Ali Sultan

Ali Sultan saw his first stand up comedian when he moved to America from Yemen at the age of 15. He grew the desire to go on stage but first he needed to learn English.

Ali became the first Yemeni-Ethiopian American to make a stand up television network debut on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Ali has been on Comedy Central’s Hart of The City with Kevin Hart. He filmed his Half Hour comedy special in Dubai for Comedy Central Arabia. He represented Minnesota and won the Best in The Midwest competition at Gildas LaughFest.

His album Happy to Be Here and Funny First can be heard on Spotify, Sirius Xm and has over 1 millions streams on Pandora. His last special from Drybar has over a million views on YouTube.

SULTAN: Stand-Up Clip

---

Caitlin Cook

Caitlin Cook is a LA-born, NYC-based, Oxford-educated, hyphen-addicted comedian. She has taken the stage all across the world at top-tier theaters, comedy clubs, festivals, strangers' living rooms, and even a houseboat once.

A fierce champion of mixed media and genre-bending works of art, Cook has carved out a space for herself smack-dab in the center of the Venn diagram between comedy, music, and theater. Her one-woman bathroom graffiti musical The Writing on the Stall sold out its off-Broadway debut at Soho Playhouse, and its accompanying studio album has hit over 25M streams across all platforms.

Cook has released three successful musical comedy albums, which are regularly featured on SiriusXM:

Zinger-Songwriter, which she recorded at 12 different venues while touring across the US and UK

Betty Pitch, which she recorded after writing 250 songs a day during the pandemic

The Writing on the Stall, the official studio album of her hit one-woman bathroom graffiti musical

Aside from her work as a performer, Cook served as a creative consultant for Sean Patton’s Number One on Peacock, as the producer for Gabe Mollica’s hit show Solo that was featured on This American Life, and as the director of A.J. Holmes’ critically-acclaimed Yeah, But Not Right Now. Cook also produces live comedy events, like the stand-up show Good God with Shane Torres, Brittany Carney, and Naomi Karavani and the variety show 2/3rds of a Threesome (and Friends) with A.J. Holmes.

COOK: The Writing on the Stall

---

Daniel Van Kirk

Daniel Van Kirk is a stand-up comedian from Rochelle, Illinois. Named a “Comic To Watch” by Comedy Central and one of JFL’s 42 in Toronto, Daniel’s first album, "Thanks Diane" debuted at #1 on Apple Music and last year he released his follow up album/special "Rose Gold" to critical acclaim. You may know him from his characters on Bob’s Burgers (FOX), Physical (Apple TV+), Central Park (Apple TV+), and more.  He can also be heard every week on the hit podcasts, "Pen Pals" with partner Rory Scovel, and co-hosting "Dumb People Town" along with The Sklar Brothers. Daniel tours the US and appears at festivals and venues all over the country.

Writing-wise, Daniel got his training as a sketch writer/performer at the UCB and used his skills as a writer on Attention Deficit Theater for the CW, his own sketch show DVK on the Nerdist Channel. In 2021, the animated version of his podcast Dumb People Town was picked up for 6 episodes by Amazon and Daniel was showrunner/EP.  Most recently he completed a role as writer/performer on the new Sklar Brothers UFC Channel show Nosebleeds. Daniel’s feature credits include Beer Fest 2 for Warner Brothers and the independent film Wine Club in which he also stars.

VAN KIRK: Standup, Reel, Website, IG

---

PODCASTS

ALBUM

Dave Holmes

Dave Holmes is a columnist and editor at large for Esquire, a SIRIUS satellite radio and podcast personality, a host of shows for CBS, MTV (former VJ!), Bravo, E!, FX, Comedy Central, and History, a pop-culture talking head and the author of the memoir Party Of One. Of his recent limited-run podcast Who Killed The Video Star: The Story of MTV (which reached #1 on Apple Podcasts’ TV/Film chart), NPR said “The great and good Dave Holmes just understands pop culture in a way that very few people do.”

