ACTORS & ARTISTS
Emily Buckler is a web writer for the University of Michigan. Previously, she was the Studio Manager of StoryStudio Chicago, where she oversaw creative programming; the Senior Publications Editor at The Council of State Governments Justice Center, a criminal justice nonprofit in Manhattan; and the Editorial Project Manager at the Association of International Educators, in Washington, D.C. She has taught English and Creative Writing in the U.S. and South Africa. Her work has been featured in The Southampton Review, Open Palm Print, The Volta Blog, and other publications.
Erinn Hayes is best known for her featured role on Childrens Hospital, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award. Additional television credits include guest and recurring roles on Worst Week, Parenthood, Guys with Kids, New Girl, Parks and Recreation, The Hotwives of Las Vegas, Transparent, Kevin Can Wait, A.P. Bio, The Dangerous Book for Boys, Huge in France, and most recently, Medical Police. She will appear in the forthcoming films Witness Infection
and Bill and Ted Face the Music.
Richard Kind began his career in Chicago with the Practical Theatre Company. He has appeared on Broadway in The Producers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and The Big Knife, for which he received a Drama Desk Award. His film credits include Argo, A Serious Man, All We Had, The Paper Store, The Visitor, The Station Agent, and Bombshell, as well as voicing characters in A Bug’s Life, Cars, and Inside Out. His television appearances include starring roles on Spin City and Mad About You, as well as Curb Your Enthusiasm, Gotham, I’m Dying Up Here, Burn Notice, Big Mouth, Luck, Red Oaks, The Other Two, and Brockmire, among others.
Douglas Lawson was born in South Carolina, grew up in Illinois, Oklahoma, Minnesota, and currently lives on a boat in Seattle with his wife and cat. He has bicycled across country twice, canoed down the Mississippi, and had a story published in Minnesota Monthly, which was honored with the Tamarack Award.
Denis O’Hare’s film credits include Garden State, 21 Grams, A Mighty Heart, Michael Clayton, Milk, Duplicity, HBO’s The Normal Heart, Dallas Buyers Club, Lizzie, and The Goldfinch. He won a Tony Award for his performance in Richard Greenberg’s Take Me Out and a Drama Desk Award for his role in Sweet Charity. He is the co-writer, with Lisa Peterson, and star of An Iliad, which was performed at the New York Theatre Workshop and The Broad Stage in Santa Monica; he and Peterson also co-authored the play The Good Book, which premiered at the Court Theatre in Chicago. His television credits include American Horror Story, True Blood, The Good Wife, The Comedians, This Is Us, and Big Little Lies. He will appear in the forthcoming films Swallow and The Postcard Killings.
Maulik Pancholy is an actor, author, and activist. He is best known for his television roles on 30 Rock, Weeds, Whitney, The Good Fight, and for lending his voice to the long-running animated series Phineas & Ferb and Sanjay & Craig. He starred on Broadway in Terrence McNally’s It's Only a Play and in The New Group’s production of Good for Otto. He recently returned to Broadway in Bess Wohl’s Grand Horizons at the Helen Hayes Theatre. Pancholy’s debut novel, The Best at It, was named a Stonewall Honor Book and received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and American Library Association’s Booklist. Pancholy is the co-founder of the anti-bullying organization ActToChange.org.
Simon Rich is an American humorist, novelist, and television writer, known for being the youngest writer ever hired on Saturday Night Live and writing the Thurber Prize-nominated humor collection Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations. His most recent work, Hits and Misses, was published in 2018. He is the creator and showrunner of the FXX series Man Seeking Woman, which is based on his collection of short stories The Last Girlfriend on Earth, and the TBS series Miracle Workers, based on his novel What In God’s Name. Rich is a frequent contributor to the “Shouts & Murmurs” section of The New Yorker.
