Beginnings
672 episodes - English - Latest episode: 21 days ago - ★★★★★ - 100 ratingsWe all know the stories of how creative people get into the business of creating for a living, but how did they start using their imaginations in the first place? On the Beginnings podcast, writer and performer Andy Beckerman asks well-known and on-their-way-up comedians, musicians, writers, artists and thinkers about their earliest creative acts, their formative childhood experiences, and how they've developed both creatively and emotionally over the years. Beginnings is part therapy, part philosophy and almost all fascinating (95% according to FDA studies).
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Episodes
Episode 383: Cirocco Dunlap
October 04, 2018 08:02 - 1 hour - 77.3 MBOn today's episode I talk to writer and performer Cirocco Dunlap. Originally from San Francisco, Cirocco was a child actor for a short time, most notably in the movie James and the Giant Peach. As a writer, she's written a number of humor essays for places like the New Yorker, as well as a children's book and also for a number of TV shows including Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, The Tick, and Man Seeking Woman. Currently she writes for Netflix's Big Mouth and TBS's upcoming show Miracle Worke...
Episode 382: Allison Crutchfield of Swearin'
September 27, 2018 06:27 - 1 hour - 72.1 MBOn today's episode I talk to musician Allison Crutchfield. Originally from Birmingham, AL, Allison first started playing music with her sister Katie in the bands The Ackleys and then later P.S. Eliot. Eventually, the two felt the need to work on their own personal musical projects. Katie created Waxahatchee and Allison co-founded the wonderful indie rock band Swearin'. Allison has also recorded a self-released solo EP Lean In To It and her debut full-length Tourist in this Town was released ...
Bonus Episode 39: Mitski interview from 2016
September 20, 2018 05:16 - 1 hour - 30.8 MBI am traveling this week and weak from my Yom Kippur fast, so I thought I'd put up an old episode that people periodically ask about, my talk with musician Mitski Miyawaki from 2016. Originally from Japan, Mitski grew up all over the world, eventually settling in New York. Mitski has recorded five albums: Lush, Retired from Sad, New Career in Business, Bury Me at Makeout Creek, Puberty 2 and her latest Be the Cowboy, which was released by Dead Oceans in mid-August to great acclaim! This i...
Episode 381: Johnathan Fernandez
September 13, 2018 08:50 - 1 hour - 72 MBOn today's episode I talk to actor Johnathan Fernandez. Originally from the Poconos, Johnathan eventually moved to New York where he performed for many years at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre on numerous sketch and digital teams. As an actor, he's appeared on a number of shows including Adam Ruins Everything, @midnight, GIRLS, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Younger and many more, and currently, Johnathan is a series regular playing the character Scorsese on Fox's Lethal Weapon, wh...
Episode 380: Aleksa Palladino
September 06, 2018 05:48 - 1 hour - 63.6 MBOn today's episode I talk to actress and musician Aleksa Palladino. Originally form New York, Aleksa got her start acting as a teenager, performing opposite Scarlett Johansson in the movie Manny and Lo. Since then, she's acted in numerous films, most notably Storytelling, Mona Lisa Smile, and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Sidney Lumet's last film, as well as a ton of TV shows, which includes regular roles in Boardwalk Empire, Rogue, and Halt and Catch Fire, as well as the new CBS All A...
Episode 379: Keiko Agena
August 30, 2018 07:19 - 1 hour - 64.9 MBOn today's episode I talk to actor and author Keiko Agena. Keiko is best known for the TV show Gilmore Girls, where she played Lane Kim for seven seasons and reprised the role in 2016 for the Netflix series. As a guest star, she has appeared on such shows as Bajillion Dollar Propertie$, Shameless, Scandal, House, ER, Better Call Saul and many others, and recently she has been recurring on Sweet/Vicious, Colony, the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why and the upcoming Hulu series The First. Keiko i...
Episode 378: Todd Berger
August 23, 2018 07:57 - 1 hour - 62.7 MBOn today's episode I talk to actor, writer and filmmaker Todd Berger. Originally from New Orleans, Todd has been making movies since he was a teenager. Professionally, he's acted in numerous TV shows and films including Parks and Rec, Maron, and Southland Tales, and has written and/or directed dozens of shorts, shows and films including the wonderful 2012 film It's a Disaster and his latest film, the puppet noir The Happytime Murders, which stars Melissa McCarthy, was directed by Brian Henso...
Episode 377: Brian Evenson
August 16, 2018 07:14 - 1 hour - 69.7 MBOn today's episode I talk to author Brian Evenson. Based in Los Angels, Brian teaches in the Critical Studies Program at CalArts and is the author of a dozen books of fiction, most recently the story collection A Collapse of Horses and the novella The Warren. Brian's work has garnered many nominations and awards. Two of his recent books, Windeye and Immobility, were both finalists for a Shirley Jackson Award. His novel Last Days won the American Library Association's award for Best Horror No...
