Michael Showalter Talks Directing Comedy
About this Event Recording
Michael Showalter (Wet Hot American Summer, Search Party, Stella) is a writer, director, producer, and performer whose work spans sketch comedy, TV, features, and webseries. Join Michael in this Sundance Collab Webinar about Directing Comedy, focusing on his acclaimed box office hit The Big Sick starring Kumail Nanjiani and his upcoming film The Love Birds starring Issa Rae & Kumail Nanjiani. Jordana Molick, President of Production for Semi-Formal Productions and a former Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow moderated the conversation.
Event RecordingTeam
Michael Showalter
Director, Writer, Producer
Writer/director Michael Showalter helms Semi-Formal Productions which produces film and television that is edgy, contemporary, socially aware, and tells commercial stories with unconventional characters that have as much heart as they do humor. Michael recently wrapped production on THE LOVEBIRDS, an action comedy starring Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae. Michael's most recent feature is the critically acclaimed and Golden Globe nominated, THE BIG SICK. Other projects include the feature film, HELLO MY NAME IS DORIS, and he is the co-creator of the hit TBS series Search Party and showran Netflix’s Wet Hot American Summer.
Jordana Mollick
Jordana Mollick is a Los Angeles-based producer. She has been a partner at Haven Entertainment since 2013, but has most recently joined forces with Michael Showalter to form Semi-Formal Productions.
At Haven Entertainment, Jordana produced Hello My Name is Doris starring Sally Field and directed by Michael Showalter. She Executive Produced Night Owls starring Adam Pally and Rosa Salazar. Jordana also produced Life Partners, directed by Susanna Fogel and starring Leighton Meester & Gillian Jacobs.
In addition to films, Jordana has produced several shows in the digital space, including Play by Play, Embeds, and In the Vault for Verizon’s streaming platform (Go90) and I Love Bekka & Lucy for Warner Brother’s streaming platform (Stage 13). Jordana has also produced for the stage. She created the Unscreened play series, an annual development and presentation of four world-premiere short plays by some of Hollywood’s fastest rising screenwriters and television writers.
Jordana was a 2012 Creative Producing fellow with the Sundance Institute and a 2013 Women at Sundance Fellow. Jordana was also the recipient of the Piaget Producer’s Award at the 2017 Independent Spirit Awards.
Up next, she is producing Courtney Hoffman’s The Good Time Girls feature based on the short film, which she also produced, and Will Graham’s The Off Season.