Born in London and raised in New York (among other places) NELLIE McKAY’s s music has been heard on Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, Weeds, Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS, Nurse Jackie, and SMILF, and she has appeared on TV shows including The Late Show with David Letterman, Conan, Ferguson, and The View. Nellie has made numerous radio appearances on NPR’s Mountain Stage McKay and co-created and starred in the award-winning off-Broadway hit Old Hats. She’s written three acclaimed musical biographies – I Want to Live!, the story of Barbara Graham, third woman executed in the gas chamber at San Quentin, Silent Spring: It’s Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature, an exploration of environmental pioneer Rachel Carson, and A GIRL NAMED BILL – The Life and Times of Billy Tipton, named one of the Best Concerts of 2014 by The New York Times. Her most recent album, Sister Orchid is Nellie’s seventh starting with Get Away From Me (“a tour de force” – The New York Times) Among her other albums are Normal As Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to Doris Day (“among the killer overhauls of American standards” – The New York Times) and My Weekly Reader, music of the ’60s (“..kicks serious butt. The results are beautiful.” – PopMatters).

ROZ CHAST’s work has appeared in numerous magazines through the years, including The Village Voice, National Lampoon, Scientific American, Harvard Business Review, Redbook and Mother Jones, but she is most closely associated with The New Yorker. Chast attended the Rhode Island School of Design, where she studied painting. After graduating in 1977 she returned to New York City, where she quickly established her cartooning career. In addition to collections of her New Yorker cartoons, Chast has written and illustrated a range of books including Going Into Town: A Love Letter to New York and Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? which won a National Book Critics Circle Award.

PATRICIA MARX, a staff writer, has been contributing to The New Yorker since 1989. She is a former writer for “Saturday Night Live” and “Rugrats,” and is the author of several books, including the novels “Starting from Happy” and “Him Her Him Again the End of Him” (both of which were finalists for the Thurber Prize); numerous children’s books, among them “Now Everybody Really Hates Me” and “Meet My Staff”; and “Let’s Be Less Stupid: An Attempt to Maintain My Mental Faculties.” Her new book, “Why Don’t You Write My Eulogy Now So I Can Correct It?: A Mother’s Suggestions,” illustrated by Roz Chast, was published in April 2019. Marx was the first woman elected to the Harvard Lampoon. She has taught screenwriting and humor writing at Princeton, New York University, and Stonybrook University, but mainly she does errands and looks things up on Wikipedia. She was the recipient of a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship.

NANCY GILES is a CBS Sunday Morning contributor, comedian, actress, and self-described “Accidental Pundette” Nancy Giles is a funny, perceptive, and provocative observer of today’s world. For over 15 years, Giles’ work on the Emmy Award-winning CBS Sunday Morning has received acclaim for its unique blend of common sense wisdom, laugh-out-loud humor, and social and political commentary. Giles believes “humor bridges what divides and can even stop people from shouting at each other.” On topics from politics and race to pop culture and body image, she says, “I want to make people laugh, and I want to entertain them, but I also want to provoke thought and discussion.” She has offered her perspectives as a frequent guest on The Today Show, The Beat with Ari Melber and The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell. Her podcast, The Giles Files, takes a lively spin on trending topics – from pop culture to politics – with interviews, commentaries, song parodies and more.

MEGHAN DAUM is the author of four books, most recently the collection of original essays The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion, which won the 2015 PEN Center USA Award for creative nonfiction. She is also the editor of the New York Times bestseller Selfish, Shallow & Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not To Have Kids. Her other books include the essay collection My Misspent Youth, the novel The Quality of Life Report, and Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived In That House, a memoir. Meghan’s work has been included in The Best American Essays and she has written for numerous magazines, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Atlantic, and Vogue. Meghan is the recipient of both Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships.

According to the New York Times, harpist BRIDGET KIBBEY “makes it seems as though the instrument had been waiting all its life to explode with the energetic figures and gorgeous colors she was getting from it.” Called the “Yo-Yo Ma of the harp,” by Vogue’s Senior Editor Corey Seymour, Bridget Kibbey is a winner of a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, a Salon de Virtuosi SONY Recording Grant, an artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and winner of Premiere Prix at the Journées de les Harpes Competition in Arles, France. Kibbey has fast gained a reputation for her diverse, energetic programming that spans the baroque, French Masterworks, and rhythmic migration in South America.

SYBIL SAGE– was among the first women to write television comedy, starting with episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Maude, Alice, Barney Miller and moving on to hour shows that included Magnum P.I. and Northern Exposure. She still writes material for Lily Tomlin, but has added a new career – designing functional pieces in the French mosaic style known as pique assiette.

MARIA DIZZIA’s Broadway credits include: In The Next Room by Sarah Ruhl (Tony nomination Featured Actress; Lincoln Center). Recent theater credits include If I Forget by Steven Levenson (Roundabount Theater Company), Belleville by Amy Herzog (Drama Desk Nomination; New York Theater Workshop, Yale Rep), Annie Baker’s Uncle Vanya (Soho Rep), Drunken City by Adam Bock (Playwrights Horizons), and Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl (Second Stage, Yale Rep, Berkeley Rep). Outside of the United States, Maria has performed at The Gate Theater in London with The Civilians and at the Garasjen theater in Norway with Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company.

VANESSA ASPILLAGA has appeared on Broadway, Off Broadway, in television and in film. She is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, and a member of LAByrinth Theater Company. She was nominated for a 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for Amy and the Orphans. Vanessa is part of The Muse Project, an experimental project that upends the traditional theatrical structures and centers women-actors’ stories.

LISA FLANAGAN is the winner of the 2019 Audie for Fanstasy (Spinning Silver) and an award-winning narrator, voice actor, director, improviser, and classical soprano. She spent many years onstage singing opera and classical music (Tosca; Suor Angelica; Madama Butterfly; Turn of the Screw; La Bohème; Faust; Götterdämmerung), performing improv comedy (La Donna Improvvisata) & directing theater (Lysistrata; Symphony Space’s Bloomsday on Broadway). She is the librettist for the upcoming Niloufar Nourbakhsh opera We, The Innumerable. Her voice-over work includes animation, video games, and commercials. Lisa has received multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards and Voice Arts Awards, including Best Audiobook Narration, Children’s for Disney-Pixar’s WALL-E.

J. HOPE STEIN is the author of little astronaut and Occasionally, I remove your brain through your nose. Her poems can be seen in The New Yorker, Poetry International and the Broadway show The New One for which she was nominated for a 2019 Lucille Lortel award for additional writing. She is also the associate producer of the film Sleepwalk with Me, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012 and Don’t Think Twice, which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in 2016.

RITA McMAHON is the director of The Wild Bird Fund of New York City. She describes the fund’s mission as twofold: To provide veterinary care and rehabilitation to native and migrant wildlife so that they can be released back into the wild, and to educate New Yorkers about the rich diversity and environmental needs of the city’s precious wildlife.