Episode 376: Jon Gabrus
August 09, 2018 06:35 - 1 hour - 78.1 MBOn today's episode I talk to comedian Jon Gabrus. Originally from Long Island, Jon has been acting and podcasting for over a decade. He's been featured on MTV2’s hit shows Guy Code, Girl Code, and Wild N Out, and recurs as Gabe on TVLand’s Younger. He has also appeared on 30 Rock and one of the silent writers and has guest starred on numerous shows including Happy Endings, Workaholics, NewsReaders, and Comedy Bang Bang. Jon also hosted MTV’s The Substitute for two seasons, TruTV’s Hairjacked...
Episode 375: Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids
August 02, 2018 08:44 - 1 hour - 72.2 MBOn today's episode I talk to musician Matt Pryor. Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Matt has been playing music professionally for over two decades. First with The Get Up Kids, who are generally thought of as one of the quintessential bands of the second-wave emo movement. They've toured the world and released five critically and commercially successful albums over their career: Four Minute Mile, Something to Write Home About, On a Wire, Guilt Show and There Are Rules. Matt has also rel...
Episode 374: Liz Stokes of The Beths
July 30, 2018 07:40 - 45 minutes - 41.8 MBOn today's episode I talk to musician Liz Stokes. Based in New Zealand, Liz is the lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band The Beths. While a relatively new group - their debut EP Warm Blood was released in 2016 - they have a sense of self and chemistry that is utterly apparent from even a casual listen. Their first album Future Me Hates Me will be released on August 10th on Carpark Records, and it is truly delightful! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcas...
Episode 373: Colin Newman and Malka Spigel (Wire, Minimal Compact, Githead, Immersion)
July 26, 2018 08:47 - 1 hour - 63.8 MBOn today's episode I talk to musicians Colin Newman and Malka Spigel. Married since 1986, Colin and Malka are a post-punk power couple. Colin is a member of the seminal post-punk band Wire, whose early albums Pink Flag, Chairs Missing and 154 were the blueprints for decades of music. And Colin continues to be a vibrant creative voice with his solo albums, and his work with his wife Malka in Githead and Immersion. Before her collaborations with Colin, Malka was a member of the influential Eur...
Bonus Episode 38: Couples Therapy
July 19, 2018 06:11 - 1 hour - 82.8 MBThis week my new podcast Couples Therapy debuts, so I thought I'd give y'all a taste of that! If you like it, subscribe and follow us on social media! This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
Episode 372: Glen David Gold
July 12, 2018 09:14 - 1 hour - 64.6 MBOn today's episode I talk to writer Glen David Gold. Glen is the author of the bestselling novels Sunnyside and Carter Beats the Devil, and his essays, memoir, journalism and short fiction have appeared in McSweeney's, Playboy, Wired, the New York Times Sunday Magazine, the Guardian UK and London Independent. He has written The Spirit for DC comics and The Escapist for Dark Horse and recently he has co-written episodes of The Thrilling Adventure Hour and Welcome to Nightvale. His three-part ...
Episode 371: Nora Singh of Hit Bargain
July 05, 2018 08:10 - 1 hour - 31 MBOn 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...
Episode 370: Adam Zwar
June 28, 2018 07:10 - 1 hour - 32.8 MBOn 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 La...
Episode 369: Kara Brown
June 21, 2018 08:23 - 1 hour - 31.8 MBOn 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, subscrib...
Episode 368: Colleen Green
June 14, 2018 07:16 - 1 hour - 27.7 MBOn 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 Twi...
Episode 367: Cecil Castellucci
June 07, 2018 09:23 - 1 hour - 30.2 MBOn 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 shor...
Episode 366: Nocando
May 31, 2018 07:32 - 1 hour - 26.8 MBOn 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, whi...
Episode 365: Amy Aniobi
May 24, 2018 07:10 - 1 hour - 36.8 MBOn 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, B...
Episode 364: D'Arcy Carden
May 17, 2018 06:07 - 1 hour - 38.1 MBOn 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 ...
Episode 363: Julia Wertz
May 10, 2018 07:38 - 1 hour - 29.7 MBOn 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 & L...
Episode 362: Dan Gregor
May 03, 2018 08:06 - 1 hour - 36.5 MBOn 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 t...
Episode 361: Aisling Bea
April 26, 2018 08:37 - 1 hour - 27.6 MBOn 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 H...
Episode 360: Wayne White
April 19, 2018 04:21 - 1 hour - 29.3 MBOn 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 ...
Episode 359: Carson Mell
April 12, 2018 06:49 - 1 hour - 28.9 MBOn 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 o...
Episode 358: Anna Waronker of that dog
April 05, 2018 06:58 - 1 hour - 29.4 MBOn 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 th...
