Podcast Ep 77 -(click HERE):
O’Brien was born and raised in Hazlet, New Jersey. He now lives in Los Angeles where performs standup comedy. For ‘You Might Be A Zombie And Other Bad News’, Dan helped edit the book and contributed two articles including ‘The Four Most Badass Presidents of All Times’.
Jane Espenson (PMC Podcast Ep 76 – click HERE):
Jane Espenson grew up in Ames, Iowa where she watched too much television. At age 13 she attempted to write an episode of M*A*S*H. It didn’t work out. She attended college at UC Berkeley, studying linguistics as an undergrad and graduate student. While in grad school she submitted spec episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and got her tiny foot wedged in the last open door of show business. After winning a spot in the Walt Disney writers’ fellowship, she worked in sitcoms for a number years, including Dinosaurs, Monty and Ellen.
Her first staff job at a drama was her job at Buffy the Vampire Slayer (where she penned 23 episodes, winning a Hugo Award for the episode “Conversations with Dead People”), followed by a year as Co-Executive Producer at Gilmore Girls, and brief stints as Co-Executive Producer of the cancelled FOX dramas Tru Calling and The Inside. She has produced and written for Jake In Progress, Dollhouse, Battlestar Gallactica, Andy Barker P.I., Warehouse 13 and Once Upon a Time, and has also written memorable episodes of Game of Throwns and Firefly. Her web-series Husbands is about to start production on a second season—check it out at husbandstheseries.com.
She often tells people she has the best job in the world.