Martha Teichner has been a correspondent for “CBS Sunday Morning” since December 1993, where she’s equally adept at covering major breaking national and international breaking news stories as she is handling in-depth cultural and arts topics. Now based in New York, Teichner spent more than a dozen years as a foreign correspondent covering major international news. She not only covered Britain’s royal wedding of Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer, but many wars as one of only a handful of female war correspondents.

PETER RIEGERT has been acting, writing, directing, and producing since 1971. His movies include: Animal House, Local Hero, The Mask, Crossing Delancey, Chilly Scenes of Winter, and Utz. TV: The Sopranos, Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt, Concealed Enemies, Ellis Island, Dads. Theater, Broadway and Off-Broadway: The Old Neighborhood, American Daughter, The Nerd, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, The Birthday Party, Isn’t it Romantic. He directed the Oscar nominated short, By Courrier and the feature, King of the Corner, and was a member of the Improv Company, War Babies.

ANN TEMKIN is The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Mod- ern Art. Her exhibitions at MoMA include Studio Visit: Selected Gifts from Agnes Gund (2018), Picasso Sculpture (2015), Robert Gober: The Heart Is Not a Metaphor (2014), and Jasper Johns: Regrets (2014). She is currently deeply involved with planning the collection displays for the opening of MoMA’s expanded galleries in fall 2019.

ARI MELBER, an Emmy Award-winning journalist, writer and attorney, is the host of “The Beat with Ari Melber” airing nightly at 6pm ET on MSNBC. Melber also serves as MSNBC’s Chief Legal Correspondent and an NBC News Legal Analyst, reporting on law and justice stories across all NBC platforms, and providing legal analysis for pro- grams such as “TODAY” and “The Rachel Maddow Show,” among others. Melber received a 2016 Emmy Award for his reporting on the Supreme Court. Melber also regularly guest hosts for MSNBC anchors such as Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell, Chris Hayes and Brian Williams, and he previously hosted MSNBC’s weekend program “The Point with Ari Melber.” Before joining MSNBC, Melber spent four years practicing First Amendment law, and served as a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate. He is a former columnist for Politico and Reuters, and his writing has been published in several books and a variety of news outlets, including The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Nation and The New York Daily News, among other publications. Melber received a J.D. from Cornell Law School, where he was an editor of the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy, and he is a member of the New York Bar. “The Beat with Ari Melber” airs nightly on MSNBC at 6 pm ET and highlights can be viewed at http://www.msnbc. com/thebeatwithari (@TheBeatWithAri).

Detroit needed a new hip-hop hero. It got one and so much more in TEE GRIZZLEY. The platinum-certified rap titan not only delivers cinematic and narrative bangers a la “First Day Out,” “From The D To The A,” and “No Effort,” but he also stands up for his community. On a local level, he regularly visits orphanages and boxing gyms to inspire the next generation of kids who aren’t much different from him when he was their age. On a global level, he aims to represent the movement for lasting and humane prison reform. After serving a now-storied bid himself, he wrote “First Day Out” and shot its music video on parole during his first-week back home. It eventually went platinum and earned fans such as JAY-Z. His own movement just started here. He kicked off 2019 by attending the announcement of the REFORM Alliance at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York alongside 300 Entertainment Co-Founder and C.E.O. Kevin Liles. At the moment, he remains mired in a case to free his mother extraneously imprisoned for 25 years on drug charges.

ROGER MCNAMEE is the author of the NY Times bestseller “Zucked.” He has been a Silicon Valley investor for 35 years. He co-founded successful funds in venture, crossover and private equity. His most recent fund, Elevation, included U2’s Bono as a co-founder. He holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

PETER JACOBSON spent many years kicking around the stage Off Broadway. More recently he’s been kicking around the TV on shows such as ‘House’, ‘Ray Donovan’ and ‘Law and Order:SVU’. Most recently he played Agent Wolf in ‘The Americans’ while also playing Proxy Snyder in ‘Colony’, which was shot in Canada… so there’s that. Most recently he can be seen in NCIS:LA.

SHALOM AUSLANDER is the author of a number of critically-acclaimed book, including ‘Foreskin’s Lament’ and ‘Hope: A Tragedy.’ He was also the Creator and Writer of the Showtime series ‘Happyish,’ and was a regular contributor to NPR’s This American Life. He recently moved to Los Angeles, because he’s a schmuck.

LEENYA RIDEOUT Broadway: War Horse; Cyrano de Bergerac; Company; Cabaret. Off-Broadway: Wild Abandon, Irish Rep; Before Were Gone, 13th St. Rep; Fire & Air and As You Like It, CSC; Taming of the Shrew, Public Theater; Yiddle with a Fiddle, AJT; Cowgirls, Minetta Lane. Regional: That Face, Baltimore Center Stage; Camelot, Cap Rep; Man of La Mancha, Milwaukee Rep; On Golden Pond, Casa Manana; Fairfield, Cleveland Playhouse; Secret Garden, Cap Rep; Woody Sez, Westport Playhouse, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Hangar Theater; Holidays with the Chalks, Alliance Theatre; Merrily We Roll Along, Cincinnati Playhouse. Film: Love, Repeat; Mona Lisa Smile; Loser. Concert: Wall to Wall Broadway (Symphony Space); Radio: Selected Shorts, NPR. Love to Ted.

MARY BRIENZA is a performer and writer with credits ranging from musical theatre and concert dance to stand-up comedy. Appearances include Leave It To Me (Off Broadway), Dance Dialogue Reflections with the A&G Dance Company (Dance Theatre Workshop), Jump Rhythm Jazz Project (Kaye Playhouse) the self-penned solo comedy A Women Possessed. At Symphony Space she has appeared in Wall-To-Wall Cole Porter, Bloomsday On Broadway, the Thalia Reading Series’ Helpers, and was a contributing writer and recurring cast member of the Thalia Follies. Since 1993 she has appeared extensively as her songwriting alter ego Judeen Chalk. Together with Leenya Rideout and Kathryn Markey-they are THE CHALKS. A respected teacher of theatre dance and tap dance, she is a long- standing guest teacher and choreographer for New York City’s High School for Performing Arts.

KAREN AKERS, one of America’s most arresting and successful concert and cabaret stars, has performed throughout the United States, Europe and the former Soviet Union. She has appeared in many prestigious venues worldwide from Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, New York’s Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, and London’s Pizza on the Park. Her career also includes three performances at the White House. “It’s a great voice,” critics have said, “an instrument with the power of Streisand’s, the dark passion of Piaf’s and the lean irony of Dietrich’s, but a voice uniquely her own, because it’s coupled with an intelligence that creates moments of riveting theatricality. She appeared at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway as one of the original stars of the Tony Award-winning musical “GRAND HOTEL,” directed by Tommy Tune. She made her debut on the Great White Way in 1982 in “NINE” (also directed by Mr. Tune) for which she won a Theatre World Award as well as a Tony Award nomination.

