Beginnings

On today's episode I talk to musician Nora Singh. Originally from Texas, Nora nee Anna Barie started playing music over a decade ago with the Brooklyn experimental noise band These Are Powers. They released a number of albums on HOSS Records and Dead Oceans. In 2012, Nora moved to France and started the electronic duo DUBAI, and eventually ended up in LA, where she founded the "queencore" band Hit Bargain. Their debut album Potential Maximizer was released on Buzz Records back in May, and it's wonderful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to TV writer Adam Zwar. Originally from Cairns, Queensland, Adam is an award-winning Australian actor, voice artist, and writer. He is best known for co-creating the Australian comedy series Squinters, Lowdown, Wilfred and creating the popular factual series Agony Aunts, Agony Uncles, The Agony of Life, The Agony of Modern Manners and Agony. In addition to all this, he was a writer and actor on the sketch series The Wedge, acted in the wonderful series Top of the Lake, and co-wrote and co-starred in the movie Rats and Cats, which premiered to sell-out audiences and critical acclaim at the Melbourne International Film Festival and later SXSW. And all this is just a small sampling of his credits! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to writer and podcaster Kara Brown. Kara started out writing for magazines and websites like Glamour, Vanity Fair, Billboard and The Cut, and was a senior writer for Jezebel. She's written for the Black-ish spin-off grown-ish, contributes to Shondaland.com, is the co-host of Crooked Media's pop culture podcast Keep It, and this year, was named one of the "30 under 30 in Hollywood and Entertainment" by Forbes Magazine.  This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to musician Colleen Green. Based in Los Angeles (where she was voted best solo artist by LA Weekly), Colleen has recorded three albums in the last seven years, her first, Milo Goes to Compton, in 2011, and two subsequent albums Sock It To Me and I Want to Grow Up, which were both released by Hardly Art. She has toured all over the world, and this summer is playing all around the US. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to Cecil Castellucci. Based in Los Angeles, Cecil is the author of books and graphic novels for young adults including Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, Soupy Leaves Home, The Year of the Beasts, Tin Star, and the Eisner nominated Odd Duck. In 2015, she co-authored Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure, and currently is writing Shade, The Changing Woman (formerly Shade, The Changing Girl), an ongoing comic on Gerard Way’s Young Animal imprint at DC Comics. Cecil's short stories and short comics have been published in Strange Horizons, Tor.com, Womanthology, Star Trek: Waypoint, among others, and she is the Children’s Correspondence Coordinator for The Rumpus, a two-time MacDowell Fellow and the founding YA Editor at the LA Review of Books. Her latest book, Don’t Cosplay With My Heart, is out now! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to James McCall AKA Nocando. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Nocando got his start rap battling in Leimert Park in the Crenshaw District of South Central, and In 2007, he won the MC Battle at Scribble Jam, the largest hip-hop festival in the nation. Since 2004, he's released a ton of EPs, mixtapes and featured on dozens of songs, as well as a number of collaborations including 2010's Flash Bang Grenada with Busdriver. In 2011, he founded the label Hellfyre Club, which has released albums by Milo, Busdriver and Open Mike Eagle among many others, and James has released three albums: Jimmy the Lock in 2010, Jimmy the Burnout in 2014, and Severed in 2017. His latest album Coyote will be released on June 13th!  This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to Amy Aniobi. Amy is a TV writer originally hailing from North Texas. She is a co-executive producer on HBO’s groundbreaking comedy,  Insecure starring Issa Rae, and she also served as head writer/EP for the 2 Dope Queens stand-up specials on HBO. In addition, Amy has written for Silicon Valley, The Michael J. Fox Show and Trial and Error. Amy has a number of projects in development, including Homecoming Queen, a pilot at Amazon starring comedian Phoebe Robinson, Brown Girls, a pilot she’s supervising for HBO, and an untitled comedy project produced by Reese Witherspoon. Amy also co-created, co-directed and starred in the web series, Lisa and Amy Are Black, created the web series, The Slutty Years, and wrote for both seasons of Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to actor D'Arcy Carden. Originally from Danville, CA, D'Arcy got her comedy start at UCB where she was on a number of house sketch and improv teams. She's appeared on shows like Comedy Bang Bang, Veep, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Broad CIty, and currently, she is one of the members of the acting class on the incredible HBO show Barry and one of the stars of the fantastic NBC show The Good Place. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to Julia Wertz. Julia is a professional cartoonist, amateur historian and part time urban explorer/photographer. She made the comic books The Fart Party vol 1 and vol 2 (collected in Museum of Mistakes) and the graphic novels Drinking at the Movies, and The Infinite Wait and Other Stories, both of which were nominated for Eisner Awards. Her newest book, Tenements, Towers & Trash: An Unconventional, Illustrated History of New York City, was published by Black Dog & Leventhal/Hachette in Oct 2017, for which she won the 2018 Brendan Gill Prize. Julia currently does monthly comics and illustration for the New Yorker and her work appears semi-regularly in publications such as the New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, the Believer, and Medium. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to Dan Gregor. Dan is a TV and film writer and director, who got his comedy start as one of the founding members of the (now) long-running NYU sketch group Hammerkatz and as a performer at UCB. He's written feature films for Disney, Paramount Studios, Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment; for shows like How I Met Your Mother, The Comedians, and NTSF:SD:SUV; and he currently writes for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on the CW. This year at SXSW, Dan's film Most Likely to Murder, which he co-wrote and directed, debuted. Starring Adam Pally and his wife Rachel Bloom, the film is now available online to rent or buy! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to Aisling Bea. Originally from County Kildare, Ireland, Aisling has been acting and performing stand-up for over a decade. She's appeared on almost every TV panel show in the UK including 8 Out Of 10 Cats (where she was the first ever female team captain), Taskmaster, Qi, @Midnight and many others. As an actor, Aisling has been in many shows, both drama and comedy, including The Fall, Hard Sun, Damned, The Delivery Man, Dead Boss and many others, and her new show Happy, which she created with Sharon Horgan, was just ordered to series. And finally, as a stand-up, she's appeared on numerous shows and festivals. Her debut solo show at the Edinburgh Fringe, C’est La Bea, was nominated for the Foster’s Best Newcomer Award and a year later, she won the British Comedy Award for Best Female TV Comedian. Her Netflix 15-minute special will be released later this year. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to Wayne White. Born and raised in Chattanooga, Wayne is an artist, art director, illustrator, puppeteer, and much, much more. After graduating from Middle Tennessee State University, Wayne traveled to New York City where he worked as an illustrator for the East Village Eye, New York Times, Raw Magazine, and the Village Voice. In 1986, Wayne became a designer for the hit television show Pee-wee’s Playhouse, and his work was awarded with three Emmys. After traveling to Los Angeles, Wayne continued to work in television and designed sets and characters for shows such as Shining Time Station, Beakman’s World, Riders In The Sky, and Bill & Willis. He also worked in the music video industry, winning Billboard and MTV Music Video Awards as an art director for seminal music videos including The Smashing Pumpkins' 'Tonight, Tonight' and Peter Gabriel's 'Big Time.' More recently, Wayne has had great success as a fine artist and has created paintings and public works that have been shown a

On today's episode I talk to Carson Mell. Originally from Arizona, Carson is a writer based in Los Angeles, who's worked on a number of shows including Eastbound & Down, Room 104, Silicon Valley and many others. Carson also created the webseries Tarantula, and in 2017, the first season of a show based on the webseries debuted on TBS. (It's great!) In addition to his TV writing, Carson is also an author having penned books like Field Notes from Dimension X and Saguaro: The Life & Adventures of Bobby Allen Bird, and he's also one-half of the band CAS'L, with Foxygen's Jon Rado. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to Anna Waronker. Anna is a singer/songwriter, composer, and producer originally from Los Angeles. After graduating from high school, Anna formed the band that would eventually become That Dog. While the band was only active for six years, they released three great albums on DGC Records (That Dog, Totally Crushed Out and Retreat from The Sun) and toured with everyone from Beck to Weezer to Blur. The band reunited in 2011 and recorded a new album to be released in the future. As a solo artist, Anna has released two albums, Anna and California Fade, and scores music for film and TV, which includes shows like Clueless, Dawson's Creek, Grey's Anatomy and Castle. Anna also now works in theater. Her last production was Lovelace: A Rock Musical, a collaboration with her sister-in-law Charlotte Caffey of the Go-Go's. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to Josh Ruben. Josh is a 5-time Webby award winning actor, writer, and director, best known for appearing in and/or directing thousands of shorts for comedy megasite, CollegeHumor. Josh's podcast, The Mindhouse, is a part of fellow CollegeHumor alums Jake & Amir’s HeadGum network, and as an actor, he appeared opposite Adam Devine in Season 3 of "Adam Devine’s House Party" on Comedy Central, as the son of Chris Elliott and Amy Sedaris in Go90's "Thanksgiving" and co-stars in feature indie, "What Children Do", an official selection of the 2017 Cinequest Film Festival. Josh is also one of the founding producers of The Woodstock Comedy Festival, a non-profit event in his home town of Woodstock, New York, which donates all proceeds to the fight against domestic violence and human trafficking. Most recently, Josh directed the  Netflix action/comedy series, "The Green Beret's Guide To Surviving: The Apocalypse" executive produced by Matt Damon & Peter Berg. This is the website for 

On today's episode I talk to artist Ian Davis. Born in Indianapolis in 1972, Ian now lives in Los Angeles, after a long stint in New York. He has participated in exhibitions at museums and galleries throughout the U.S. including a solo exhibition in 2010 at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. Ian's works are in the collections of the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, Kansas; the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri; the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln, Nebraska; the Saatchi Gallery in London, and many distinguished private collections in the U.S. and Europe.  This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to Rachel Browne. Rachel is a musician, writer and visual artist living in Philadelphia, PA. She earned a Bachelor of Music with a concentration in studio composition from Purchase College and has been writing and performing in the band Field Mouse since its formation in 2009. The band self-released their first album You Are Here in 2010, and Topshelf Records released their next two - Hold Still Life in 2014 and Episodic in 2016. Rachel also writes and performs solo under the name Anomie. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to actress DeWanda Wise. Originally from Maryland, DeWanda graduated from the Tisch School at NYU in 2006, and began her professional acting career soon after with small roles on shows like Law and Order: SVU and The Good Wife. This led to larger parts on Underground and Shots Fired, and in 2017, she was the lead in Spike Lee's Netflix remake of his seminal film She's Gotta Have It. Currently, she's been cast opposite Brie Larson in the Captain Marvel film in an unspecified role. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to musician Dean Wareham. Originally from Wellington, New Zealand, Dean's family moved to New York in 1977 when he  was a teenager. In college at Harvard, he formed the seminal indie rock band Galaxie 500 with Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang. They recorded three albums - Today, On Fire and This Is Our Music, which were released on Rough Trade - but broke up in 1991, when he formed Luna. Luna was one of the biggest indie rock bands of the 1990s, and Elektra released many of their iconic albums including Lunapark, Bewitched, Penthouse, and Pup Tent. Currently, Dean writes music under his own name and with his wife Britta Phillips as Dean & Britta. The two have recorded a number of albums and scored a handful of Noah Baumbach films like The Squid and the Whale and Mistress America. In addition to all of this, Dean wrote a memoir of about his years in indie rock called Black Postcards. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.

On today's episode I talk to comedian and writer Jo Firestone. Originally from St. Louis, Jo is a stand-up and the creator of dozens of live shows, including the pun competition Punderdome, the Inner Beauty Pageant, and the Unexpectashow at UCB. As an actor, Jo's been in everything from Broad City to Search Party to the Mike Birbiglia film Don't Think Twice, and as a stand-up, she's performed on Night Train with Wyatt Cenac and her own Comedy Central Half Hour. In addition to all of this, Jo is also the host of her very own podcast on Earwolf, the loveable Dr. Gameshow, and co-hosts the weekly stand-up show Butterboy along with Aparna Nancherla and Maeve Higgins. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.