Talent

Divya Gunasekaran is a standup comedian and writer based in New York. Her comedy weaves together social commentary, self- deprecation, and previously repressed childhood memories. She has performed at the NYC Asian Comedy Festival, the International Lady Laughs Comedy Festival, and Best of the Fest at the Burbank Comedy Festival. Her proudest accomplishment is making it as a finalist at Spite Fest. The judges claimed it was for her comedy, but she likes to think it was her embodiment of the festival’s theme. Divya has also performed at top clubs in NYC including New York Comedy Club, Broadway Comedy Club, Greenwich Village Comedy Club, and Eastville Comedy Club. She is committed to showcasing diverse, underrepresented voices. She produces a weekly open mic and a monthly show featuring women and LGBTQIA+ comedians. Outside of comedy, Divya’s life goals include cage diving with great white sharks and winning a pie eating contest.

Freddie Shanel is a Brooklyn-based standup comic and writer who grew up in Las Vegas and Singapore. Her written work has been featured in magazines like Peanut Kid – a queer, feminist zine she founded with friends – the Harvard Lampoon, and Reductress – for which she has over 100 bylines and recently served as an editorial fellow. She’s performed standup and improv all over the world – from Singapore to Boston, London, and New York – and was featured in the New York Comedy Festival in 2021 and 2022. Around the city, she performs at venues like Union Hall, Caveat, and Club Cumming, where she hosts "America’s Next Top Bottoms," a monthly show. She studied history, literature, economics, and Mandarin at Harvard University with the hopes of gaining the necessary skills to write biting political commentary like, “Gagging for This Hottie! This Political Leader is Just Doing His Job But We’re Gonna Make It Weird.” Above all else, she is the founder of Facebook.

Joe Vargas was born in Colombia, a country known worldwide for its powdery exports of TV comedy writers. Before he realized comedy could be a career in the U.S., however, he tried to get a “real” job, so after college he worked as a mechanical engineer until that became too boring, which was immediately. He then worked as a salesman at a car dealership and sold exactly two cars. Finally, Joe taught at a high school, where he cursed in front of his students the first week and stole a kid's burrito. In the end, Joe learned that he needed to pursue his passion, and that burritos are delicious. Since committing to comedy, he has written for NBC and ABC network showcases, completed the WB Writers' Workshop, worked as a staff writer on Netflix’s Fuller House, and sold a pilot script starring Sir Mix-A-Lot to Warner Bros.

Kyle Harris is a New York-based comedy writer from Boston by way of Philadelphia, the city where he got his start in stand-up and sketch comedy. His comedy, which often focuses on his life experiences through the lens of absurdity, can be found in publications including The New Yorker and The Onion. Kyle was also selected for the 2020 NBC Late Night Writer Workshop. He can be seen performing throughout Brooklyn and the East Coast.

Leon Scott is an Emmy nominated TV writer and comedian based in Washington, D.C. He works as a comedy writer for Open Mic, a 7pm program covering local and national news with a humorous spin on WUSA 9, D.C.'s CBS affiliate. As a stand-up comic, Leon has performed in festivals across the country and opened for a very diverse array of performers.

Nadia Ouazzi is a comedy writer and performer. She is a headline contributor for The Onion, with publications in McSweeney's and The Belladonna. Political satire is one of her deepest loves, a passion that began as a White House intern for President Obama, and continues in her comedy pilot The Mailroom, a sendup of her time as an intern. After graduating from Temple University, she spent the next six years working in Recruiting at Google, while writing and performing sketch comedy for the UCB Theater and The PIT. Her dream is to tell powerful moving stories that make people cry with laughter.

Pallavi Gunalan is a stand-up comedian, writer, actor, improviser, and biomedical engineer. She writes for Lovett or Leave It with Crooked Media and was a writer/creator for the web comics Depressed Graph and Impostor Bear. She’s performed all over the US and India, and in festivals including SF Sketchfest and New York Comedy Fest. She’s opened for Maria Bamford, Moses Storm, Preacher Lawson, and Todd Barry, and was a Laugh Factory Fresh Face. Pallavi co-produces Facial Recognition Comedy, a live touring stand-up show, Clubhouse Creator's First series, and podcast, and has been highlighted in The New York Times and Splitsider amongst other publications. She also co-hosts the comedy and politics podcast, City Counsel, and created her own web series, Dirty Science, which demystifies technology and kills cultural myths. She was on house improv teams at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and Second City, starred in a Funny or Die series, and hopes to continue telling jokes for a living.