RUTH REICHL is the author of My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life, a cookbook published in September 2015. She was Editor in Chief of Gourmet Magazine from 1999 to 2009. Before that she was the restaurant critic of both The New York Times (1993-1999) and the Los Angeles Times (1984-1993), where she was also named food editor. As co-owner of The Swallow Restaurant from 1974 to 1977, she played a part in the culinary revolution that took place in Berkeley, California. Ms. Reichl has been honored with 6 James Beard Awards (one for magazine feature writing and one for multimedia food journalism in 2009; two for restaurant criticism, in 1996 and 1998; one for journalism, in 1994; and Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America, 1984. In 2007, she was named Adweek’s Editor of the Year. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. in the History of Art from the University of Michigan and lives in Upstate New York with her husband, Michael Singer, a television news producer.

DANNY MEYER was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in a family that relished great food and hospitality. Thanks to his father’s travel business, which designed custom European trips, Danny spent much of his childhood eating, visiting near and far-off places, and sowing the seeds for his future passion. In 1985, at the age of 27, Danny opened his first restaurant, Union Square Cafe, launching what would become a lifelong career inhospitality. Thirty years later, Danny’s Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) comprises some of New York’s most beloved and acclaimed restaurants, including Gramercy Tavern, The Modern, Maialino, and more. Danny and USHG founded Shake Shack, the modern-day “roadside” burger restaurant, which became a public company in 2015. Danny has been generously recognized for his leadership, business achievements, and humanitarianism, including the 2017 Julia Child Award, the 2015 TIME 100 “Most Influential People” list, the 2012 Aspen Institute Preston Robert Tisch Award in Civic Leadership, the 2011 NYU Lewis Rudin Award for Exemplary Service to New York City, and the 2000 IFMA Gold Plate Award. Together, Danny and USHG’s restaurants and individuals have won an unprecedented 28 James Beard Awards, including Outstanding Restaurateur (2005) and Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America (1996). Danny and his wife, Audrey, live in New York City and have four children.

ANAND GIRIDHARADAS is the author of, most recently, “Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World,” published by Knopf in 2018. His other books are “The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas,” about a Muslim immigrant’s campaign to spare from Death Row the white supremacist who tried to kill him (optioned for movie adaption by Annapurna Pictures); and “India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation’s Remaking,” about returning to the India his parents left. He is an on-air political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and a visiting scholar at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University. He is a former columnist and correspondent for The New York Times, having written, most recently, the biweekly “Letter from America.”

KELLY HALL-TOMPKINS has been acclaimed by the New York Times as “the versatile violinist who makes the music come alive” and for her “tonal mastery” (BBC Music Magazine) and “searing intensity” (American Record Guide). Ms. Hall-Tomkins has a dynamic career as a soloist and chamber musician. Winner of a Naumburg International Violin Competition Honorarium Prize, she has appeared as soloist in all 3 halls at Carnegie, live on BBC Radio in
London, and with the Symphonies of Dallas, Jacksonville, Tulsa, Brevard Festival, and Uruguay. For 13 months she performed as the “Fiddler,” violin soloist, for the Tony-nominated Bartlett Sher Broadway production of “Fiddler on the Roof,” The New York Times hailed Ms. Hall-Tompkins in a feature article as holding the title role, together with dancer Jesse Kovarsky. Featured as soloist in over 400 Broadway performances during the run, plus a Grammy-nominated cast album alongside a bonus track by Itzhak Perlman. Ms. Hall-Tompkins will also be featured in an upcoming new documentary on Fiddler on the Roof, in theaters spring of 2019. A passionate chamber musician and humanitarian, Ms. Hall-Tompkins is a member of the Florida-based Ritz Chamber Players, which has appearing Ravinia’s Rising Stars Series, The Allen Room at Lincoln Center, and WQXR’s “Soundcheck,” Ms. Hall-Tompkins is also the founder and President of Music Kitchen-Food for the Soul, which has, to date, brought almost 100 chamber music performances to New York City homeless shelters and been featured in the New York Times.

VANESSA BRETAS has been acting since her first role as the mustachioed old man in Jack and the Beanstalk. In 2010, she attended New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. At NYU, Vanessa studied with Playwrights Horizons Theatre School.

A.M. HOMES’ most recent book is Days of Awe, a collection of short stories. She is the author of the novels, This Book Will Save Your Life, which won the 2013 Orange/Women’s Prize for Fiction, Music For Torching, The End of Alice, In a Country of Mothers, and Jack, as well as the short-story collections, Things You Should Know and The Safety of Objects, the bestselling memoir, The Mistress’s Daughter along with a travel memoir, Los Angeles: People, Places and The Castle on the Hill, and the artist’s book Appendix A: Her work has been translated into twenty-two languages and appears frequently in Art Forum, Harpers, Granta, McSweeney’s, The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Zoetrope. She is a Contributing Editor to Vanity Fair, Bomb and Blind Spot. Several times a year she collaborates on book projects with artists-among them Eric Fischl, Rachel Whiteread, Cecily Brown, Bill Owens, Julie Speed, Michal Chelbin, Petah Coyne, Carroll Dunham, Catherine Opie and Todd Hido.

HEATHER QUINLAN is a New Yorker who’s lived in all five boroughs and whose documentary, If These Knishes Could Talk: The Story of the New York Accent has been featured in The New York Times, WSJ, NPR, BBC, NBC, CBS, and in festivals around the country. Her short film, “O Brooklyn! My Brooklyn!” about Walt Whitman’s “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” was called “charming … an endearing way of making an old poem more relevant” by The New York Times. She also directed Dinner With Wise Guys, a Little Italy spin on IFC’s “Dinner For Five,” and videos for TLC, the Discovery Channel and the Science Channel. She is working on a film about cemeteries called “Look Who’s Dead.”

A New England boy who fell in love with theatre, Tom Lipinski’s father counseled him to get into the medical profession. But that didn’t prevent him from finding his place first in theater and then film. Whether it was directing his own short film “Ben” or portraying television heavy Charlie Mead opposite Kevin Bacon on the television thriller “The Following, Tom Lipinski knew that acting was his true calling. Born and raised just outside of Boston, Lipinski was first introduced to acting when he joined an experimental theater troupe while attending Brown University. He continued with his history degree, but after graduating he became involved with experimental theatre. His first real break came with the recurring role of Ben Preswick on the series “Deception.” Lipinski has also been seen on the big screen in Jason Reitman’s drama “Labor Day.”

Adam Gopnik has been a staff writer at The New Yorker for more than thirty years. His many books include ” At The Stranger’s Gate”, “Paris To The Moon” and ” Through The Children’s Gate.” He collaborated with composer David Shire on a new musical, “Our Table” and his one-man story telling show, “The Gates”, which he has performed from Nantucket to Los Angeles, played to a sold out week at New York’s Public Theater last year.