---

HOLMES: Reel, IG

---

Elizabeth Guest

Elizabeth Guest was born ‘on location’ in Eugene, Oregon, thus a movie-rain-loving baby was born. For many years her favorite day of the week was the dress rehearsal day of her father’s sitcom where she first observed the process of directing television and developed a love of crafty and free gum. She studied and performed at the Lee Strasberg Institute, the Second City in Los Angeles and eventually the Upright Citizens Brigade. She attended USC’s film school. Her first short after graduation, in which she starred, garnered her the jury award for "Acting the Part" at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Her first feature script made it to one of the final rounds of the Sundance Lab. She has written, directed, and starred in several long-running stage plays at the Upright Citizens Brigade one of which became a mini-series produced by Funny or Die. She directed, wrote, produced, and starred in the first season of “Guest Appearances” which won “Best Scripted Digital Series” at the Austin Film Festival and “Best Short Form” at the Nashville Film Festival. A short she co-directed and starred in, “The First of Many,” won the Best Dramatic Short at the Cinequest Film Festival. She has spent the last few years shadowing directors, has appeared on NBC’s “Superstore” and completed a very fun comedic role in the high school comedy “Sid is Dead” produced by American High. She played the lead in the Christmas Rom Com "See You Next Christmas" now available on Apple/Itunes and Amazon and her most recent TV credits include Fox's "9-1-1" and HBO's "Barry.” She recently finished performing her solo show ’Sweeter” around LA and just completed shooting a holiday feature based on her web series.

GUEST: Reel

GUEST: Web Series

---

Inessa Frantowski

Inessa Frantowski is a Los Angeles based comedian and friend to all. She is a Canadian Screen Award  winner and a Canadian Comedy Award winner and  is one of Just For Laughs’ 2022 New Faces  Character. An alumni of The Second City  Mainstage, she wrote and starred in four record  breaking revues and also performed on UCB’s  Maude Night for four years. She was a writer/ performer on the Canadian sketch series This Hour  has 22 Minutes and plays Renee on the  International Emmy nominated series, The  Amazing Gayl Pile on Amazon Prime, for which  she won an Indie Series Award. You might also  recognize her from American Princess, The Kids in  the Hall: Death comes to town and the Avicii video  I could be the one, which has over 300 million  views on Youtube. Her stand up comedy album,  Help me, help ME is available on itunes/Spotify  though Howl and Roar records.

FRANTOWSKI: JFL 2022

Twitter: @inessacomedy Instagram: @inessacomedy

---

Justin Martindale

Justin Martindale is an LA based comedian, writer, producer, and actor. He was the last hand picked paid regular at The World Famous Comedy Store by the madame of comedy herself, Mitzi Shore. Justin hosted the popular E! Entertainment bi-weekly digital series, “What the Fashion.” He was recently a regular guest host on “Jeff Lewis Live” on Sirius XM’s Radio Andy, and is the host of his own weekly charting podcast “Just Sayin’ with Justin Martindale.” When he’s not in demand on multiple platforms, Justin performs stand-up all over the country.

MARTINDALE: IG

---

J.B. Ball

J.B. Ball is proving himself to be quite the jack of all trades in comedy. He’s found success as a stand-up comedian, tv writer, sketch writer, performer, director, and producer.

He masks being deceptively edgy and intelligent with playful charm. His ability to bring the funny out of controversial topics for people on both sides of an issue brings audiences together with humor.  

His work can be seen on Comedy Central, MTV,  PEACOCK, NBC, CBS, COMCAST, SIRIUS/XM Satellite Radio, Kevin Hart's LOL Network, and as a Segment Producer of the hit show Ridiculousness.

He’s also making waves as a writer after the success of Olympic Highlights w/ Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg along with his sketch on Comedy Central Digital “Who’s the GOAT: MJ or Lebron”.

As a stand-up comedian he was selected for the prestigious "New Faces" at the 2016 Montreal Just For Laughs Festival, was the winner of the 2014 Trial By Laughter Comedy Festival, was named 2014's "Florida's Funniest Comedian”, performed at FunnyOrDie’s 2015 Oddball Comedy Festival, and was a finalist at the 2016 Laughing Skull Festival.

In 2023, he released his first stand-up special with 800lb Gorilla Records titled It’s My Privilege.

BALL: Stand-up

---

Kate Zasowski

Kate Zasowski is a queer writer/comedian originally from Rochester, NY who lives in Los Angeles. Her work centers on the LGBTQ community, flawed but loveable female characters, and mental illness. 

In 2022, Kate co-wrote the episode “Playing House” in the second season of BIG SHOT (Disney+). She brings years of writers room experience along with positive energy and silly yet grounded joke and story pitches.

