USC Comedy at the School of Cinematic Arts and
USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative
invite you to attend
 

Spotlight on FX's
WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS

Live Q&A with the Executive Producers/Writers
of the FX Original Series

FEATURING:
Paul Simms (Executive Producer, Writer, Showrunner)
Stefani Robinson (Executive Producer, Writer, Showrunner)
Sam Johnson (Co-Executive Producer, Writer)

Moderated by SCA Professor Chris Marcil

7:00 P.M. PDT on Saturday, April 10th, 2021

REGISTER NOW TO PARTICIPATE:
http://cinema.usc.edu/ShadowsRSVP

Open to USC Students, Faculty, Staff, Alumni, and the General Public.

Presented during the USC Comedy Festival, Vol. 5,
taking place from April 9th - 11th, 2021.

Visit the USC Comedy Festival, Vol. 5 Homepage: http://cinema.usc.edu/ComedyFestival
Follow the USC Comedy Festival, Vol. 5 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/USCComedy
Follow the USC Comedy Festival, Vol. 5 on Instagram: @USCComedy
Follow the USC Comedy Festival, Vol. 5 on Twitter: @USCComedy
 

About What We Do in the Shadows

What We Do in the Shadows follows four vampires who’ve “lived” together for hundreds of years. In Season 2, the vampires will try to find their way in a world of human Super Bowl parties, internet trolls, an energy vampire who gets a promotion and becomes drunk on power and of course, all the ghosts, witches, necromancers, zombies and shadowy cloaked assassins who roam freely in the Tri-State area.

Like What We Do in the Shadows on Facebook: Facebook.com/theshadowsfx
Follow What We Do in the Shadows on Twitter: twitter.com/theshadowsfx
Follow What We Do in the Shadows on Instagram: Instagram.com/theshadowsfx

About the Guests

PAUL SIMMS (Executive Producer, Writer, Showrunner)

Paul Simms has written for The Larry Sanders Show, Flight of the Conchords, Girls and NewsRadio, which he created. He began his career at SPY Magazine and is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. Simms also serves as an executive producer on FX’s critically acclaimed Golden Globe^®-winning series, Atlanta.

STEFANI ROBINSON (Executive Producer, Writer, Showrunner)

Stefani Robinson is an Emmy^®-nominated writer and producer. Under her current exclusive overall production deal with FX, she has worked on the award-winning comedy series Atlanta, the upcoming installment of the award-winning Fargo and the FXX comedy series Man Seeking Woman.

SAM JOHNSON (Co-Executive Producer, Writer)

Sam Johnson started his comedy writing career as an editor at the National Lampoon magazine in the early ‘90s, followed by a job writing for Beavis and Butt-Head. He and his writing partner Chris Marcil wrote episodes of The Adventures of Pete & Pete, as well as the pilot episode of Daria before leaving MTV to write for NewsRadio. Since then, Johnson has written for Frasier, How I Met Your Mother, Hot in Cleveland, Disjointed and many others. He is married to Julie Bean, also a writer, and has two children, Ivy and Nate. He is in the Omaha Central High School Hall of Fame.

CHRIS MARCIL (Moderator, SCA Professor)

Associate Adjunct Professor of Cinematic Arts Chris Marcil has almost all the same credits as Sam Johnson, as they have written together since they were assigned to each other as roommates in college. He is married to the novelist Julia Claiborne Johnson, whose book "Better Luck Next Time" is in bookstores now. His high school was shut down by the diocese.

About the USC Comedy Festival, Vol. 5

The 5th Edition of the USC Comedy Festival comes after a year of unprecedented social isolation and demands for social justice. Staring at screens or out in the streets, we learned why we still needed comedy and discovered new ways to make each other laugh in spite of everything. Affiliated with the USC Comedy track at the School of Cinematic Arts and the Jack Oakie and Victoria Horne Oakie Foundation, the festival will honor legendary performer, impressionist, and character-ologist Bill Hader. Over the course of three days, panels will feature well-known guests such as Aidy Bryant, Demetri Martin, Lisa Kudrow, Lindy West, Matt Besser, Patton Oswalt, and Ramy Youssef; capture new voices exploding onto the scene; and celebrate the work of our newest generation of USC Comedy students.

Visit the USC Comedy Festival, Vol. 5 Homepage: http://cinema.usc.edu/ComedyFestival
Follow the USC Comedy Festival, Vol. 5 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/USCComedy
Follow the USC Comedy Festival, Vol. 5 on Instagram: @USCComedy
Follow the USC Comedy Festival, Vol. 5 on Twitter: @USCComedy

About USC Comedy at the School of Cinematic Arts

In 2010 USC became the first university in the nation to offer a program dedicated to training filmmakers in the art of comedy. USC Comedy at the School of Cinematic Arts offers instruction in the writing, directing, production as well as the history and theory of comedy. Students work with a distinguished, award-winning faculty of comedy professionals to discover and develop their comedic voices, while getting unrivaled access to the field through workshops, internships, demonstrations and screenings and festivals.

USC Comedy boasts an award-winning faculty that includes Jack Epps Jr. (The Secret of My Success, Legal Eagles, Top Gun), Barnet Kellman (Murphy Brown, Mad About You, George Lopez), David Isaacs (Cheers, Frasier, M*A*S*H*), Robert Townsend (Diary of A Single Mom, The Parent Hood), Rob Schiller (The King of Queens), Andy Cadiff (Last Man Standing, Spin City) John Bowman (Saturday Night Live, In Living Color), Dave Goetsch (The Big Bang Theory), F J Pratt (Sullivan & Son) and Tim Marx (Young Sheldon), to name just a few.
 
Our students benefit from the expertise and participation of SCA Comedy Alumni such as Jay Roach (Austin Powers, Meet the Parents), Tim Story (Barber Shop, Ride Along), Judd Apatow (Girls, Superbad, Knocked Up),  Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy), Peter Segal (Tommy Boy, Get Smart), Gabe Sachs (Freaks and Geeks), Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air), Nahnatchka Khan (Fresh Off The Boat), and Prentice Penny (Insecure), among many other luminaries and industry professionals.

For more information, visit: http://cinema.usc.edu/comedy

About USC Visions and Voices: The Arts and Humanities Initiative

Visions and Voices is a university-wide arts and humanities initiative that is unparalleled in higher education. The initiative was established by USC President C. L. Max Nikias during his tenure as provost in order to fulfill the goals set forth in USC's strategic plan; to communicate USC's core values to students; and to affirm the human spirit. Emphasizing the university's commitment to interdisciplinary approaches, the initiative features a spectacular array of events conceived and organized by faculty and schools throughout the university. The series includes theatrical productions, music and dance performances, conferences, lectures, film screenings and many other special events both on and off campus. Each program invites students to dialogue and interact with artists, writers, professors and special guests. These interactions provide a dynamic experience of the arts and humanities and encourage active exploration of USC's core values, including freedom of inquiry and expression, team spirit, appreciation of diversity, commitment to serving one's community, entrepreneurial spirit, informed risk-taking, ethical conduct and the search for truth.

Visit the Official Visions and Voices Website: https://visionsandvoices.usc.edu/
Follow Visions and Voices on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/VisionsAndVoices
Follow Visions and Voices on Instagram: @visionsandvoices
Follow Visions and Voices on Twitter: @VisionsnVoices

#visionsandvoices

Contact Information

Name: Alessandro Ago
Email: aago@cinema.usc.edu