The band BETTY– Alyson Palmer, Amy Ziff and Elizabeth Ziff–has been together for 33 years! In their words, “We are pop music feminist activists and always have been. We are pro-choice, pro-queer, pro-strait, pro-women, pro-lesbian, pro-trans, pro-sex, pro-immigrant, pro-fun, pro-reading, pro-facts, pro-food, pro-love and anti-violence and guns. We tour internationally and have music in film and tv, including the global smash theme song to The L Word. We have ten albums out available everywhere. We have a non-profit called The BETTY Effect (thebettyeffect.org) that enables us to help promote self-advocacy through music and performance to LGBTQ people as well as girls and women worldwide.

Follow us on social media:
www.hellobetty.com
www.twitter.com/bettymusic
www.facebook.com/bettyverse
www.instagram.com/bettyrules

Mike Doyle is thrilled to be working with Julie Rottenberg and Elisa Zuritsky again, having last worked with them on Bravo’s ODD MOM OUT. Mike’s recent credits include: THE ROMANOFFS (Amazon), NARCOS (Netflix), NEW AMSTERDAM (NBC). Mike recently finished shooting SELL BY, a film he wrote and directed starring Kate Walsh, Patricia Clarkson, and Scott Evans.

Cody Lindquist is a political comedian and actress in New York City. She is the voice of Melania Trump on the Showtime animated series Our Cartoon President and co-host of the podcast Two Beers In: A Tipsy Political Roundtable recorded live at the UCB Theatre in the East Village. As an actress she has made appearances on Broad City, Law & Order: SVU, Master of None, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and Difficult People. She always votes in midterm elections.

Melissa Errico is best known for her starring roles on Broadway in the musicals My Fair Lady, Anna Karenina, High Society, Dracula, White Christmas and Amour which won her a Tony nomination for “Best Actress” and began a longtime association with its composer Michel Legrand. She is releasing a new album this fall, Sondheim Sublime, showing us a side of Stephen Sondheim’s music that no singer has explored. She will also be offering Sondheim concerts at Feinstein’s/54 Below in November to celebrate the album release. Melissa has also been establishing a reputation as a writer, publishing essays in The New York Times and beyond. Television roles include the series Central Park West by Darren Star, recurring roles on Steven Soderbergh’s The Knick and Showtime’s Billions. Melissa also recently finished shooting a role in The Magnificent Meyersons, an Eric Oppenheimer film with Kate Mulgrew.

Lisa Lewis is a critically acclaimed playwright, essayist and storyteller. Her most recent play SCHOOLED was called “sexy and snarled” by The New York Times and “remarkable, wised-up and whip smart” by Time Out New York in a Four Star Critic’s Pick review. You can read it in the Applause anthology, The Best Plays From American Theatre Festivals 2015. She is currently at work on a half-hour comedy pilot for Maven Pictures and is a Creative Director at SpotCo Entertainment Advertising, leading campaigns for Lincoln Center Theater and the Roundabout Theatre Company.

Maddie Corman is a performer, writer and teacher who has been acting since her teens and has appeared extensively on the big screen, the little screen, and The Broadway. She recently received a fellowship from New York Stage & Film to work on her solo piece ACCIDENTALLY BRAVE. She will next be seen as Lady Aberlin to Tom Hanks Mr. Rogers in the upcoming YOU ARE MY FRIEND.

ANNABELLE GURWITCH is an actress and New York Times Bestselling author, her books include I See You Made an Effort ( a finalist for the Thurber Prize), You Say Tomato, I Say Shut Up, Fired! and Wherever You Go, There They Are, now in paperback. She’s written for The New York Times, New Yorker, WSJ, Hollywood Reporter, as well being a long time NPR commentator. TV audiences remember her many years hosting Dinner & a Movie, and appearances on Better Things, Boston Legal, Medium, and Murphy Brown where she was fired for being too actressy, Real Time with Bill Maher and her IMHO’s on PBS NewsHour. On stage where she lives now in Los Angeles, she’s a veteran of world premieres and west coast premiers of works by Donald Margulies, Wendy MacLeod, David Greenspan and Stephen Adly Guirgis. Want more? Listen to her on The Moth or watch her recent TEDx on-line.

STEVE RATTNER is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Willett Advisors LLC, the investment arm for former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s personal and philanthropic assets. In addition, he serves as the Economic Analyst on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and is a contributing writer to The New York Times Op Ed page. He previously served as Counselor to the Secretary of the Treasury and led the Obama Administration’s successful effort to restructure the automobile industry, which he chronicled in his book, Overhaul: An Insider’s Account of the Obama Administration’s Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry.

EMILY NUSSBAUM is the television critic at The New Yorker. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2016 and is currently at work on an anthology of her essays and also a book about reality television. Before she moved to the New Yorker, she was the Culture Editor for New York Magazine, where she created The Approval Matrix; and sometime before that, she wrote the Reruns column for the New York Times; and sometime before that, the Summary Judgment column for Slate. She also worked at Nerve and Lingua Franca, a magazine about sex and a magazine about academia, respectively, and she has a master’s degree in Poetry. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Clive Thompson, a technology journalist, their two children and a chihuahua/dachshund mix. No one in the house has strict screen time rules.

LA TANYA HALL’s versatility in a variety of musical genres has allowed her to travel the world and work with some of the world’s most celebrated artists, including Steely Dan, Diana Ross, Bobby McFerrin, and Rob Thomas. She recently completed a European tour with Steely Dan and a world tour with Rob Thomas. An in-demand session singer, she also is prominently featured on Bobby McFerrin’s 2013 recording SpiritYouAll as well as his masterpiece 2010 release “Vocabularies.”

Larry D. Hylton, tenor, has appeared with The Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Tulsa Opera, Atlanta Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, L’Opera National de Lyon (France) and Opera de Montreal. He is a graduate of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. He continued studying voice and choral conducting at Carnegie Mellon University and Morgan State University. He has recorded for GIA Publications, Oregon Catholic Press and MGH Records.

Isaac Mizrahi has performed at Café Carlyle, Joe’s Pub, West Bank Café and City Winery locations across the country. He currently serves as a judge on Project Runway: All-Stars and hosts two weekly shows on QVC. He has worked in the entertainment industry as an actor, host, writer, designer, director and producer for a really long time. To say exactly would be very aging.

Eli Ganias was an original member of Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding in New York and Los Angeles and has worked in local regional theatres. His film and television work include 100 Centre Street, Law & Order, L&O Criminal Intent, and American Splendor. He has been a big fan of the Mets, Jets, and Nets since he was a kid. He felt he should because they rhymed.