Kate recently wrote for YZ Productions and a YouTube channel with 16 million subscribers. In summer 2020, Kate wrote jokes for NBC Olympics ICYMI, a daily Olympics recap show on Snapchat. She’s been a writers’ assistant on I LOVE THAT FOR YOU (Showtime), SPITTING IMAGE (Britbox), ATYPICAL (Netflix), BUSY TONIGHT (E!), THE FIX (Netflix) and LAFF MOBB’S LAFF TRACKS (truTV). She also assisted writer/director Kelly Oxford on her feature film debut PINK SKIES AHEAD.

Kate currently hosts the podcast Your Hometown Rocks, where she and co-host Ana McCasland interview comedians about the weirdest & most fascinating parts of the hometowns. She previously hosted the queer comedy podcast Straight Guys with Caitlin Reese.

Kate has worked closely with comedian Jenny Yang on projects like SELF HELP ME, a competitive self-care comedy show that had a monthly residency at the Dynasty Typewriter and featured at SF Sketchfest and Netflix is a Joke Fest, plus COMEDY CROSSING, a stand-up show that took place inside the video game Animal Crossing. During the pandemic, New York Magazine’s Vulture called Comedy Crossing “the most joyful live comedy right now.” 

Kate is a recipient of the Upright Citizen's Brigade Diversity Scholarship, where she has completed the Improv and Sketch programs. She does stand-up around the country and has performed at Bergamot Comedy Fest, New York City Comedy Festival and Portland Queer Comedy Festival. She performs in LA with her improv team Pretty Ugly, a house team at the Pack Theater with shows every first and third Sunday! Kate also writes for Brother HQ, TXT Stories, CollegeHumor, Reductress, and McSweeney’s.

ZASOWSKI: Stand-Up Clip & Podcast

---

Kenny Stevenson

Kenny Stevenson has been doing comedy in LA for 20 years, and has been performing at the UCB for over 10.  He has had recurring parts on "Parks and Recreation”, “Comedy Bang Bang”, and "Brooklyn 99". He has also been on the shows “This is Us”, “Hawaii Five-0", "Preppy Little Teen$", and “The UCB Show”.  His impressions can be heard on the podcasts "Cheap Seats", "Improv 4 Humans", and "Dumb People Town". He voiced and puppeteered the character "Edgar" on "Duff's Happy Fun Bake Time", and he worked as an additional puppeteer on the Netflix show "Julie's Greenroom" starring Julie Andrews.  As a writer, he wrote and starred in the award winning independent film "Love, Sex, and Missed Connections," which won 11 awards at 16 film festivals.  His script, "How To Be A Canadian," won the Grand Prize at the New Hampshire Film Festival, the Royal Reel Award at the Canada International Film Festival, and Feature Comedy at the Woods Hole Film Festival Screenplay Competition. Recently he teamed with fellow Groundlings alum Jon Huertas (This is Us), forming the writing/producing team behind the production shingle WestSide Stories where they have several TV/Film projects in various stages of development. They were selected for the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival for their comedy short, Two Jacked, written by and starring Kenny and directed by Jon.

--

Check out:

twitter.com/kennygstevenson

www.kennygstevenson.com

STEVENSON: Reel

---

PODCAST

---

Kojo Anim

Kojo Anim has fast become one of the funniest talents to come out of the UK comedy circuit in the last 10 years. Kojo has toured with Chris Rock, Kevin Hart and Dave Chappelle and was the first international cast member on Nick Cannon’s hit comedy improv show Wild N Out for 3 seasons on MTV. In the UK, Kojo has presented on radio stations BBC 1xtra & Hosted the breakfast show on Capital Xtra. His career reach an even higher level in 2019 when he received Simon Cowell’s Golden Buzzer on Britain’s Got Talent. His audition has currently received over 50 million views worldwide. He then completed his first 30 date UK tour in 2020 with Live Nation.  Kojo has written Movies, TV Shows and has an exciting autobiography entitled “All Jokes Aside” where he recounts his journey through the foster care system and starting his comedy career. Kojo took part in the recent Netflix Is A Joke Festival and was a hit performing with Dave Chappelle at the Hollywood Bowl in front of 18,000 people in Los Angeles. He also opened for Dave Chapelle and Chris Rock at the O2 stadium in London.

---

Anim: Reel, IG

---

Learnmore Jonasi

---

Learnmore Jonasi is a Zimbabwean stand-up comedian and actor. He stands at over 6 feet, his comedy is brought to life by past experiences, observations and his view (from the top) which elicit rib-tickling laughs, regardless of the crowd.

