Just for Laughs New Faces Presents: The Creators

New Faces: Creators is a brand new category in the Just for Laughs: New Faces series that salutes up-and-coming digital content creators and influencers. Those who create great viral videos, short films, multi-media concepts, and web series deserving of recognition may just become our future EPs, filmmakers and creators of great comedy on the stage and on television, so it’s exciting to see Just For Laughs giving recognition to these great creators as part of Just For Laughs’ Comedy Pro program.

Shira Lazar will host the New Faces: Creators showcase on Thursday, July 27 at 1:45pm in the Grand Salon Opera at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Lazar is the co-founder and CEO of the Emmy-nominated live interactive daily show and Millennial media brand, What’s Trending. This is new ground, so we don’t know exactly how it will run, but we’re expecting a panel discussion and a chance to screen the creations that won these comedy stars the honor.

Three teams of creators and four individuals received the inaugural honors, including Matt Pavich and James Manzello who when they’re teamed up all themselves Handsome Dancer, Matt Porter and Charlie Hankin known as Good Cop Great Cop, and the team of Ethan Edenburg, Jacob Jeffries, Eric Jackowitz and Raul Fernandez who collectively are The Cooties are being honored as well as Brandon Rogers, Glenn Boozan, Juhahn Jones and Quinta Brunson who are being honored individually.

We featured Matt Pavich and James Manzello— the comedy team, Handsome Dancerfor their video, Coincidance when it first debuted. It now has over 3 million views online and their pilot, The Neighborhood, won the Audience Award at the 2014 New York Television Festival. Matt is a cast member on MTV2/MTV’s Joking Off and Elite Daily’s Gen Why series, and he won New York’s Funniest last year at Carolines Comedy Club. James Manzello has appeared on MTV’s Totally Clueless, ABC’s What Would You Do? and in the Noah Baumbach film While We’re Young. Just last month, James was a featured director in the New Directors Showcase at Cannes Lions.

Brandon Rogers has become best known for his sketches, where he impersonates various outlandish characters, often lampooning the stereotypes associated with those characters. For his sketches, he often goes out in public, dressed up, and acts out his characters, which has reportedly gotten him kicked out of various establishments. His characters all live in the same universe and reference each other in various videos. Currently, Brandon can be seen starring in his own creation, Magic Funhouse (Fullscreen) which launches this summer and has already been ordered for a second season.

Glenn Boozan is a writer on the Hulu series starring Sarah Silverman, I Love You, America. She most recently wrote for the truTV series Adam Ruins Everything. She was a writer on Go90’s Mr. Student Body President and the writer’s assistant on FX’s Man Seeking Woman. She was also a senior writer at Above Average. She’s done things at places like The New Yorker, The Onion, Comedy Central, and MTV. A comedy sketch show she co-wrote, This Is Going to Hurt, was a New York Times Critics’ Pick.

Matt Porter and Charlie Hank are the comedy and filmmaking duo known as Good Cop Great Cop. Their self-titled series has attracted a large following on the web and has been featured in The Onion, AV Club, Cracked, Nerdist, Splitsider and at SXSW and The New York Television Festival. Matt and Charlie are currently developing a series with Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s digital venture New Form. The duo also recently co-wrote, co-directed and starred in two seasons of the successful Comedy Central Digital series New Timers, and developed pilots for both Comedy Central and TBS. As live performers, their UCB show has enjoyed a successful seven-month run, and they continue to perform as a live duo at venues throughout New York and at colleges and festivals across the country.

Juhahn Jones is a dynamic content creator, with previous work as a sketch writer for Kevin Hart and production of his own short comedies for both YouTube and Facebook. In addition, the original comedy clips he has created for Instagram have gained him huge momentum in the social media world. Juhahn won the NAACP Theater Award for Best Supporting Male for his work in Sunday Mourning. Recent acting success includes a recurring role on BET’s Rebel as well as guest roles on Mitch ‘N Max, Mi Casa Mi Casa, and a recurring role in Season 4 and 5 of HBO’s The Wire.

Quinta Brunson is a writer, actor, producer and stand-up, currently with BuzzFeed Motion Pictures. She was hand selected by Issa Rae and Jill Soloway for the Forbes 2017’s “30 Under 30” list. She is currently attached to a single camera, half-hour pilot from ShondaLand/ABC Studios. She created, sold, executive produced, and starred in two premium streaming series in 2016 – Broke for YouTube Red and Up For Adoption for Verizon Go90. Prior to joining BuzzFeed Motion Pictures, Quinta created the series The Girl Who’s Never Been on a Nice Date. The series went viral on YouTube and Instagram and was one of the first series to gain a huge, viral fan base on both social platforms.

The Cooties is a musical comedy trio based in Los Angeles. Ethan Edenburg, Eric Jackowitz, and Jacob Jeffries have been friends since before their voices dropped. With backgrounds as professionally trained musicians and songwriters, they blend sketch, music, and mixed media into an unforgettable experience, whether it’s on camera or live on stage. Currently the boys play out of UCB Sunset with their own monthly show, After Dark. When not constantly performing around town, The Cooties can be found writing their next song, sketch or TV show idea.

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