BARATUNDE THURSTON is an Emmy-nominated host who has told jokes professionally on five continents, worked for The Onion, produced for The Daily Show, advised the Obama White House, and cleaned bathrooms to pay for his Harvard education. He co-founded Cultivated Wit and the About Race podcast and wrote the New York Times bestseller How To Be Black. Baratunde is a highly sought-after public speaker and internet person whose LinkedIn profile history includes: a correspondent with NatGeo’s Explorer series, columnist for Fast Company, closing speaker for TED, director’s fellow at the MIT Media Lab, national board member for BUILD, and gentrifier of Brooklyn, New York. He is part of the resistance.

AMANDA RYAN PAIGE says this about herself: “I come from a family of actors, singers, dancers, comedians, musicians, directors, choreographers, writers and some circus folk. Generations of them. There’s no way I could have done anything else. My first school performance was of the ABC’s where I showed everyone my underwear; silky with butterflies on them – it’s always been important to me to make everyone feel comfortable. My community theatre was a professional opera company. Mom signed me up for modern dance when I was 10 years old with a bunch of college students. I believe that was where I began my affinity for “the awkward”. Graduated from The Hartt School where I studied Musical Theatre and Improv. Immediately moved to NYC. My spirit animal is the otter. My password on everything is cHaraKtrAcTR.

Nicole Krauss is the author of the recently published novel, Forest Dark which The Guardian called “blazingly intelligent, elegantly written and a remarkable achievement.” Philip Roth said of Forest Dark it is “a brilliant novel. I am full of admiration.” Krauss is also the author of New York Times bestsellers Great House, a finalist for the National Book Award, and The History of Love. Her first novel, Man Walks into a Room, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She was selected as one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists in 2007 and named to the New Yorker’s Twenty Under Forty list in 2010. Her fiction has been published in the New Yorker, Harper’s, Esquire, and The Best American Short Stories, and her books have been translated into more than thirty-five languages.

Eleanor Reissa is a Tony nominated director, a Broadway actress, an Israel Prize nominee, an award-winning playwright, and singer in Yiddish and English. She was on Broadway in the Tony-winning play INDECENT by Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel. She starred and directed Sholem Asch’s play GOD OF VENGEANCE in Yiddish at New York’s La Mama. She has been called the Yiddish Edith Piaf, and is one of the world’s most renown interpreters of Yiddish music and just returned from a European tour with Frank London. An anthology of her plays, THE LAST SURVIVOR AND OTHER MODERN JEWISH PLAYS, has recently been published. She has received writing commissions including YIDL MITN FIDL for Yiddishpiel in Israel, and HERSHELE OSTROPOLYER for the Folksbiene, which she helmed from 1998-2003. www.eleanorreissa.com

Julian Velard’s music stylings and comedic timing have made him a fixture on The Howard Stern Show and NPR’s Ask Me Another. Velard turns the piano-pop tunesmith stereotype on its ear with a refreshing, urbane twist: a biting 21st century wit in a stylish package. Think Harry Connick, Jr. with the panache of a Brooklyn hipster, recalling Stephen Sondheim or Randy Newman at their peak. His music initially took hold overseas nearly a decade ago, where praise from The Guardian, Time Out London, and The Sunday Times, led a UK major label record. Velard has toured internationally alongside Jamie Cullum, Paul Carrack, Amy MacDonald. He’s written scores of songs for others, including Matt Bellassai’s popular web series “To Be Honest”, podcast themes for The New Republic and Audible, and UK Pop Sensation and X-Factor Host Olly Murs.

David Leisner is an extraordinarily versatile musician with a multi-faceted career as an electrifying performing artist, a distinguished composer, and a master teacher. “Among the finest guitarists of all time”, according to American Record Guide, Leisner has recorded for the Azica, Naxos, Telarc, Koch and Mel Bay labels. His recent seasons have taken him throughout the US, Canada and Mexico, Australasia and Europe. Leisner’s own compositions, “rich in invention and melody, emotionally direct, and beautiful” (Fanfare magazine), are performed, recorded and published worldwide. He is currently Chair of the guitar department at the Manhattan School of Music. www.davidleisner.com

Jonathan Santlofer is a writer and artist. He has published 5 crime novels, numerous short stories and edited 6 anthologies, the most recent, “IT OCCURS TO ME THAT I AM AMERICA,” a collection of original stories and art concerning civil liberties in support of the ACLU, published by Touchstone/Simon & Schuster. His artwork is in major public and private collections in the US and abroad. Jonathan’s memoir, “The Widower’s Notebook,” will be published by Penguin Books in July 2018.

LAJUAN CARTER has worked on stage and in studio with a stellar list of artists – including Stevie Wonder, Celine Dion, James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, Little Steven Van Zandt, Jennifer Nettles, Chaka Kahn and many more.  She has been the featured voice on national jingles for Diet Coke, Zest and Coors Light as well as a songwriter and performer on major motion picture soundtracks.  You can currently catch her Thursday nights as part of the house band on Fox TV’s “Showtime at The Apollo”, hosted by Steve Harvey.

Judy Kuhn is a four-time Tony nominee most recently in the Broadway production of Fun Home. She was also in Les Mis, Rags and the 2016 revival of Fiddler on the Roof. She’s performed on concert stages around the world including Carnegie Hall, The Hollywood Bowl, and The Royal Albert Hall.

Bianca Bosker is an award-winning journalist and the author of the New York Times bestseller CORK DORK,and praised as the “KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL of wine.” Bianca traded her career as HuffPost’s Executive Tech Editor for a job as “cellar rat”–the lowest of the low in the wine world. Inspired by sommeliers who hone their senses the way Olympians train their bodies, she trained to become a “somm” and uncover the nature of taste. She has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and Food & Wine and is the author of ORIGINAL COPIES.

Elisa Zuritsky got her start writing humorous entertainment pieces at the humorous newspaper, the New York Post. Her work has also been published in The New York Times, The New York Observer, McSweeney’s, and Huffington Post. In 2010, she wrote and directed Civil Unions: A Love Story, a short film about marriage equality.

Together with lifelong friend, Julie Rottenberg she wrote for HBO’s Sex and the City, where they were nominated for three Emmys and three Writers Guild Awards. They have also written countless brilliant but underappreciated pilots and staffed on the series, Six Degrees and Smash, before landing happily back in cable at Bravo’s Odd Mom Out.

Elisa lives in Brooklyn with her husband Jordan and their two children.

Sunday, October 22, 5PM

Emmy award winning  correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning and The Daily Show, panelist on NPR’s news quiz show Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me.  He’s hung out with everyone from Pope Francis to the Rockettes.

James Naughton is the winner of two Tony Awards as Best Actor in a Musical, for his portrayal of media-savvy lawyer Billy Flynn in the Broadway hit “Chicago” (1997) and for his role as a film-noir era detective in “City of Angels” (1990), which also earned him a Drama Desk Award. He won the 1999 MAC Award as best male vocalist for his one-man concert show, “Street of Dreams,” presented by Mike Nichols, and recorded his CD, “It’s About Time,” for DRG records. In 2014, he recorded his Live From Lincoln Center Special for PBS, James Naughton Sings Randy Newman.

