Festival Directors
David Owen | Bio
Cole Stratton | Bio
Janet Varney | Bio
Graphic Design - Sheridon Keith Design
Webmaster - Sara Holt
2012 Festival Staff
PR Director - Cindy Lang, CidLang Media
Publicity Consultant - Sheila Kenny, Right On! PR
Marketing Manager - Martini Paratore
Theatre/Volunteer Manager - Michelle Mitchell
Artist Services Coordinators - Jenni Rowland, Beau Blanchard
Technical Production Manager - Heather Gallagher
Technical Assistant - Josh Hillinger, Matt Walker
Box Office Manager - Cara Tramontano
Purple Onion Manager - Jill Bourque
Festival Coordinators - Michael Kennedy, Casey Ley, Andrea Runge, Heather Wilson
Festival Assistants - Chenoa Estrada, Andrea Heiderer, Anthony So
Sponsorship Consultant - Caryn Denerstein
2012 Graphic Design: Poster, Postcard, Program, Advertisements, T-Shirt - Sheridon Keith Design
Web/Email Design - Sara Holt
2012 Trailer - Brice Beckham & David Fickas, Drama 3/4 Productions
Original Design Elements - Christopher Ryan, Atmostheory
Original Design Elements - Arrel Gray & Brandon Herring, 17FEET
Lead Photographer - Jakub Mosur
Photographers - Steve Agee, Ameen Belbahri, Liezl Estipona, Erin Lubin
David Owen co-founded SF Sketchfest in 2001 with Cole Stratton and Janet Varney. Along with Stratton, Varney and Gabriel Diani, he was a founding
member of the comedy group Totally False People, which was featured at SF Sketchfest, the HBO Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen and SketchFest Seattle. He
wrote, co-directed and co-starred in the feature film Stuck, which is distributed by Film Threat, and has worked as a Festival Producer with
the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Mill Valley Film Festival and the Stanford Jazz Festival. At The Purple Onion he presented Zach
Galifianakis, Todd Barry, Judah Friedlander, Matt Besser and the legendary Mort Sahl. He is on the Board of Directors for Comedy Day in Golden Gate
Park and he lives in San Francisco.
Cole Stratton is currently "paying his dues" in Los Angeles, where he enjoys losing parts to minorly more successful actors such as Barry Levinson's
nephew. Due to planet alignment, he has appeared on TV's Nash Bridges, re-enacted on America's Most Wanted, played with puppies and
Betty White on the Animal Planet original The Retrievers, thrown-down like the sarcastic white boy he is on Wilmer Valderrama's Yo Momma, and was a cast member on NBC's competitive comedy show Comedy Colosseum. He's a lead in the indie comedy Callback
opposite Kevin Farley, has also appeared in the films Around the Fire and Dead Man on Campus, and will be seen soon as office gossip
Ed in the horror/comedy The Selling. He's also hawked wares in national commercials for Verizon, Popeye's Chicken, a Wilco-scored VW spot, and
a five-spot campaign for Group Health. He is co-host of the hit podcast Pop My Culture ( popmyculturepodcast.com, and iTunes) along with Vanessa Ragland, in which they discuss movies, television
and music with celebrity guests. The show as named the #2 Best Comedy Podcast of the Moment by Rolling Stone and one of the Ten Best Comedy
Podcasts by IFC, and recently joined the Nerdist network. Along with Janet Varney, he has written and performed downloadable comedic commentary to the
films Dirty Dancing, Ghost, Footloose, Poltergeist, The Lost Boys and Jaws 3D for RiffTrax.com, an online venture helmed by Mystery Science Theater 3000's Michael J. Nelson. In addition to
co-founding SF Sketchfest, he co-founded the Bay Area sketch collective Totally False People (who performed at the 2004 HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival
in Aspen, Colorado). He performs regularly with MI's Westside Comedy Theater's house improv team, Cobranauts, and tours with the Theme Park Improv
Show, featuring Scott Adsit, Oscar Nunez, Danny Pudi, Simon Helberg, Michael Hitchcock, Jessica Makinson and Janet Varney. He co-hosts the variety show
version of Theme Park along with Varney, which is in regular rotation at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles. For live show
information, humorous blog ramblings and ridiculous all-vocal covers of 80s movie hits, check out his official website, colestratton.com.
Janet Varney-- or "Janet," as she's known by people who call her by her first name-- works as an actor, writer, and producer in Los Angeles. She has appeared on such shows as Bones, Hot in Cleveland, Psych, How I Met Your Mother, recurred on HBO's Entourage and as a panelist on Chelsea Lately. She also co-hosted TBS's Dinner and a Movie for 7 years and is the voice for the titular character on Nickelodeon's new Last Airbender series, The Legend of Korra. Janet writes and records for Mystery Science Theatre 3000's Michael J. Nelson at Rifftrax.com with Cole Stratton. She had her tonsils removed when she was seven.