Episode 357: Josh Ruben
March 29, 2018 08:33 - 1 hour - 41.1 MBOn 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-...
Episode 356: Ian Davis
March 22, 2018 08:30 - 1 hour - 36.5 MBOn 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...
Episode 355: Rachel Browne of Field Mouse
March 15, 2018 09:00 - 1 hour - 35.2 MBOn 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...
Episode 354: DeWanda Wise
March 08, 2018 08:28 - 1 hour - 31.8 MBOn 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 uns...
Episode 353: Dean Wareham
March 01, 2018 07:55 - 1 hour - 29.6 MBOn 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 m...
Episode 352: Jo Firestone
February 22, 2018 09:02 - 1 hour - 30.5 MBOn 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...
Episode 351: Griffin Newman
February 15, 2018 09:07 - 1 hour - 40.6 MBOn today's episode I talk to actor and comedian Griffin Newman. Raised in New York, Griff has been writing and performing for a lion's share of his life. In 2007, he started college, but left in his first year to pursue acting, and since then has appeared in a number of films and TV shows including Law and Order, Blue Bloods, Fort Tilden, Vinyl, Cop Show, Difficult People, Draft Day, Search Party, Our Cartoon President, and currently stars as the sidekick Arthur in Amazon's live action The T...
Episode 350: Ryan Lott of Son Lux
February 08, 2018 08:04 - 1 hour - 30.5 MBOn today's episode I talk to composer and musician Ryan Lott. Born in Denver, CO, Ryan began playing music when he was relatively young. His first album as Son Lux, At War with Walls & Mazes, was released by Anticon in 2008, and since then they've recorded three other albums, We Are Rising in 2011, Lanterns in 2013, and Bones in 2015. In 2014, Ryan collaborated with Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti as the band Sisyphus, releasing a self-titled album that year. As a composer, Ryan has scored the...
Episode 349: Amy Hubbs
February 01, 2018 08:56 - 1 hour - 30.7 MBOn today's episode I talk to TV writer Amy Hubbs. Originally from Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Amy began her TV career as a writers' assistant on the original run of NBC's Will & Grace, and since then has worked on numerous shows including Raising Hope, The Crazy Ones, Ugly Betty, and Great News. Currently she is a writer and producer on the new Freeform show Alone Together, which stars Esther Povitsky. This is the website for Beginnings, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, follow me on Twitter.
Episode 348: Tawny Newsome
January 25, 2018 08:49 - 1 hour - 30.9 MBOn today's episode I talk to comedian and musician Tawny Newsome. Originally from California, Tawny got her start in comedy in Chicago, where she was part of the Second City Mainstage, as well as the Second City National Touring Company. More recently, she was one of the stars of the wonderful Seeso show Bajillion Dollar Propertie$ and is a recurring character on BET's The Comedy Get Down. In addition, Tawny is a fan favorite on many Earwolf podcasts including Spontaneanation and Comedy Bang...
Episode 347: Brandon Bird
January 18, 2018 08:25 - 1 hour - 35.7 MBOn today's episode I talk to painter and illustrator Brandon Bird. Originally from Sacramento, CA, Brandon paints pop culture figures in absurd situations, like Christopher Walken building a Transformer in his garage or the cast of Frasier in a 1970s pulp fantasy series. He's organized a number of arts shows around these ideas and created a Law and Order coloring book called Law & Order: An Adventure to Color! Brandon also contributes to the wonderful magazine The Believer, and in 2013 Chron...
Episode 346: James Urbaniak
January 11, 2018 07:08 - 1 hour - 32.8 MBOn today's episode I talk to actor James Urbaniak. Originally from Bayonne, New Jersey, James was part of the flourishing 1990s New York theater scene. It was there he met Hal Hartley who cast him as Simon Grim in the wonderful film Henry Fool. Since then, James has been part of Hartley's unofficial repertory, acting in a number of his other films. Outside of these, James has also acted in dozens of roles for TV and the silver screen, turning out classic performances such as R. Crumb in Amer...
Episode 345: Dana Gould
January 04, 2018 06:19 - 1 hour - 30.1 MBOn today's episode I talk to stand-up and writer Dana Gould. Originally from Hopedale, MA, Dana started performing stand-up at the tender age of 17, and since then has taped numerous late night appearances, specials (including an HBO Half-Hour), and four albums: Funhouse, I Know It's Wrong, Let Me Put My Thoughts in Your, and his latest Mr. Funny Man, which was just released earlier this year on the wonderful label Kill Rock Stars. As an actor, he's appeared in everything from Roseanne to Se...