Randy Cohen’s first professional work was writing humor pieces, essays, and stories for newspapers and magazines (The New Yorker, Harpers, the Atlantic, Young Love Comics). His first television work was writing for “Late Night With David Letterman” for which he won three Emmy awards. His fourth Emmy was for his work on Michael Moore’s “TV Nation.” He received a fifth Emmy as a result of a clerical error, and he kept it. For twelve years he wrote “The Ethicist,” a weekly column for the New York Times Magazine. His most recent book, “Be Good: how to navigate the ethics of everything,” was published by Chronicle. He is currently the creator and host of Person Place Thing, a public radio program.

Alysia Reiner is best known for her role as Natalie "Fig" Figueroa, the tough as nails assistant warden everyone loves to hate on NETFLIX’s hit series ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK. Alysia won a SAG award as part of the amazing ensemble cast, you can see her in all 4 binge- worthy seasons, and she is currently filming Season 5. You can also catch her as Sunny in the new F/X show BETTER THINGS, brought to you by the inimitable Louie CK & Pamela Adlon. On the film front, Alysia stars in EQUITY, which she also produced. The film premiered at Sundance in January 2016, was acquired by SONY PICTURES CLASSICS and was in theaters nationwide, and was just bought by ABC to develop into a series. She feels so blessed to have worked with so many film masters from Alexander Payne in the Oscar winning SIDEWAYS, to Jodie Foster, to the amazing Meera Menon– the director of EQUITY. Also, she is madly in love with the guy playing her husband tonight & the kid they made is the light of her life. Let’s be friends? please?

David Basche had a very happy childhood but decided to become an actor anyway. You recognize him because he’s been the lead in a bunch of TV shows (lotta comedies, some dramas) and he was in that Spielberg film and that weird Soderbergh film and a ton of other stuff. He married his summer theatre sweetheart and they live happily – though somewhat neurotically – ever after.

PATRICIA VOLK is the author of STUFFED and SHOCKED, both memoirs, and two collections of short stories and two novels. She is a Guggenheim Fellow and a former columnist for the late New York Newsday.

Cristina Cote is a performer, writer and producer who was born and raised in the Big Apple. She’s the host and creator of HERsterical, an all-star, all-female comedy show that has been a part of the NY Comedy Festival and has featured Saturday Night Live’s Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones. A portion of the proceeds are donated to Gilda’s Club in honor of Gilda Radner. Cristina also sells luxury real estate at Town Residential and hosts the Emmy-award winning PBS Real Estate/Lifestyle TV show, “Best Places to Live.” She has appeared on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” and has performed  at Caroline’s on Broadway, the Friar’s Club and Upright Citizen’s Brigade and interviews top chefs for the website, The Chef’s Connection. Cristina’s comedic character work includes her popular Russian alter-ego “Svetty” (@SvettyintheCity. Cristina studied improv at Upright Citizens Brigade and film and acting at American University. For more information please visit: www.CristinaCote.com, www.YouTube.com/cristinacotecomedy; Twitter/Instagram: @CristinaCoteNYC. Cristina is thrilled to be performing in In Your Face NY!

Andrew Rein recently won the 2016 Webby Award for “Best Writing – Online Film and Video” for the pilot for The Small Time, a web series that he co-created and co-wrote with playwright Jack Canfora. Andrew also stars in the series, alongside TV vets Jill Eikenberry and Michael Tucker. As an actor, he has appeared Off-Broadway and at regional theaters around the country. His film and TV work includes Luke Cage, Odd Mom Out, Law & Order:SVU, Gossip Girl, Steve Niles’ Remains, and others. Visit Andrew on the web at www.andrewrein.com and follow him on Twitter @andrew_rein.

Julie Rottenberg started her career in New York as a playwright and sketch comedy writer, and also worked for years as a comic book editor at DC Comics. Julie then teamed up with lifelong friend Elisa Zuritsky (they met when they were 9 at a Saturday morning acting class), and joined the writing staff of their favorite show, HBO’s Sex and the City. During their four seasons with the show, they earned three Emmy Award nominations and three Writers Guild Award nominations.  Julie and Elisa then went on to write many brilliant but underappreciated pilots for HBO, ABC, and CBS, and even put their childhood years at a performing arts camp to use when they wrote for NBC’s Smash. Most recently, they were Show Runners/Executive Producers on Bravo’s Odd Mom Out.   Julie has contributed humor, opinion, and entertainment features for publications including The New York Times, Slate, Real Simple, and Marie Claire. Julie lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband, multi-media artist Ben Rubin, and their two children.

Vin Knight is a member of Elevator Repair Service (2012 Obie for Sustained Excellence) and has appeared in the U.S. and internationally in its productions of Gatz; The Select (The Sun Also Rises); The Sound and the Fury; Arguendo and Fondly, Collette Richland among others. Other stage credits include Spam (Jack), Our Man in Havana (Portland Stage), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2013 Broadway revival), Marie Antoinette (ART and Yale Rep), The Temperamentals (Barrow Group) and U.S. Drag (Clubbed Thumb). Film and TV credits include Younger, Louie and Robot Stories. He is a graduate of Yale University.

Gian-Carla Tisera’s debut album Nora la Bella was chosen ‘Album of the Week’ by Latin Jazz Net.  The Examiner critic  raved: “You’ve never heard anything like it, it’s quite possibly a game-changer…”   Gian-Carla  studied music in Bolivia and Opera at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Since 2008 she has lived in New York City, where she’s  submerged herself in the city’s ‘jam sessions’ to explore improvisation and to expand her ideas on musical fusion. By experimenting with the liberating force of jazz and reuniting with the music of her homeland, she discovered her own musical and vocal artistry.

Cathryn Mudon (myoo’-don, like music) is an actor and improviser originally from Fruita, Colorado. She teaches and performs regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre with the sketch group, Bellevue (SF Sketchfest, NY Comedy Fest), and Harold team, Higgins. Cathryn is the co-star and co-creator of the improvised webseries, I’m Too Fragile for This (USA Today’s Best of TV on the Web) with Connor Ratliff. Cathryn is a graduate of Regis University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. She has appeared on The Colbert Report, Broad City, and some commercials you fast-forwarded through. She loves Colorado, soup dumplings, and Civil War reenactments. Shine on.

Harry Zerler, IYFNY staff announcer, made his WCBS television debut while attending 5^th grade at P.S. 24 as co-pilot to Captain Jet on Space Funnies. His fading celebrity was not revived by becoming morning man on WNYU-AM radio in college. At WNBC radio he screened listener calls for the legendary late night meshuggineh Long John Nebel, He was an on-air kibbitzer with Don Imus on WFAN until 1986, and soon after, his obscurity quickly faded to oblivion. His favorite announcers are Don Wilson, Harry VonZell, Don Pardo, and Johnny Olson.