Since making his comedy debut in 2012, he has since performed with and along side the biggest names on the African Continent and performed in over 25 cities across 15 countries at various TV Shows, theatres, Comedy clubs, and Festivals. Most recently, he’s been seen on Comedy Central Africa's Virtual Comedy Bar.

In 2019 he won the National Arts Merit Awards as the Outstanding Comedian of the Year, the Savanna Comic Choice Awards as the Pan African Comic of the Year, and he was the People's Choice Award winner in Steve Harvey's Stand Up Spotlight competition. In 2020 he won the National Arts Merit Awards as the Outstanding Comedian of the Year. He was seen on America’s Got Talent season 19 after having received the Golden Buzzer and placing fifth place in the finale.

LEARNMORE: Stand-up

---

Matt O'Brien

---

Matt O’Brien has been featured on America’s Got Talent, Comedy Central, Conan, Fox Sports, CBC, and Odd Squad on PBS. He wrote and performed his own special on The Comedy Network in Canada and recently performed his 5th televised gala at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal. He is the winner of Sirius XM Radio’s Top Comic and Time Out Magazine named him one of their "Top 10 Comics to Watch".

O’Brien: Stand-up

---

Nnamdi Ngwe

Nnamdi Ngwe is a writer and performer who grew up moving between Texas, England and Nigeria. He played collegiate soccer at the University of Alabama/Birmingham (he was recruited to join the US National Team but refuses to brag about it) before deciding to pursue comedy. Together, he and his twin brother Amechi wrote the acclaimed web series JULIUS, which earned them a trip to the New York Television Festival and a nomination for Best Screenplay at the Best of The Midwest Film Awards. Nnamdi & Amechi made subsequent trips to NYTVF for their shot pilot Rap Skool and their pilot script Oak Ridge Patrol. Nnamdi also studied and taught at Second City and the iO theater in Chicago where he was awarded teacher of the year. Along with the rest of his sketch group 3Peat, he wrote and starred in THE BLACKENING on Comedy Central, which currently has over 15 million views and is soon to be a feature film. He's also written content for TikTok, Comedy Central Digital, Sony and The Ringer. Recently, Nnamdi wrote on YouTube’s TAB TIME and was a staff writer on THE AMBER RUFFIN SHOW (Peacock).

NGWE: Tik Tok, IG, REEL

---

WEB SERIES

WATCH HERE

---

Ramin Nazer

Ramin Nazer is a comedian/artist based in Los Angeles. He is the author of After You Die, I Love Everyone, Strippy Comics, Hey, and Cave Paintings for Future People. He was named one of the New Faces of Comedy at the Just For Laughs festival in Montreal and has performed on the The Late Late Show on CBS. His debut album You Were Good Too is available for streaming everywhere along with his weekly podcast Rainbow Brainskull.

NAZER: Acting Reel

NAZER: Animation Reel

Twitter: @raminnazer Instagram: @raminnazer

---

PODCASTS

Ryan Singer

Ryan Singer is the rarest of breeds: A comic’s comic who electrifies mainstream audiences with material that is both uncompromising and unpretentious. LaughSpin says, “With his high-energy delivery and unpretentious leanings, there’s not a lot to dislike about comedian Ryan Singer. And it’s not just us saying it: In the last few years, he’s won over audiences headlining the nation’s finer comedy clubs and was hailed by Marc Maron in Rolling Stone as a comedian “Who Should Be Big.”

Ryan has released 3 full-length albums IMMORTAL FOR NOW, COMEDY WONDER TOWN & HOW TO GET HIGH WITHOUT DRUGS, was a recurring character as himself onIFC’s MARON, been seen on Seeso and is the creator and host of one of the top Science & Medicine podcasts on iTunes, ME & PARANORMAL YOU, conducting in-depth interviews with people who possess paranormal abilities or have had extraordinary experiences. He was selected by LA Weekly as one of “10 LA Comics to Watch” for 2014, was mentioned in NY Magazine as a “Comic to Watch,” was one of 4 finalists in the original CMT’s Next Big Comic Contest, is a frequent guest on the WTF Podcast w/Marc Maron and the Bob & Tom Show, and his joke “United Snacks of America” has over 8 million listens on Pandora.

---

SINGER: Reel

Twitter: @RySing Instagram: @RySing