
About
Advisory Board
Our Women In Comedy Advisory Board is comprised of volunteer experts in business, art, film, and comedy spanning cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, NY, London, and more. All of our advisory board members donate their time and guidance to aid in the mission of our organization.
Ana Breton
Artistic Advisory Board
Ana Breton is currently an Emmy Nominated Digital Producer for Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.
Ana has 7+ years of working in film production. She was a camera operator for the movie "In Football We Trust," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015. On the side, you can find her working on comedy videos with The Box, the all-female comedy talk show at The People's Improv Theatre. She was a member of UCB's Digital Team The Council and the all-female Digital Team LASH.
She was born in Mexico City, speaks Spanish & really likes tacos.
Michelle Cline
Business Advisory Board
Michelle Cline is the VP of Operations for global HR firm, FurstPerson. There aren’t too many people who can say that they were the first employee and are still with the company 20 years later – she is proud to be that person at FurstPerson. As the owner of global customer support, she is dedicated to helping our customers regardless of the situation or time of day. Her team and I draw on our expertise, resourcefulness, and customer-first attitude to solve any problem. Some problems are more difficult to solve than others, but we pursue solutions relentlessly until we identify the root cause and resolve the issue permanently. Her work can be frustrating and difficult, but watching customers achieve success makes it worthwhile.
Milly Tamarez
Artistic Advisory Board
Milly Tamarez is a comedic actress based out of Brooklyn, New York. She has been featured on Vice, BET, Flama, Above Average, Univision, and Comedy Central. She is the one of the creators and producers of the Diverse as Fuck Festival a comedy festival that highlights diversity. She is one of the founders of the all women of color improv team Affirmative Action. As a main cast member of the online video sketch collective deadass her work has been featured in the Daily Dot, HelloGiggles, Galore Magazine, Adweek, CodeBlack Report. She is currently in the Advanced Study Program of the Upright Citizens Brigade. She is also a company member of Story Pirates. You can catch milly at any number of sketch and improv shows across NYC.
Krystal Stark
Artistic Advisory Board
Krystal Stark is the owner of Stark White Entertainment, a talent management company based in New York City. Krystal specializes in developing comedic and lifestyle talent for film, TV, commercial and new media, and proactively works with her clients to create opportunities by producing content for TV and new media. Krystal’s clients have appeared on networks including Comedy Central, BET, MTV, HBO, FOX, Bravo, VH1, and truTV. Additionally, her clients have been featured in major publications like Entertainment Weekly, Huffington Post, ELLE.com and BuzzFeed.
Krystal is the co-president of the Ladies of Comedy Association (LOCA), a professional organization dedicated to advancing the careers and positions of women on the business side of comedy.
Leigh Giuliano
Business Advisory Board
Leigh moved to the Chicagoland area from Santa Cruz to study business and economics at North Park University. With a love for the subject, she stayed in the area and began building her career in finance and operations. She specializes in small business accounting, and in her most recent role, is serving as Financial Analyst to CNO Financial Group, where her small team oversees a $115M budget. She spends her free time with her spouse at the golf course, and with her dogs at the dog park.
Rochona Majumdar
Artistic Advisory Board
Rochona is an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago in the Departments of Cinema and Media Studies, South Asian Languages and Civilizations. She is a historian of gender, sexuality, and cinema in modern India. She has written books and scholarly articles on arranged marriage, love, art cinema, film clubs, and on notions of civility and society in Indian political thought. Rochona is also interested in film curation and festival organization. She is currently working on a book entitled
Art Cinema in India.
Dina Nina Martinez
Artistic Advisory Board
Dina Nina Martinez who was called "Very funny" by James Corden of The Late Late Show is a comic, actor and speaker based in the midwest. She is the creator of Lady Laughs Comedy Festival based in Madison, WI with a satellite festival in Wichita, KS. She has toured with Lizz Winstead and Shawn Pelofsky and is currently on tour with I <3 Funny Women! Lady Laughs Comedy Tour. Her mission to create amazing spaces for women and LGBTQ+ people is her driving force. Her task is as gentle and sweet as Al Roker and as tough and rugged as Gwyneth Paltrow, yet much more likeable.
Trish Nelson
Artistic Advisory Board
BanterGirl's founder Trish Nelson is a producer, performer, writer, and (according to her taxes) a waitress living in NYC. She’s produced weekly and monthly shows throughout NYC and beyond working with many performers including Women of Letters, Dave Hill, and John Hodgman to name a few. She has also helped to put together live shows and tours across the country for Broad City, Impractical Jokers, Jim Jefferies, Key & Peele, Bill Burr, Chris Hardwick, and Amy Schumer, as well as many others. Through BanterGirl LLC, Trish is committed to providing platforms and creating work that focuses on women, while launching diverse female talent through projects that help shed light on women and the female voice.
Lynn Harris
Artistic Advisory Board
Lynn Harris is the founder of Gold Comedy for Girls and is a believer, and leader, in the power of pop culture to drive change, especially when it’s funny. Her writing—on gender, culture, and a wide range of social justice issues—has appeared in The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Salon, Glamour, and a twenty-year-career’s worth of national newspapers, magazines, and literary anthologies. She founded and taught for years Mediabistro’s popular class in Humor Writing for Journalists. Lynn has appeared on TV and radio like a jillion times, including as a Tonya Harding lookalike, which is a long story.
Mary Kennedy
Artistic Advisory Board
Mary resides in Los Angeles and has over 20 years experience in Stand Up Comedy. As a successful comedic actress, Mary has a recurring role on Netflix's Shameless, Appearances on Conan, and regularly performs as a Professional Stand Up Comic and National Headliner. Mary also serves as Program Director of Youth Acting Biz.
Janice Lopez
Business Advisory Board
Janice Lopez is the Managing Director of Entrepreneurial Services at WBDC and Director of the Women’s Business Center – Chicago. Janice works with female entrepreneurs in many industries and leads the Latina Entrepreneurial Accelerated Development Program and the Latina Business Program, which enables women who speak Spanish access to the same high-quality business supports as English-speakers. Janice also provides oversight to the Early Childhood Education Entrepreneurship Program, and her impact on the childcare community is evident throughout the city. She is a business consultant with over 22 years experience with small to mid size companies. She was recently awarded The Chicago Foundation For Women's Impact Award honoring the economic impact her work has had on the lives of thousands of women.