Artists

Amy Carver

is calling from Los Angeles by way of Chicago, Spokane, and Colorado Springs. She created THE HOST out of her love for British radio dramas and for overnight road trips. Amy’s taken too many writing classes including ones at Northwestern, Second City, and UCLA, which is why most of her friends are writers.  

David John Seltzer

Borderline frat guy

Jessy Lauren Smith

is calling from Chicago but is on a road trip to LA. She writes movies, stories, dumb jokes, and plays for sound and stage, and sometimes teaches other people how to do those things too. She holds an MFA from Northwestern University, in the palm of her hand, for an hour each day.

Rachel Ewing

is calling from Burbank CA, where she spends her days as an executive assistant at Disney, her nights writing for TV/ Film, and her free time pretending to be a mermaid. She received her MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2014. She believes in all manner of supernatural beings and advice givers. Rachel’s known Amy since she was born, which is how she got roped into this project.

Phillip Mason

is calling from Los Angeles, even though he’s calling from a Kentucky area code. He holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Kentucky and completed a graduate program for Screenwriting at UCLA. Phillip’s main focus is television writing, but he dabbles in screenplays and comedy sketches.

Katie Markovich

is calling from Los Angeles, where she writes short fiction and blog posts. She dabbles in stage and screen writing. Her work has been featured in McSweeney’s, The Good Men Project, and Moonsick Magazine, and she is a semi-finalist for the 2018 Stockholm Writers Festival First Pages Prize. She is a graduate of the comedy writing program at Second City Chicago.

Sarah Kenney

is calling from INSIDE THE HOUSE, where she is quietly stalking you, waiting to appear only once you close the medicine cabinet mirror. Sarah is an actual, papered Master of Television courtesy of the fine institution of higher education known as a Boston University. In addition to writing and watching endless amounts of TV, she enjoys knitting, craft beers, craft coffee and craft fairs, as well as loudly cultivating the glitter spinster identity she plans to flaunt well into her adulthood.

Eric Kenney

is calling from Washington, D.C. where he is a 22nd grader at The George Washington University pursuing a PhD in Biology. To make up for his lack of formal artistic training, he posts short stories to the internet, prompting praise such as ‘Wow what a voice!’ from Joseph Gordon-Levitt and ‘It’s uncomfortable’ from a user named skrokstar. Eric will be elbows-deep in parasitic roundworms until his thesis is done.

Jamie Ferguson

is a writer and stand up comedian calling from Los Angeles, having relocated his family from Chicago to more effectively tilt at windmills. He’s a graduate of Second City’s writing program and the former host of the “What is This, Amateur Hour?” Amateur Hour. At present he spends his time tweeting and wandering the entertainment wilderness that is “screenwriting.”

Lucy Boone

is calling from Los Angeles, CA, where she resides with her husband, son, and a couple weird little monsters disguised as cats. She is the creator of sorryforthedrunktexts.com, where she ruins classic poetry.

Ashley Griggs

is calling from Los Angeles, California, although she originally hails from Herndon, Virginia. She earned her MFA in Dramatic Writing from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, as well as a BA from the College of William & Mary. Ashley is currently writing projects for film, television, and theater, and mentors with WriteGirl LA.

Mitch Carver

known affectionately as “Mitchy” by The Host’s creator, has dialed in from the 310, where he’s a high school English teacher by day and an aspiring novelist by Host listening hours. He hails from the 253 and misses the Seattle Supersonics, but plays a lot of basketball to numb the pain of loss. Mitch writes about kindness and portals and other things he thinks are cool. Maybe he’ll be published by the time the balding process reaches its inevitable conclusion.

Sarah Greenleaf

is calling in from Los Angeles where she teaches illusion (a.k.a. cinema to high school students) and dreams of building a home out of dirt. She has her MFA from Temple University and English Literature and Journalism B.A. from University of Washington.

Aimee McKay

is calling from the astral plane, a graduate of Emerson College, she is “Principal Snyder” on Disney’s Walk the Prank, and has appeared on 2 Broke Girls, New Girl, Arrested Development, Raising Hope and Don’t Trust the B—in Apt. 23. Aimee spent three years with the Second City Touring Company in Chicago and writes secretly at night when you’re asleep.

Chad Eschman

is calling from Los Angeles. The founder of Trap Street, a multimedia storytelling company based in LA, Chad’s a writer, performing artist, and cocktail geek. He likes his coffee black, gin neat, and everything spicy.

Hannah Rachelle Martin

is calling from a crappy apartment in Hollywood, California. She is a writer and actress known for her roles in “girl who auditioned for that thing” and “you’ll get it next time.” Find her on Instagram drinking out of cups at @hannahdrinksfromcups or on Venmo at @HannahRachelleMartin.