Marjorie Ingalls is one of the few writers who identifies herself as a ghostwriter. She’s done lots of celebrity biographies–but even under threat of torture she won’t tell you who they are.  She co-writes a blog called Sorry Watch and is the author of the recently published Mamaleh Knows Best.

Misha Dichter was born in Shanghai in 1945, his Polish parents having fled Poland at the outbreak of World War II.  He moved with his family to Los Angeles at the age of two and began piano lessons four years later.

At the age of 20, while still enrolled at Juilliard, he entered the 1966 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, where his choice of repertoire—music of Schubert and Beethoven, Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky—reflected the two major influences on his musical development.  Mr. Dichter’s stunning triumph at that competition launched his international career.  In 1968, Mr. Dichter made his debut with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic. Appearances with leading European ensembles includes the Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, and the principal London orchestras.

An accomplished writer, Mr. Dichter has contributed many articles to leading publications, including The New York Times.  He has been seen frequently on national television and was the subject of an hour-long European television documentary.

Mr. Dichter lives with his wife, pianist Cipa Dichter, in New York City.  They have two grown sons.

Lily Tomlin is one of America’s most acclaimed actors.  From her early days on TVsLaugh In, in movies like Nashville, The Late Show, Nine to Five and Grandma she’s explored the often funny, always complicated lives of the characters she’d helped shape.  With her wife Jane Wagner she brought two works to the stage that helped define the idea of the “one actor show,” Appearing Nightly and The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe. In 2015, Tomlin starred with Jane Fonda in the Netflix series Grace and Frankie, in which they play two women whose lives are rocked after their husbands fall in love. Tomlin received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance. She also received two Golden Globe nominations—one for her role on Grace and the other for the big-screen outing Grandma.

The Tee Tones formed on the street corners of Brooklyn and Manhattan and in tunnels of the NYC subway system and represent a long tradition of great RnB ‘a cappella soul’ groups. They’re the perfect exponents of the music that gave birth to Doowop, Rhythm-n-Blues, Rock-n-Roll, Classic Soul and Motown. You can find them at theteetones.com.

BROADWAY: Relatively Speaking, Torch Song Trilogy. OFF-BROADWAY: Original plays by Woody Allen, Kenneth Lonergan, John Patrick Shanley, Neil LaBute, Gina Gionfriddo, Paul Weitz, Israel Horovitz, and Stephen Metcalfe. Member of The Ensemble Studio Theatre. TELEVISION: Series regular on Murphy Brown and several others. Appearing in indie films The American Side and Choo and Blossom. Wrote and directed the shorts Baggage Claim and A Five-Minute Epic Love Story.

Ted Koch has been an actor for a long time. He has performed on Broadway, off Broadway, in the regions, on television and in films. Ted has played both Tevye and Ernest Hemingway, but not at the same time. Although that does give him an idea for a one man show.

Katie Halper was born and raised on the mean streets of New York City’s Upper West Side. She is a comic, writer, blogger, satirist and filmmaker based in New York. Her latest documentary is Commie Camp about Camp Kinderland, the summer camp the right loves to hate, which Katie and her mother and grandmother attended and worked at. Check out www.commiecamp.com, www.katiehalper.com, and www.twitter.com/kthalps

Katie Goodman is an actress, comedy writer, activist, and internationally touring musical comedian who has performed at Caroline’s On Broadway, Showtime’s The Green Room With Paul Provenza and on Current TV as a pundit. Her solo show of political and personal satire is currently touring and can be seen locally at the infamous Joe’s Pub at The Public Theatre in NYC and at Stage 72.

Broadway: The Big Knife. Member of Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre: Our Town, Great Men of Science Nos. 21 & 22, Arabian Nights, Up Against It, The Master & Margarita, Wants & Needs, Hard Times. Off-B’way: Happy Hour, Offices, Almost An Evening, The New York Idea, 10×25, The Altruists. Regional: Animal Crackers (Williamstown) Romance (Bay Street). And “a bunch of TV and film stuff”….including The Good Wife and Unforgettable.

Soledad O’Brien is an award-winning journalist, documentarian, news anchor, producer, and philanthropist. She is the founder and CEO of Starfish Media Group. O’Brien’s company uncovers and produces empowering stories that look at often divisive issues of race, class, wealth, poverty, and opportunity. Some of O’Brien’s most notable achievements include, among others, her production of the successful documentary series Latino in America and Black in America and her efforts to award scholarships to disadvantaged young women through her charity, The O’Brien Raymond Foundation. O’Brien presented the ‘I AM LATINO IN AMERICA’ tour, with nationwide stops across the United States during 2016. She produced “The War Comes Home-The New Battlefront,” a documentary that follows the issues of six veterans and brings awareness to the struggles that affect them such as job opportunities, homelessness and PTSD.

Robin “Goldie” Goldwasser (Waitress/Singer: The Go Getters) is a genius, and is currently working on an album of lullabies for adults.

CLEA LEWIS has appeared in many television shows, including series regular roles on “Ellen” and “Andy Barker, P.I.” and guest star parts on everything from “Friends” and “Mad about You” to recent roles on “The Americans” and “The Affair”. Films include “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” “Perfect Stranger”, “Life of Crime” and “Motherhood”. Favorite New York Theatre credits are “Dying for it” at the Atlantic theatre and “Things You Shouldn’t Say Past Midnight” written by her hubby Peter Ackerman.

Arturo O’Farrill, pianist, composer, educator, and founder and Artistic Director of the nonprofit Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, was born in Mexico and grew up in New York City.  Mr. O’Farrill created the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO) for Jazz at Lincoln Center due in part to a large and very demanding body of substantial music in the genre of Latin and Afro Cuban Jazz that deserves to be much more widely appreciated and experienced by the general jazz audience.

Jack Canfora is an award-winning playwright whose works include JERICHO and POETIC LICENSE. His latest play, FELLOW TRAVELERS, will have its world premiere in the spring of 2018 at the Bay Street Theater. He also co-created the web series THE SMALL TIME, which won a Webby award for best writing.”

Soren Kisiel is the Co-author and Co-Director of Broad Comedy, an internationally touring all-women satire troupe featuring his wife, comedian Katie Goodman. His work as performed by Katie and The Broads won Pick-of-the-Fringe at the Vancouver Fringe Festival. Soren and Katie have been nominated for the MacArthur Foundation’s Genius grant for their unique work in theater, and for the White House Project’s Emerging Artists Award.

Alec Holland was a writer on The Big Gay Sketch Show. He was writing consultant on the animated films Rio and Ice Age 4.  He is a contributor to Un-Titled Magazine. He writes a décor blog called Smarter Alec.

