PHUNBAGS COMEDY IMPROV THANKSGIVING SHOW

Katherine Forbes

Katherine Forbes is a seasoned film and stage performer with over three decades of experience acting, directing and producing theater in Southern California and NWA. Locally she has directed for Arts Live Theater, Arkansas Playwrights Workshop and Village Players and seen onstage with Theatre Squared, Arkansas Public Theater, ACO, Smokehouse Players, Actors Laboratory Theater and Ceramic Cow Productions. Katherine received her professional training in Southern California which included The Groundlings, New Village Arts, and multiple film and commercial studios. Film work has kept her very busy the past 10 years with short films such as In A World Full of Loneliness, The Book Club;Series such as True Detective and Saving Grace; Feature Films like Sweet Inspirations, Door in the Woods, Ridgerunners, Mindcage,Valley Inn and the upcoming film Trail of Vengeance.

Julie Gabel

Julie Gabel has a B.Ed., and an MA in Drama from the University of Arkansas, where she studied elementary education, voice, dance, acting and stage lighting. While living in Los Angeles and San Diego, she performed professionally on stage, earning membership into ACTORS EQUITY ASSOCIATION, and in film, as well as singing back-up in the recording studio. Julie toured the United States with Arkansas Repertory Theatre’s first National Tour of, Always, Patsy Cline. She has been featured in such independent films as Gordon Family Tree, Parker’s Anchor, Roadside Attorney, Grimace, Southern Pride and A Day Between, winner of 2001 Los Angeles Sacramento Film Festival Audience Award for Best Short. She is Co-Founder, Director, and Managing Director of Ceramic Cow Productions, and Co-Founder/Co-Director of Phunbags Comedy Improv.

Cassie Haley

Cassie Self is an entertainer, educator and entrepreneur. She's known for roles such as Maggie in Sweet Inspirations with Dean Cain, Vickie Burlsworth in Greater with Neal McDonough, Susan Collins in Wildfire with Anne Heche and Charlotte Gordon in Gordon Family Tree with Corbin Berson and Richard Karn. Aside from, acting she's worked as a writer, director and producer as well as a teaching artist. She owns a couple of businesses in retail and real estate and facilitates retreats using story and embodiment work to help others live more empowered lives.

Kevin Kinder

Kevin Kinder is an educator, comedian and cat dad, in some scrambled version of that order. It changes, and his cats hate his jokes. He has performed improv comedy for more than a decade and has appeared in local productions of "The Odd Couple" and "Spamalot." Read more about him at kevinscottkinder.com.

Mark Landon Smith

As actor Mark has had prinicpal and leading roles in the films Killers of the Flower Moon, Mindcage, The Tickle Monster, Wasted Time, Life of Crime, Trail Of Vengeance, Wonderland Cave, The Immigrant, Indian Territory, Wildfire, Southern Pride, In A World Full of Loneliness, Jan and Jann, Parker's Anchor, Wildfire, Pure Risk, Sweet Inspirations, Door in the Woods and others. Stage credits include work with TheatreSquared, Ceramic Cow Productions, The Fourm Theatre, McCoy Repertory (Company member), Tidal Theatre Company, Theatre Memphis, Circuit Playhouse, Boar's Head Players, Kernnoodle Theatre and others. As playwright he has 16 scripts published including three foreign translations, and Off-Broadway production and an AATE Distinguished Play nomination. He is the recipient of the 2020 Arkansas Governor's Arts Award and is the Executive Director of Arts Live Theatre and the owner/founder of Actors Casting Agency and Smith | Fox Casting. He is the former director of the Arkansas Playwrights Workshop for TheatreSquared and the founder and director of the Screenwriters Development Group. He has served as producer and co-producer on the feature films Door in the Woods, The Man in the Trunk and Parker's Achor. He was featured at Southern Storytellers at Crystal Bridges and on Tales of the South and Holiday Traditions on PBS. He is co-founder of Ceramic Cow Productions, creators of the Dupont, Mississippi stage series which ran for ten years and the film Dupon, Mississippi: F5 was featured at the New York International Film Festival in Los Angeles. His short film Love Comes In Many Colors was the winner of the 10 for 10 Competition at the Bentonville Film Festival. marklandonsmith.com

Jason Suel

Originally from Camden, Arkansas, Jason Suel holds a Master’s Degree in Theatre & Film from Bowling Green State University. With extensive professional experience in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, and Northern Ireland, Jason brings boundless energy to every stage, from emceeing Arkansas Razorback Football games to intimate performances. He hosts ‘Good Day NWA’ on NBC and ‘Later with Jason Suel’ on Fox, showcasing his talents in lifestyle and late-night television. As a teaching artist and professional actor, Jason has toured internationally, directs plays and musicals, and performs with Phunbags Comedy Improv and Ultra Suede Party Band. Offstage, he enjoys running marathons and spending time with his wife Jill and their children, Pippi and Felix.

Mike Lynn Thomas

Mike L Thomas has been an actor on stage and screen for over 40 years. some of his film roles have been in Greater, The Brian Burlsworth Story, Good Chemistry, White River, Broken Trail, Violent Ends, and Sovereign. A few of Mike's stage roles were in Bigfoot Love, Dupont Mississippi, Cat on A Hot Tin Roof, Nuts, Plaza Suite and Last of The Red Hot Lovers.

Jules Taylor

Jules Taylor is an eccentric and eclectic artist in Fayetteville Arkansas. When not onstage you can find her trying to teach her cats improv games. As an actor, Jules has been in films including, Gordon Family Tree, Valley Inn, and Mindcage, as well as HBO’s True Detective. Jules has been directing theatre since 1993 in Dallas, Chicago, Santa Fe and Fayetteville Arkansas. Directing credits include: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, ‘Night Mother, Talking With…, South Pacific, Pippin, and Chicago. Currently, she teaches youth theatre at Arts Live Theatre and Arkansas Arts Academy, and has directed and choreographed over 40 youth theatre productions. Jules also teaches and plays music for the under 5 crowd through her program SHAKY BUGS. She just produced her first film after winning the Fayetteville Film Fest pitch contest with her short narrative screenplay, “In a World Full of Loneliness”. If you just read my… I mean, HER entire bio… congratulations on being a super cool person.