Actors
Maryssa Wanlass
Maryssa is an Equity actor, director, writer, and educator currently based in New England. Selected credits include As You Like It (CalShakes); Hamlet, Winter's Tale, Macbeth (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival); Persuasion (San Jose Stage). She has also worked extensively in social justice theater, teaching improv workshops in correctional facilities with Red Ladder Theatre and directing at-risk young adults in Shakespeare productions with SF Shakes. As a playwright her work has been featured with ShotzSF.
Phil Wong
Phil Wong (he/him/his) is an actor, writer, and musician from Oakland, CA. Bay Area acting credits include work with Cal Shakes, TheatreWorks, SF Shakes, Word for Word, Shotgun Players, Bay Area Children's Theater, Hillbarn Theatre, Quantum Dragon, The EXIT, Palo Alto Players, Lamplighters, Killing My Lobster, Los Altos Stage, and Ray of Light. He is a graduate of Oberlin College, a member of the first Bay Area #BARS Cohort, and received his physical theatre training at the Accademia dell' Arte in Arezzo, Italy. Phil is also a Resident Artist with SF Shakes and co-founder of Bay Area Theatre Cypher, a collective of artists and activists who operate at the intersection of theatre and hip hop. Phil has been active in his theatre community since he was very young and is actively working to make his art more conscious, empathetic, relevant, and revolutionary.
Neiry Rojo
Neiry Rojo is a theatre artist interested in finding ways to challenge the status quo in the theatre industry and in the way people relate to each other outside of the theatre. She has most recently worked as an actress with OurDigitalStories, PlayGround Zoom Fest, and Central Works. She has previously worked with San Francisco Playhouse, Z Space, Marin Theatre Company, Livermore Shakespeare Company, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, PianoFight, and more. She has directed for ShotzSF, PlayGround Zoom Fest, and Ross Valley Players. She has worked as a teaching artist with American Conservatory Theatre and is a PlayGround company member. Theatre belongs to all. Black Lives Matter.
Christopher Magee
Christopher Magee is the Artistic Director for the Moonrisers. He is from Montana.
Amy Lizardo
Amy is currently in Ashland, OR where she is a member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festivals’s acting company. During OSF’s hiatus Amy has been teaching virtually, performing in online zoom readings and recording video and audio for multiple theatre companies across the country.She is excited to return to the stage soon and, hopefully much sooner than later, and above all safe!
Michael Barrett Austin
Michael Barrett Austin is a San Francisco Bay Area native who returned to stay after earning a BA from Whitman College and spending several years traversing the country, acting, writing, directing and exploring. In addition to being a member of (and frequent performer with) local companies Just Theater and PlayGround, Michael has worked with Berkeley Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks, SF Playhouse, Center Repertory Theatre, San Jose Stage, 42nd Street Moon, Central Works, TheatreFIRST, and many others. Michael has also starred in several independent films, appeared on television series and been featured in many commercials and industrials.
He is married to a fantastic woman named Emily, and is the father of a beautiful daughter named Lucille. During these quarantine times, he's kept himself busy by trying to keep both of them sane and entertained and supported, as well as participating in several online readings and performances. Michael has also made it a mission to video record and post one "Sequester Song" per day online, just him and a guitar and the occasional special guest. He's nearing 200 now, and you can hear them all on his youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/mbaustin22/videos
You can follow him on Instagram @michaelbarrettaustin.
He is married to a fantastic woman named Emily, and is the father of a beautiful daughter named Lucille. During these quarantine times, he's kept himself busy by trying to keep both of them sane and entertained and supported, as well as participating in several online readings and performances. Michael has also made it a mission to video record and post one "Sequester Song" per day online, just him and a guitar and the occasional special guest. He's nearing 200 now, and you can hear them all on his youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/mbaustin22/videos
You can follow him on Instagram @michaelbarrettaustin.
Kunal Prasad
Kunal is an Actor and Artist and uses Theater as a tool build understanding and relationships in a fun and easy manner. His IG is @kunalized learn more at kunalized.com
Robyn Grahn
Robyn Grahn is a Bay Area artist and educator. She currently works with the Mountain Play: musical theatre on top of Mt Tamalpais in Marin. Previous companies include SF Shakespeare Festival, Livermore Shakespeare Festival, Ross Valley Players, and Shotz SF. She LOVES the work her husband is doing in reviving the fantastic art of radio drama and looks forward to many more BARDcasts!