Bonus Episode 37: Naomi Ekperigin on Keeping Your Soul in Hollywood
December 28, 2017 08:06 - 43 minutes - 18.1 MBWe're stuck between Christmas and New Year's Eve, folks, so I thought I'd drop a bonus episode this week! What's a "bonus episode" of Beginnings? These are episodes that deviate from "let's talk to a creator I admire about their childhoods" and instead take a peek behind the curtain of showbiz. As I get deeper into the business part of this industry, I learn so much more about the real structures underpinning why certain TV shows get made or why certain actors become household names, and I t...
Episode 344: Karl Schaefer
December 21, 2017 05:26 - 1 hour - 29.2 MBOn today's episode I talk to TV writer and showrunner Karl Schaefer. Originally from Downey, CA, Karl has been working in TV since the late 1980s, where he started off as the creator and showrunner of TV 101. In the '90s, he created and showran two supernatural programs Eerie, Indiana and Strange Luck, and then spent time writing on a number of different shows including Monk, The Dead Zone, Eureka and Ghost Whisperer. In 2014, he co-created the wonderful show Z Nation, which just finished it...
Episode 343: Jessica Gao
December 14, 2017 05:15 - 1 hour - 33.3 MBOn today's episode I talk to TV writer Jessica Gao. Originally from Los Angeles, Jessica began her TV writing career in the world of animation, working on shows like Nickelodeon's The Mighty B and Kung Fu Panda, as well as live action shows for both Nickelodeon and The Disney Channel. In 2014, Jessica wrote for Silicon Valley on HBO, followed by the wonderful Seeso (RIP) show Bajillion Dollar Propertie$. Currently she is writing on the beloved Adult Swim show Rick and Morty and the upcoming ...
Episode 342: Sina Grace
December 07, 2017 09:40 - 1 hour - 35.1 MBOn today's episode I talk to comics writer and artist Sina Grace. Based in Los Angeles, Sina is the author and illustrator of a number of books for Image Comics including Self-Obsessed, Not My Bag, and Nothing Lasts Forever. He acts as the artist for Shaun Steven Struble's cult hit, The Li'l Depressed Boy, and handles art chores along with co-writing the Image Comics hit series, Burn the Orphanage. Sina has also done illustrations for all-ages readers, including Among the Ghosts, written by ...
Episode 341: Steve Dildarian
November 30, 2017 09:03 - 1 hour - 28.4 MBOn today's episode I talk to writer and painter Steve Dildarian. Originally from New Jersey, Steve spent many years as an advertising executive and created a number of well-known campaigns including the "Budweiser Lizards". In 2006, Steve created an animated short film called Angry Unpaid Hooker, which won the best animated short at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, which led to his show on HBO. The Life & Times of Tim ran for three seasons from 2008 to 2012 and is wonderful. Tim is also a pain...
Bonus Episode 36: Katie Walsh on Being a Film Critic
November 22, 2017 09:37 - 57 minutes - 24.4 MBIt's almost Thanksgiving, folks! So I thought I'd drop a bonus episode early so you could listen while you're traveling for the holidays. What's a "bonus episode" of Beginnings? These are episodes that deviate from "let's talk to a creator I admire about their childhoods" and instead take a peek behind the curtain of showbiz. As I get deeper into the business part of this industry, I learn so much more about the real structures underpinning why certain TV shows get made or why certain actors...
Episode 340: Carlos Alazraqui
November 16, 2017 07:11 - 1 hour - 33.3 MBOn today's episode I talk to actor and voiceover artist Carlos Alazraqui. Carlos is probably most often recognized as Deputy James Garcia from Comedy Central’s hit show Reno 911! A standup comic for over 25 years, he is also one of LA’s top voiceover actors with hundreds of credits to his name, including The Taco Bell Chihuahua, Mr. Weed on FOX’s Family Guy, Lazlo on Cartoon Network’s Camp Lazlo, Bane in Justice League: Doom, and Mr. Crocker on Nickelodeon’s long running series Fairly OddPar...
Episode 339: Javier Grillo-Marxuach
November 09, 2017 09:27 - 1 hour - 36.6 MBOn today's episode I talk to writer and showrunner Javier Grillo-Marxuach. Originally from Puerto Rico, Javi earned his MFA in screenwriting from USC in the early 1990s, and soon after started his television career. He's written for a number of rad shows across many different genres including Charmed, Boomtown, Medium, Lost, Helix and The 100, and he created and showran the fantastic show The Middleman, which was based on his own comics. Javi's also the co-host with Jose Molina of the Childr...
Episode 338: Eliot Glazer
November 02, 2017 06:33 - 1 hour - 38.2 MBOn today's episode I talk to TV writer and performer Eliot Glazer. Originally from Long Island, Eliot is now based in LA and has written for or contributed to shows like Billy on the Street, Difficult People, Best Week Ever, Younger, Broad City, New Girl, and currently Teachers. He also recently developed a show for Comedy Central produced by Will Arnett. As a performer, you've seen him on plenty of shows, such as playing Ilana's brother on Broad City, or at his wonderful live show Haunting ...