PETER ACKERMAN is a writer on the TV show, The Americans. He wrote the screenplay for the movie, Angry Birds 2, and co-wrote the movies Ice Age and Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. His play, Things You Shouldn’t Say Past Midnight, has been produced around the world. It also introduced him to his wife, actress Clea Lewis, who starred in the original off-Broadway production. His adaptation of The Pajama Game, starring Harry Connick Jr., won the Tony Award® for Best Musical Revival. His children’s book, The Lonely Phone Booth was selected for the Smithsonian’s 2010 Notable Books for Children. And he has written two other children’s books: The Lonely Typewriter and The Screaming Chef. They make wonderful gifts.

Jen Glantz is the founder of the Bridesmaid for Hire, a business started in 2014 from a viral Craigslist ad. Jen had over 500 press outlets cover the story of her business and has had over 8,000 women apply to work for her company. She is the author of the Amazon best-selling book, All My Friends are Engaged and her second book, Always a Bridesmaid (For Hire), will be released in 2017 from Simon and Schuster.

Keli Goff is an author, journalist, playwright and screenwriter. Currently a Columnist for The Daily Beast she is the Host of Political Party with Keli Goff on WNYC Radio. A former playwriting fellow with The Public Theater, she is a recipient of a 2016 NAACP Image Award for her work as a writer on the television series Being Mary Jane. Visit: www.keligoff.com or @keligoff on Twitter for more info.

Flor de Toloache has been nominated for a Latin Grammy and have made New York City history as its first and only all­-women mariachi band. Founded in 2008, Mariachi Flor de Toloache is lead by singers Mireya I. Ramos (founder) & Shae Fiol (original member). Reminiscent of the early days of mariachi the group started as a trio, Harp, Violin and Vihuela. Today Mariachi Flor De Toloache performs as a full mariachi ensemble. The members hail from diverse cultural backgrounds such as Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Australia, Colombia, Germany, Italy and the United States which defines their unique flavor and sound.

Sarah Jones is a Tony and Obie-Award winning playwright and performer.  Called “a master of the genre” by the New York Times she is perhaps best known to theater audiences for her multi-character, one person show Bridge & Tunnel — a critically acclaimed Broadway hit originally produced off-Broadway by Oscar winner Meryl Streep and The Culture Project.  Sarah is also known for her popular TED Talks given at the annual TED Conference, which have millions of views  and has performed in venues ranging from the White House to stages around the world in her capacity as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.  Sarah is preparing to bring her new one person play Sell/Buy/Date to the stage and is currently developing projects featuring her characters for both theater and multimedia platforms.

Bob Balaban has been nominated for an Academy Award, four Emmy Awards , two DGA Awards a PGA Award, two SAG Awards , a BAFTA and a Tony Award.  He produced and co-starred in Gosford Park.  He produced and directed Bernard and Doris (HBO) as well as the off-Broadway play, The Exonerated (Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award , New York Times #1 Play.)  He’s appeared in nearly a hundred movies, including The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Monuments Men, Moonrise Kingdom, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Waiting for Guffman and Midnight Cowboy.  He recently starred on Broadway in Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance with Glenn Close and John Lithgow.

Brian Lehrer is host of The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC 93.9fm, am820 and
wnyc.org M-F 10am-noon, plus the Brian Lehrer Weekend podcast. Political guests have ranged from Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Bernie Sanders to Ben Carson, Newt Gingrich, and Chris Christie. Recent cultural guests have included Wynton Marsalis, Judd Apatow, Joyce Carol Oates. And we have astronauts! Buzz Aldrin! Chris Hadfield! Callers (imagine my surprise) have included Louis CK, Hillary Clinton, Alec Baldwin, Jonathan Demme. The Brian Lehrer Show won a 2007 Peabody Award for “Radio That Builds Community Rather Than Divides.”

Singer Ivy Austin has appeared on Broadway as Raggedy Ann, in the New York City Opera’s productions of Candide, Sweeney Todd, South Pacific, and The Music Man, and for four years was “the girl singer” on Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion. For a decade, she wrote for and performed with The Thalia Follies satirical revue, but achieved immortality as the Muppet voices of Cereal Girl, Hammy Swinette, and Sooey, lead singer of the Oinker Sisters, on Sesame Street. She has produced and hosted acclaimed concert series in NYC and currently creates Broadway events for Sunnyspot Productions.  For more, visit www.ivyaustin.com.

JOSH BAZELL is a doctor and writer in New York City.  His novel Beat the Reaper was a New York Times and international bestseller and was one of Time’s top ten books of the year.

Rebecca Donner is the author of two critically acclaimed books, the novel Sunset Terrace and the graphic novel Burnout.  She has published essays and criticism in the New York Times, Bookforum, and other publications, and was a writer and performer in The Thalia Follies at Symphony Space.

Invisible Familiars can make a grey sky blue.
Invisible Familiars can make it rain whenever they want it to.
Invisible Familiars can build a castle from a single grain of sand
and make a ship sail on dry land.
Most of all: they would like to get next to you.

A soulful singer of “stunning intelligence” with a voice that is “absolute magic” (Jazz Times), award winning vocalist Carolyn Leonhart has released four critically acclaimed solo albums which have been on Jazz Radio charts worldwide. In addition to performing at clubs, concerts and festivals with her band, Carolyn has been a featured back-up vocalist with Steely Dan for more than  a decade, appearing on many of their albums including the multi Grammy Award winning Two Against Nature. Carolyn has toured and performed with Al Jarreau, Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs and countless jazz greats.

JAY LEONHART is In Your Face—New York’ Musical Director.  He  says “I’ve played the bass since I was a boy, and trust me it has been a joy. I love this group!” Jay composed or co-composed all the original music for this show.

ERIC POINDEXTER is thrilled to be a part of In Your Face–New York. As an actor, singer and educator he is a part of the Yip Harburg Foundation, an organization committed to using theatre to promote education and social change.

THE CHALKS are the creation of writer/performers Mary Brienza, Kathryn Markey & Leenya Rideout. As Judeen, Judelle & Belva – those lovely ladies of country – they have been featured on TV, radio, regional theatres, the Internet & many a honky tonk across the USA. As individuals, their work spans the Broadway stage, concert dance, comedy clubs, symphony concerts, animation, TV & motion pictures.

Big band leader, singer and accordionist Gregorio Uribe was born in Colombia, studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston and is based in New York where he leads Gregorio Uribe Big Band: a 16-piece orchestra that blends cumbia and other Colombian rhythms with big band arranging. Their debut album Cumbia Universal (Zoho Music) was released in 2015 with a CD-release performance at Jazz at Lincoln Center on October 14th. 

Bruce Weber, an obituary writer for The New York Times, is a former theater critic, arts reporter and fiction editor. He is the author of “Life Is A Wheel; Memoirs of a Bike-Riding Obituarist” and “As They See ‘Em: A Fan’s Travels in the Land of Umpires”.

Jon Wertheim is the executive editor of Sports Illustrated, a sports television commentator and author of nine books including New York Times best sellers Scorecasting and You Can’t Make This Up. He lives in Manhattan with his wife Ellie, a divorce mediator, and their two children.