Plano Comedy Festival Headliners
Laurie Kilmartin is an Emmy-nominated writer for CONAN on TBS, and has performed standup on CONAN, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Comedy Central. She was a Top 10 finalist on season 9 of Last Comic Standing. Her first book, Shitty Mom, was a NY Times bestseller. Her Seeso (RIP) special, 45 Jokes About My Dead Dad, was named Vulture 's Top Ten Comedy Specials of 2016.
Her book "Dead People Suck" - a comedic memoir about hospice, cancer, grief and losing a parent, was released by Rodale Press in Feb 2018, and is available in bookstores, or online here at Amazon, B&N, Books a Million, IndieBound.
Kurt Braunohler is a comedian, actor and podcaster who has committed his career to inserting absurdity into stranger’s lives to make the world a better place. He has an album, a half-hour Comedy Central Special, and his first televised hour of comedy, Trust Me is out on Comedy Central. On TV, Kurt can been seen (or heard) on Bob's Burgers, The New Girl, @midnight, Another Period, The Kroll Show, Drunk History, Deadbeat, Comedy Central Presents, Adam Ruins Everything, Chelsea Lately, John Oliver Stand Up, Delocated, and as host of IFC’s comedy game show Bunk!. He has performed stand up sets on CONAN, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Late Show with Seth Meyers and Late Late Show with James Corden.
Steve Hofstetter, Author, columnist, and comedian, is often called the hardest working man in show-business. With all due respect to the late James Brown.
Hofstetter's national TV debut came on ESPN's Quite Frankly, where Stephen A. Smith yelled at him for three minutes. Hofstetter has also appeared on CBS' "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson", Showtime's "White Boyz in the Hood", VH1's "Countdown", Sundance's "On the Road in America", and ABC's "Barbara Walter's Special", where he thankfully did not cry. He is the host and executive producer of "Laughs" on Fox networks, where he only cries occasionally.
One of the top booked acts on the college circuit, the original writer for collegehumor.com has also released six albums.
Roxxy Haze, Comedian and YouTube sensation, can only be described as what happens when you blend pseudo intellectualism with a raunchy Walt Disney fantasy. With a background in theatre and film, Haze has foster an innate sense of showmanship. Her high energy, bubbly personality combined with her Amazonian stature makes her a comic book nerd’s dream girl and keeps viewers coming back for more. Through the blend of nerd culture with various light hearted topics such as literature, family and relationships, Roxxy Haze has built a small cult following and become a social media darling.
A Boston Native, you can see Mary E. Kennedy as recurring character “New Fiona” on Shameless. She wrote and stars in her one woman show, Mid Life Mood Swing, about being a roadie for her mom's
wedding band in the 80's. It premiered in Los Angeles and now is touring. You can also see her comedic acting regularly in various sketches for Conan on TBS.
She headlines all over the country and appears regularly at Flappers Comedy Club, The Comedy Store and The Laugh Factory in Los Angeles.
Stand-up comedian, motivational speaker, TV & radio personality, actress, author, blogger and entrepreneur are all titles fitting for Karith Foster. She is one of the hottest comics to come out of New York City according to both The Hollywood Reporter and Backstage Magazine who named her one of the “Top 10 Comics to Watch.”
Foster has appeared on a number of television programs, including Comedy Central's Premium Blend, NBC's Today and Last Comic Standing, and VH1's Best Week Ever, Awesomely Bad, and Black to the Future miniseries. She has also been seen on various programs from BET, Bravo, the Travel Channel, and the Fine Living Network.
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Paul Varghese is an American comedian and actor of Indian descent who appeared on the hit reality show Last Comic Standing. He taped his first full set for national television on March 8, 2007 for Comedy Central's Live at Gotham. He was the first ever winner of the Funniest Comedian in Texas contest.
His album, Paul and Oates, was recorded via Comedy Central Records and hit #1 on iTunes.
Memphis-born comic, Nerd Culture Enthusiast, and Black Nerd Power Podcast Host, Richard Douglas Jones started performing at open mics in Memphis to recover from depression, after a succession of hapless happenings left him more than slightly misanthropic. He found deliverance in comedy and audiences found his wildly inappropriate and caustic wit hilarious. Both a nice guy and a dubious miscreant, his delivery is a mash up of incisive insights on everyday life, Nerd Culture from a Black POV, dating, sex, politics, and race. RDJ is what happens when one guy finds his tribe of weirdos and let’s his Freak Flag proudly fly!
He's frequently opened for Patton Oswalt and he's been featured on Comedy Central and Kevin Hart's LOL Network.
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KeLanna Spiller is a stand-up comedian originally from Pine Bluff, AR who currently lives in Dallas, TX. Within just a few years, Spiller has featured at the Addison and Arlington Improv with national headliners (John Henton and Robert Powell just to name a few) and was a finalist in the Funniest Comic in Texas competition hosted by the Improv Comedy Club. Spiller's high-energy storytelling and observational humor have coined her as one of Dallas’ local favorites; but she made her mark on the world in her Comedy Central television debut on Kevin Hart Presents: Hart of the City. Since her television debut, Spiller can be seen performing at clubs all of the world.
Martin Urbano is a hip Latino comedian/writer/satirist. He has performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Comedy Central, The CW, and recently taped a set for the stand-up comedy series This Joka with Will Smith and Westbrook Studios. Martin was featured as a cast member on the National Lampoon Radio Hour reboot and was one of Vulture's Comics to Watch in 2019. Martin has also opened for Chris Kattan.
A father of two and disappointment to many, Barry Whitewater is late to the arena of stand-up, but trying to make up for it. His topics cover suburban life, debt, raising kids and the not living up to his wife's very low expectations. Barry has performed in the Dallas Comedy and East Texas Comedy Festivals. He’s done comedy at both Improv and Hyena’s Comedy Clubs. Most weekends he can be found on stage at the Backdoor Comedy club in Dallas.