Authors
Christian Haines
Christian Haines has stayed busy producing Virtual Shotz, and acting in SF Playground. He also wrote, directed and edited the King Lear Green Show for SF Shakes.
Allison Mick
Allison Mick is an LA comedian and writer from Oakland, CA. She draws from her upbringing and personal experiences to address topics like race, gender, basketball, and serial killers. Allison’s writing has been featured in Huffpo, The Hard Times, and Macaulay Culkin’s BunnyEars.com. She’s performed at SF Sketchfest, Out of Bounds Fest, and Bird City Comedy Festival and has opened for the Sklar Brothers.
In 1997, she was featured in the book “Humor Works” by Dr. John Morreall, the founder of the International Society for Humor Studies and has managed to stay very grounded despite this wild literary fame.
In 1997, she was featured in the book “Humor Works” by Dr. John Morreall, the founder of the International Society for Humor Studies and has managed to stay very grounded despite this wild literary fame.
Dominique Gelin
Dominique Gelin is a comedian and writer based in Oakland who offers strong opinions on stupid things, -isms, and flip-flops. She has performed at the All Jane Comedy Festival, SF Sketchfest, KQED, and others. When she's not on stage, Dominique also writes for local sketch groups Nice Tan and Killing My Lobster.
Maryssa Wanlass
Maryssa is an Equity actor, director, writer, and educator currently based in New England. Selected credits include As You Like It (CalShakes); Hamlet, Winter's Tale, Macbeth (San Francisco Shakespeare Festival); Persuasion (San Jose Stage). She has also worked extensively in social justice theater, teaching improv workshops in correctional facilities with Red Ladder Theatre and directing at-risk young adults in Shakespeare productions with SF Shakes. As a playwright her work has been featured with ShotzSF.
Tirumari Jothi
Tirumari Jothi has been performing comedy for almost a decade, with stand-up as his first love, but he also loves improv and sketch comedy so please don't ask him to choose. You can find him either performing with the geeky comedy group he co-founded, Komedio Comedy; hosting videogame drinking tournaments/shows with the Super Trashed Bros live on Twitch; doing or teaching sketch comedy with Killing My Lobster; or online in a variety of random commercials, if you're specifically into watching commercials for some reason. If you want to hear his voice without any of the accompanying visual aspects, you can catch him regularly on Komedio's hit podcast; Nerd Rage: The Great Debates! If you can't find him doing any of that, then he's home playing videogames or watching cartoons but thinking about them academically so as to justify the habit.
Jess Thomas
Jess Thomas is an all-around theatre and film-type fella, holding a BA in Theatre and a BA in Film from Eastern Washington University. He is the Artistic Producer of Awesome Theatre.
He has worked with several local theatre companies, including SF Theatre Pub, AMIOS West, The Dark Room, and The Cutting Ball Theater as an actor, director, writer, producer, and stage manager. He has been seen onstage with Ross Valley Players, Quantum Dragon Theater, SHOTZ, Awesome Theatre, and First Person Singular.
He has worked with several local theatre companies, including SF Theatre Pub, AMIOS West, The Dark Room, and The Cutting Ball Theater as an actor, director, writer, producer, and stage manager. He has been seen onstage with Ross Valley Players, Quantum Dragon Theater, SHOTZ, Awesome Theatre, and First Person Singular.
Alexandria Love
Alexandria Love is a stand-up comedian, writer, and performer from Oakland, California. As a comedian, she's performed at clubs, colleges, and theaters all over California. As a writer, she's written numerous articles as a contributing writer that can be found all over the internet. She was also voted as a “Comedian to Watch” by the SFist in 2019. Oakland residents might know her as the 19-time winner of Tourettes Without Regrets Haiku Battle, the second most wins for any performer in history. You can see her writing, learn more about her, and book her as a comedy act through alexandriacomedy.com.
Melissa Keith
Melissa is a resident playwright with PlayGround, and 2020 recipient of their June Anne Baker Prize, honoring the year's top female playwright. In quarantine, Melissa has written a couple of plays for Zoom, but out of pandemic necessity, has spent the most time working on her resume.