Kimberly Barrante

is a screenwriter calling from Los Angeles. She began her career as a playwright in New York City, after receiving a BA in Theatre from Emerson College. Kim was a resident playwright at the People’s Theatre Project from 2011-2012. She went on to study at Tisch NYU, earning an MFA in Dramatic Writing. Her screenplay CELERITAS was featured on Tracking Board’s Hit List and the 2014 Annual Black List. You can hear CELERITAS performed on the Black List Table Reads Podcast. Kim completed a feature writing fellowship at Lionsgate in 2016.

Rebecca Katz

is an independent producer calling from Los Angeles. She spent nearly 6 years at Sundance Institute, where she helped identify and cultivate a new generation of writers, directors, and producers via Labs, granting, fellowships, and programming for the Sundance Film Festival. She also dedicated 3 years to producing social impact documentaries in New York City at Shine Global, Inc. before moving to LA to attend the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC. She currently consults with fiction and non-fiction filmmakers on festival strategy and with an independent film financier on developing their film and television slate.

April E. Brassard

is calling from LA. She’s from the Washington, D.C. area. She received her BA in Playwriting from the School of Theater at GMU, then her MFA from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU in 2014 in Television Writing. April has worked in the film and TV industry for four years, at the American Film Market, Team Downey, Warner Bros., CBS Studios, and, presently, ABC Studios. Last year she wrote episode 318 of the primetime network drama Scorpion on CBS. She aspires to be a advocate through her writing (including in this podcast!).

Heather Rose Walters

is calling from Portland, Oregon where she works as the Lead Writer for Soma Games, helping to develop the Redwall video games based on the best-selling book series. She’s ghostwritten and edited over a dozen books, and her horror screenplay was a finalist in the Austin Film Festival and Final Draft Big Break screenwriting competitions. She also loves writing fiction, making/consuming VR film, and performing when you least expect it.

Matt Rowan

is calling from Los Angeles via Chicago. He founded and edits Untoward Magazine. He’s author of the collections, Big Venerable (CCLaP, 2015), Why God Why (Love Symbol Press, 2013) and another, How the Moon Works, forthcoming from Cobalt Press in 2020. His work has appeared in Gigantic Worlds Anthology, Another Chicago Magazine, Electric Literature, Pacifica Literary Review, Necessary Fiction and SmokeLong Quarterly, among others. He’s now attempting to moonlight as a writer for television, and so far it’s, uh, going.

Michelle Meyers

is calling from Los Angeles, CA. Her prose writing has received awards and honors from Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, and Wigleaf, and she was a 2015 PEN Center Emerging Voices Fellow. Her debut novel, Glass Shatters, was published in April 2016 and selected as an Editor’s Pick in Literary Fiction by Foreword Reviews. Michelle has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama and teaches in the Writing Program at USC.

John Dellaporta

is calling from Los Angeles, CA, and before that Washington, DC, and before that Ft. Lauderdale, FL. He is an actor and recently completed his Master of Fine Arts degree at UCLA’s School of Theatre, Film, and Television. John has appeared in musicals, classical plays, cabarets, and award-winning films like Allegra’s Body Shop (winner, Austin Comedy Festival, Best Comedy), and has appeared on podcasts both narrative (this one!) and non-fiction (The Afictionados).

Jesse Abbott Chin

is cold calling from the side of the road somewhere nearby, we think. This Boston-born boy who graduated from LMU with a BA in Theatre Arts can be seen and sometimes only heard on regional, national, and international ads. He’s hoping to expand his repertoire to include intergalactic broadcasts when the opportunity becomes available. He’s also made a few appearances on your streaming devices, including Bosch on Amazon Prime and Reese Witherspoon’s latest show Little Fires Everywhere which has yet to hit the Hulu platform. He looks forward to a time in his career where name-dropping is an irrelevant strategy and the artistry behind his work speaks for itself.

Sanjay Nambiar

is calling from Los Angeles. Sanjay became a professional actor in his 40s and now brings a wealth of life experience to his roles. He recently starred several short films, including “Vulture”, directed by Mathew Young, “The Friggin Best”, directed by Mary Gulino, and “Partners in Crime”, directed by Jennifer Varenchik. Sanjay is managed by Nelson Paredez-Parks at the ESI Network and is represented by BBA Talent for commercial and print work. He lives with his wife and endlessly energetic identical twin daughters in Los Angeles, CA, where he sometimes bemoans the monotony of the pleasant weather.

Michelle Meywes

is calling from Los Angeles, but she also has pretty extensive history in Chicago and St. Louis. A former writer for Chicagoist and Gapers Block, her arts journalism experience includes live music and album reviews, ballet and contemporary dance coverage and curating a weekly “Things to do” events column for the city. Sometimes she writes personal essay and other creative-type stuff, too. She’s also gotten pretty into yoga, completing her 200-hour teacher certification last year.

Jordan Morris

is calling from Los Angeles. Jordan is a writer and podcaster. He created the scripted sci-fi comedy podcast Bubble and co-hosts the weekly chat show Jordan Jesse Go.