Karen Chee is a comedian and writer for Late Night with Seth Meyers. She has also written for the Golden Globes and has contributed to The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Reductress, and McSweeney’s, among other publications. She has appeared in La Bruja, The Special Without Brett Davis, and High Maintenance. Chee was recently featured as one of Vulture’s Comedians to Know and listed on Variety’s Power of Young Hollywood and Forbes’ 30 Under 30.
Jennifer Egan is the author of seven books of fiction: Manhattan Beach, winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction; A Visit from the Goon Squad, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; The Keep; the story collection Emerald City; Look at Me, a National Book Award Finalist; and The Invisible Circus. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, Granta, McSweeney's, and TheNew York Times Magazine. Her latest novel, The Candy House, will be published on April 5.
Melora Hardin recently starred as Jacqueline Carlyle on the hit Freeform series The Bold Type. She also directed an episode in season four and was nominated for Best Directing for the 22nd Annual Women Image Awards. Hardin was featured on Amazon’s Transparent in her Emmy-nominated role as Tammy Cashman, on ABC’s A Million Little Things, and is recognized worldwide as Jan Levinson from NBC’s The Office. She recently starred in the first one-woman movie ever, Golden Vanity, and can be seen in the feature films Caged and Cruel Hearts. Her extensive big-screen credits include 17 Again, Hannah Montana: The Movie, 27 Dresses, The Hot Chick, Absolute Power, and You, which she also directed. Hardin has been a professional actor since she was six years old and has guest starred on TV favorites such as Little House on the Prairie, The Love Boat, Friends, Gilmore Girls, Monk, The Blacklist, Falling Skies, and Scandal. She is currently wrapping up a four-part documentary series.
Jac Jemc is the author of the novels My Only Wife, winner of the Paula Anderson Book Award, The Grip of It, and the short story collections A Different Bed Every Time and False Bingo, winner of the Chicago Review of Books Award for fiction and finalist for the Story Prize. Her third novel, Empty Theatre, will be published in 2023. Jemc teaches creative writing at UC San Diego.
Jordan Klepper is perhaps best known for his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show and his comedy series The Opposition with Jordan Klepper. He is an alumnus of the improv troupes The Second City and Upright Citizens Brigade. He and his wife, Laura Grey, are co-creators of short films including TMI, a featured short at the Slamdance Film Festival, and Peepers, which premiered at South By Southwest, among others. His new Comedy Central show, Klepper, premiered in May 2019, and he is featured on The Daily Show with “Jordan Klepper Fingers the Pulse.”
Renée Jessica Tan has been published in two short story compilations, We've All Been There and Believe Me Not, An Unreliable Anthology. For two years, she wrote a blog about her life as a recreational runner called Exposed Tan Lines. Unfortunately, it was often mistaken for something other than a running blog. Renée graduated from New York University and now lives in Los Angeles. She is currently working on a collection of short fiction.
Kirsten Vangsness is an actor, writer, and distillery owner best known for playing Penelope Garcia on 15 seasons of Criminal Minds. Her plays Mess and Cleo, Theo and Wu earned rave reviews at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and she co-penned 4 episodes of Criminal Minds, including the series finale. Vangsness is a member of Theatre of Note in Hollywood and she can be seen in the films Kill Me, Deadly; Dave Made a Maze; and Diani and Devine Meet the Apocalypse. She used her pandemic time to create Kirsten’s Agenda, which can be found on YouTube.
CREDITS
“Trivial Pursuit” by Jac Jemc, from False Bingo (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019). First appeared in Guernica (February 2018). Copyright © 2018 by Jac Jemc. Used by permission of the author.
“Baghead” by Renée Jessica Tan. Copyright © 2017 by Renée Jessica Tan. Used by permission of the author.
“Spanish Winter” by Jennifer Egan, from Emerald City (Anchor, 2007). First published in Ploughshares (1989). Copyright © 1989 by Jennifer Egan. Used by permission of ICM Partners.
