1990-1999 Alumni
Lauren Flans (1996)
WEBSITE: http://www.laurenflans.com Lauren Flans is madly, passionately in love with comedy. She majored in theatre at Northwestern University where she was a cast member of The Mee-Ow Show, Northwestern’s acclaimed improv/sketch comedy group whose alumni include Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ana Gasteyer, and Lauren’s former roommate Kristen Schaal (Schaal, you still owe me for our security deposit). After graduation, Lauren moved to Los Angeles and continued to study and perform improv and sketch with The Groundlings, Improv Olympic West, and The Upright Citizens Brigade theatre. The highlight of Lauren’s comedy career thus far was spending over three years living and performing in Amsterdam with Boom Chicago, the internationally known improv and sketch comedy theatre (past members include Seth and Josh Meyers, Jason Sudeikis, and Nicole Parker). While performing at Boom, network executives at Comedy Central Netherlands tapped Lauren to be the on-the-street correspondent for their satirical nightly news program CCN: Comedy Central News (Comedy Central Netherlands’ answer to The Daily Show). For her segment, aptly named “Flans on the Street,” Lauren traveled all over Holland conducting fully-improvised (wo)man-on-the-street interviews at various festivals and events, and somehow consistently persuaded Dutch people to speak to her on camera despite the fact that she is irreparably American. After writing and performing in three mainstage shows at Boom Chicago and appearing in over 70 episodes of “Flans on the Street,” Lauren left Amsterdam for London, where she spent three months teaching improv and performing stand-up, and was a finalist in the London Comedy Store’s infamous King Gong show. She also stuck to her man-on-the-street roots by shooting a pilot presentation called Lauren Flans on Location (Green Pictures). Now back in Los Angeles, Lauren is beyond thrilled to be a founding cast member of on-going cult sensation Lost Moon Radio, which was named 2009’s Show of the Year by Live Comedy LA! She still regularly performs improv all over Los Angeles and is also a proud member of The Striking Viking Story Pirates children’s theatre group. Lauren has appeared on the G4 network’sAttack of the Show! and her film credits include The 40 Year Old Virgin and Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. Most recently she can be seen in the Upright Citizens Brigade’s improvised movie Wild Girls Gone. |