Coming Home

Listen to serendipitous meetings, secrets laid bare, discovering home in a new country to name a few more.

 

 
 
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Katie Mitchell

Katie Mitchell is a southern girl, born and raised in New Orleans. She comes from a long line of dreamers, storytellers, and men who weep. Katie has been an actress for over 30 years in television, stage, and voice-overs. For this career choice she blames Helen Keller. But that is a story for another time.

She has turned her attention to writing, which is what she truly wanted to do all along. 

Currently finishing a novel, BIG DADDY'S KNEE, set in 1969 Louisiana. She has 2 essays printed in the book Deliver Me. You can read more of her work on Medium.com .

She lives in Los Angeles with the kid.

 

 
 
 
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Winnie Holzman

Winnie Holzman is the co-writer (with acclaimed songwriter Stephen Schwartz) of the hit musical Wicked. She got her start writing for the TV drama thirtysomething, and went on to create the series My So-Called Life, which starred Claire Danes. She also executive produced (again with Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick) the series Once and Again and (with her daughter, Savannah Dooley) the ABC Family Series Huge. Most recently she collaborated with Cameron Crowe on the showtime series Roadies. Her latest play, Choice, recently had its world premiere at the Huntington Theatre in Boston.

 
 
 

Jason Katims writer, Sam Jaeger, Phil Abrams, LIZZIE Murray actors

Jason Katims is a television writer who has worked on such shows as Friday Night Lights, Parenthood, My So-Called Life, About a Boy, The Path, Pure Genius and the upcoming, Rise.  He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and children. 

Sam Jaeger, Actor:
Sam Jaeger is most widely known for playing Joel on NBC’s acclaimed hit drama series PARENTHOOD, as well as roles in Clint Eastwood’s AMERICAN SNIPER and Paul Thomas Anderson’s INHERENT VICE. Other films include CATCH AND RELEASE opposite Jennifer Garner and Kevin Smith, THE TRUTH ABOUT EMANUEL opposite Jessica Biel and Alfred Molina, and LUCKY NUBMER SLEVIN opposite Bruce Willis and Josh Harnett.

He was most recently seen on ABC in Gus Van Sant and Dustin Lance Blacks miniseries WHEN WE RISE alongside Guy Pearce, Mary Louise Parker and Rachel Griffiths.

Jaeger wrote, directed and starred in his feature film, TAKE ME HOME, along with Amber Jaeger, Victor Garber and Bree Turner.

Phil Abrams, Actor:
With over 130 episodic television and film credits, Phil Abrams has had recurring guest roles on: THE MINDY PROJECT, KINGDOM, YOU’RE THE WORST, ABOUT A BOY, PARENTHOOD, and GREY’S ANATOMY - to name just a few. He has recently guest starred on: GRACE & FRANKIE, LADY DYNAMITE, NCIS LA and also has a plethora of co-star appearances under his belt. Film credits include Jersey Boys (dir. - Clint Eastwood), The Island (dir. - Michael Bay) and Phil is starring in the upcoming indie feature - WELCOME TO THE MEN’S GROUP, alongside Timothy Bottoms & Stephen Tobolowsky. www.imdb.me/philabrams
Phil is also a highly-regarded audition/acting coach working under the moniker of THE AUDITION PHYSICIAN. www.facebook.com/ TheAuditionPhysician

Lizzie Murray, Actor:
While studying theatre at Northwestern, Lizzie’s acting teacher told her to take voice lessons unless she wanted to play dumb blondes for the rest of her life.  She did just that and had a successful voice-over career and occasional acting jobs, which she put aside to raise two kind children with her husband John.  Her favorite role to date was playing Sharon Tate in Theatre-a-Go-Go’s production of Valley of the Dolls

 
 
 
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Taylor parker

When she's not counting calories, carbs, grams of sugar or regrets, Taylor Parker enjoys hanging with her 3 year old daughter, Hunter. She's also a first grade teacher and the Social Justice Curriculum Coordinator at Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences in Santa Monica. Taylor's writing credits include her one person show, "Starving for Attention," a few stand-up stints at some random comedy joints, and a handful of unfinished sitcom specs that will forever live in an old laptop buried at the back of her closet. 

 
 
 
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Paul Dooley

Recently seen at the Odyssey Theatre in “Assisted Living” with Winnie Holzman, a play also written by the couple. At the Ahmanson Theatre he appeared in Mornings at Seven, and at The Pasadena Playhouse in Lend Me a Tenor and Afterplay.

