Facts and Legends

Samantha Irby is the author of the essay collections Meaty; The New York Times bestseller We Are Never Meeting in Real Life; and New Year, Same Trash. She is also the author of the blog bitches gotta eat. Her writing has appeared in The Rumpus, In Our Words, and Jezebel, among other publications. Her essay collection, Wow, No Thank You, was published in 2020.

Jane Kaczmarek is best known for her role as Lois on Malcolm in the Middle, for which she received 7 consecutive Emmy nominations as well as nominations for the Golden Globe and SAG Awards. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin and Yale School of Drama, Kaczmarek made her television debut on The Paper Chase and Hill Street Blues and most recently can be seen on The Big Bang Theory, This Is Us, Carol's Second Act, and Mixed-ish. In New York, Kaczmarek has appeared on Broadway and off at the Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage, the Public Theatre, New York Theater Workshop, and 6 seasons at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her recent theater credits include in Long Day's Journey Into Night, Our Town with Deaf West Theatre, and The Year to Come at La Jolla Playhouse. Kaczmarek’s favorite job is raising her three kids and reading/hosting Selected Shorts across America.

Walter Kirn is the author of numerous books, including the novels Thumbsucker and Up in the Air, both of which were adapted into films, and the nonfiction work Blood Will Out. He is a contributing editor to Time and GQ and a regular reviewer for The New York Times Book Review. His work has been featured in The New Yorker, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, New York Times Sunday Magazine, and Harper’s Magazine.

Rebecca Makkai is the author of the novels The Borrower and The Hundred-Year House, as well as the short story collection Music for Wartime. Her most recent novel, The Great Believers, was honored with the Carnegie Medal and the Stonewall Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Her stories have appeared in publications such as Best American Short Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Harper’s, Tin House, Ploughshares, The Threepenny Review, The New Yorker, and the 2017 Pushcart Prize anthology. Makkai is the Artistic Director of Chicago’s StoryStudio.

Michael McKean is recognized for film and television roles including Laverne & Shirley, Young Doctors in Love, This Is Spinal Tap, Clue, Coneheads, Saturday Night Live, The Brady Bunch Movie, Best in Show, The X-Files, A Mighty Wind, Food: Fact or Fiction?, and recent turns on Better Call Saul, for which he won a Satellite Award, the adaptation of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s novel Good Omens, Grace and Frankie, The Good Place, At Home with Amy Sedaris, and Breeders. McKean has appeared on stage in productions of The Pajama Game, Our Town, Superior Donuts, King Lear, All the Way, The Little Foxes, and The True. He is also a Grammy winner for the title song in the film A Mighty Wind, shared with regular collaborators Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy. For the same film, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow,” which he co-wrote with his wife, Annette O’Toole.

John Cameron Mitchell is the co-creator of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. He also directed the films Shortbus, Rabbit Hole, and How to Talk to Girls at Parties. His TV acting credits include Shrill, Girls, Mozart in the Jungle, and The Good Fight. He's toured internationally with The Origin of Love: The Songs and Stories of Hedwig. Mitchell is the co-creator of the musical podcast series Anthem: Homunculus with Bryan Weller, featuring himself, Glenn Close, Denis O'Hare, Patti Lupone, Cynthia Erivo, and Nakhane. His ongoing music project is New American Dream, a collaboration with Ezra Furman, Alynda Segarra, Wynton Marsalis, and many others. Mitchell will star in the forthcoming mini-series Joe Exotic

Retta is an actress, comedian, and author, best known for portraying the beloved Donna Meagle for seven seasons on Parks & Recreation. She went on to star in four seasons of the Bravo series Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce. Additional film and television credits include Pinky Malinky, Good Boys, An Emmy for Megan, Where’s Waldo?, Big Mouth, Home Movie: The Princess Bride, DuckTales, and Duncanville. In 2018 she added author to her resume, publishing So Close to Being the Sh*t, Y’all Don’t Even Know, which is a hilarious retrospect on her career in entertainment. Retta is currently starring as Ruby on the NBC dramedy Good Girls.

“The Case for Remaining Indoors” by Samantha Irby, from We Are Never Meeting in Real Life (Vintage Books, 2017). Copyright © 2017 by Samantha Irby. Used by permission of the author.

“The Hoaxer” by Walter Kirn, from 12 Short Stories and Their Making (Persea, 2005). Copyright © 2005 by Walter Kirn. Used by permission of William Morris Entertainment.

“Everything We Know About the Bomber” by Rebecca Makkai, from Music for Wartime (Viking, 2015. First published in Pleiades (35.1, Winter 2015). Copyright © 2015 by Rebecca Makkai Freeman. Used by permission of Aragi, Inc.