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THE DUMP
Where the weekly news belongs.New episodes drop Sundays on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Stay trashy!
Meet the Dumpster Divers
Rebecca velez, Creator
Rebecca Barnard is a comedy writer, performer and producer living in Los Angeles. She's covered the news (and written jokes about it) for live shows, media outlets and even her own election-focused online show, Let's Do 2020. Rebecca has worked and performed at Second City, iO, Comedy Central Stage, Open Fist Theater and others in NY, LA, DC and Chicago...she's also lived in a lot of different places (ask her about South Africa!) Rebecca is an alum of the DAF Onion Fellowship and Late Night with Stacey Rumaker. When she grows up, she wants to be Graham Norton.
Sarah Cho, Producer
Sarah Cho is a Los Angeles-based comedy writer and playwright. She has performed at Green Gravel Comedy Festival and Laugh Riot Grrrl Festival, as well as written for house sketch teams at the Pack Theater. Her work has been featured on ComedyCake, WhoHaHa, and Funny or Die. Sarah holds an MFA in Playwriting from University of Iowa’s Playwrights Workshop, where she excelled at drinking pie shakes. To learn more about Sarah’s current work, visit her website: www.sarahcho.com
Alaina Warren Zachary, Senior Senior Correspondent
Alaina has been a performing professional seemingly forever. She writes sketch comedy for the live LA-based show This Week This Week directed by Ron West. New is her weekly podcast My Senior Moment on Spotify and on The Dump. Alaina is an award-winning screenwriter and director. Performing credits include original Broadway musicals,(Grease, Nine, Baby)concerts, opera, and roles on Roswell, Better Call Saul, Wander, Half Brothers, and other tv and films you've seen.
Staff Writers
Claire Alexander is a New York City-based stand up comedian and headline contributor for Reductress. She performs regularly at both comedy clubs QED and The Tiny Cupboard, as well as other clubs and independent shows all over the city. Claire is the producer of three-year-running, “Drule,” a weekly comedy show in Brooklyn with an all women and queer people lineup, which was featured in the New York Comedy Festival in 2021. Claire was featured in the Connecticut Comedy Festival in 2020, and has been described as “an attentive waitress” by multiple elderly customers at the restaurant she has to work at because she decided to pursue a creative career.
Rebecca Golden is a contributing writer on The Dump who writes sketch, short and long-form comedy. She worked in tech startups, ultimately as Marketing Director, traveling around the world to stage events, and to write, design, and produce for web, film, and print, including regular contributions to Forbes and documentaries for brands like Porsche and GSK. She previously worked at the firm behind Obama’s digital campaign, in a DC think tank, and at a film studio. She studied sketch with Laughing Buddha, the PIT, and Second City–and officially, history at Pomona College. Her work won a Muse Award, and has been recognized in several screenwriting competitions, including the Screencraft Screenwriting Fellowship.
Reva Grimball is a queer comedy writer and actor currently living in New York City. She is a Saturday Night Live scholarship recipient, was accepted into the Diverse As Fuck Onion writing program, and her writing has been featured on Cracked.com. She is the creator of the digital short series Drunk Bathroom Girl, co-produces the independent sketch comedy collective BoogieManja, sings with her musical improv team The Understudies, and teaches sketch writing at the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB). Check her out on Instagram @revagrimballcomedy or at revagrimball.com.
John Hardy is a Nottingham UK based Stand-up, Improviser and writer. He trained with Annoyance Theatre in Chicago. A writer for This Week This Week, you can find him on stage around the UK performing stand-up and improv. with his twoprov group Honey Badger or in Ensembles at different shows. Follow him on instagram.com/johnhardycomedian
Rick Larsen is a writer, artist, and improvisor based in Phoenix. He studied improv and sketch at the Torch Theatre (Phx), the Pack Theatre (LA), and Rise Theatre(Denver). He is a contributing writer for the new-based sketch show This Week This Week in Los Angeles and and The Dump podcast. He also cohosts Sweet Podtato, a podcast about things that are excellent. Follow him at rlarsen4 on Instagram & YouRube and ricklarsen4 on Venmo. You can learn more about him at linktr.ee/rlarsen4. He is not Banksy.
Hannah Martin is a writer and therapist based in Portland, Oregon. She grew up in Lancaster, California where she acted for years before switching fields. Hannah's love of writing really came from her Dad and a household where brainstorming jokes, SNL and John Candy were a religion. Hannah is a contributing writer for The Dump podcast, and has been featured on Whohaha. She also works on her own small projects in sketch writing. You can find her as Yourkinghannah on instagram or publically trying to get out of Jury Duty.
Sam Metzler is a midwest based comedian, teacher, and general silly person. He is trained in comedy through the Second City Chicago, is a writer for Frazzled, and for The Dump Podcast. You can catch him trying desperately not to get caught breaking his diet regularly. You can follow his career on his instagram @samuel.metzler.330 or on his X @16minutesnews.
Cassie Soliday is a comedy writer and cartoonist, currently working in the animation industry. They’ve written and developed for series at Disney, Cartoon Network, Warner Bros Animation, among others. Their humor writing and cartoons can be seen around the internet in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, The Belladonna, Greener Pastures, and more. Originally from the rural Midwest, Cassie moved to Chicago to study animation at Columbia College Chicago, as well as improv and sketch comedy at the Second City and Annoyance theatres. A heartbeat later, they traded their tornado survival kit for another specializing in wildfires and earthquakes to head for sunny California. www.casassy.com
Risa Weber is an LA-based comedy writer who enjoys writing both short-form content and 30-minute comedies. She is a member of the Sleepless and Leopold sketch teams at The Ruby theater, and she is writing an audio drama for the streaming app Headfone. She is also a contributing writer for The Dump podcast. You can find her at @risajweber on Twitter.