Best remembered as the hilarious father in the film Breaking Away, Dooley also appeared as the father in Sixteen Candles. Since then, he has played the father to Julia Roberts, Toni Collette, Helen Hunt, Mia Farrow and many others. Film: Runaway Bride, Hairspray, Insomnia, Waiting for Guffman and Strange Brew. TV: Curb Your Enthusiasm, Grey’s Anatomy, My So-Called Life, Law & Order and Star Trek.

He is married to Winnie Holzman, who, with composer Stephen Schwartz, created the hit Broadway Musical Wicked.

 
 
 
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TOM FREUND

Tom Freund is indeed one of the great singer- songwriters. He constructs a unique world, defines it, and then burns it to the ground. Truly unique and absolutely brilliant.” –All Music Guide

 
 
 
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Elgin James

Homeless as a teenager, Elgin James was a fixture in Boston's hardcore punk scene, helping lead a multi-ethnic, national street gang that targeted neo-Nazi skinheads and drug dealers.  After spending nearly half his life in the gang, James left Boston for Los Angeles where he was shepherded by the Sundance Institute and given the tools of filmmaking to express himself through art instead of violence.   

 
 
 
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KarEn Hollins

Karen lives in Ojai, California with her husband and their two teenagers. She is a supporter of many non-profits through her volunteering and charitable foundation. Karen is a founding member of Narrative 4, a global organization fostering empathy around the world through story exchanges.

 

 
 
 
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Ben Decter

BEN DECTER is an Emmy Award-winning composer and songwriter, who has created a diverse body of music for aliens (EXTANT), the devil (LUCIFER), federal agents (CSI CYBER, HOSTAGES) and criminally inclined psychics (SHUT EYE). His music has also been heard in Sundance-winning films and the NFL. Other works include “Another Big Day,” a children’s CD Ben co-created, and a musical in progress based on his experience as a father.

Born in Manhattan, and raised in New Jersey, Ben lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Jackie Sloan, two children, and a menagerie of 4-legged critters.

 
 
 
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Michelle Bitting

Michelle Bitting’s latest collection is The Couple Who Fell to Earth (C & R Press, 2016) which received a starred and Best of 2016 Indie medal from Kirkus Reviews. She has poems forthcoming or published in The American Poetry Review, Prairie Schooner, Narrative, Vinyl, Plume, diode, Nimrod, the Paris-American, Fjords, and others. Poems have appeared on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. Her book Good Friday Kiss won the DeNovo First Book Award, chosen by Thomas Lux and Notes to the Beloved (C & R Press) won the Sacramento Poetry Center Book Award and received a starred Kirkus Review as well. She has won the Beyond Baroque Foundation, Virginia Brendemuehl, and Glimmer Train poetry contests and been a finalist for the Poet's & Writer's Magazine California Exchange, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, the Julia Peterkin, and Rita Dove poetry awards, among others. Poems have been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net prizes, and most recently, The Pablo Neruda and American Literary Review Poetry Awards.
Michelle has taught poetry in the U.C.L.A. Extension Writer’s Program, at Twin Towers prison and for ten years has been an active California Poet in the Schools. She holds an MFA in Poetry from Pacific University, Oregon and is completing a PhD in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute.
For more info: https://www.crpress.org/shop/the-couple-who-fell-to-earth/   www.michellebitting.com

 
 
 
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Tom Rossi

Tom Rossi is a singer-songwriter, composer and music producer whose musical style is indeed a global mosaic, a border-dissolving symphony of tones and beats and harmonies from Africa and Asia and the Middle East, South America and the Caribbean and Brooklyn-Los Angeles, USA. 

With twenty years of experience composing, writing and producing music out of his own recording studio, Tom’s clients include BMW, GoPro, WildAid, Gaiam Inc., Cyclone Pictures, to name a few. 

Beyond recording and performing, Rossi sings songs and plays therapeutic music for patients and their families in hospice care. For the past 16 years this humbling experience has given unique depth to his songwriting and angelic soul to his voice. 

 

 
 
 
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MichAEL KATIMS

Michael Katims was born in Brooklyn, the son of antiwar and civil rights activists. He is the friend of somebody, the brother of somebody, and the partner of somebody else. He is the father of two incredible young women. The father of a couple of somebodys, actually. He lives in Paris, where he scratches out a living with his pen (which is his computer, PC not Mac, just so you know).

 

 
 
 
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TARA Ellison

Tara Ellison is a local Los Angeles writer and the author of the novel, Synchronized Breathing.