CooperTalk

Steve Cooper talks with radio legend Phil Hendrie. Phil is a creative genius chock full of character, comedy and commentary. He is famous for concocting a cast of fictional characters, all of whom he plays on air while simultaneously serving as host of his national talk radio program, Hendrie actually started out as a disc jockey at WBJW 1440 AM in Winter Park, Fla., a suburb of Orlando.  After 15 years working as a disc jockey at stations across the country, he moved to Los Angeles and debuted in talk radio as a weekend host at KFI-AM 640. His popularity resulted in his radio show going national in 1999.  By 2006, he was ready to explore the next chapter of his career, acting. For the last ten years he has had roles in the Fox animated shows King of the Hill and Futurama. Other work includes Giants of Radio, The Replacements, Three Strikes, The Unit, Teachers, Semi-Pro and a recurring role on Fox's New Girl. Although he enjoyed acting on a full-time basis, he missed the daily creative outlet that radio provided.  In 2007, he returned to national radio in the late evenings, but in the Spring of 2014 he finally severed his ties with radio and made the show available exclusively online via podcasts.

Steve Cooper talks with comic Ritch Shydner. Ritch made numerous appearances on TV in the 80s, including Late Night with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with both Johnny Carson and Jay Leno and he did an HBO half-hour special, One Night Stand. He played Al Bundy’s co-worker on Married with Children and made guest appearances on many other TV shows, such as Designing Women and Roseanne. He was able to translate his modest success on TV into an obscure film career, appearing in Steve Martin’s, Roxanne and Eddie Murphy's, Beverly Hills Cop II, before moving on to minor roles on smaller pictures. He also wrote for sitcoms such as Roseanne, The Jeff Foxworthy Show and HBO’s The Mind of the Married Man. He wrote material for Jeff Foxworthy’s Grammy nominated comedy albums, Totally Committed and Big Fun and he has written for Ron White and Jay Leno. In 2006 he was co-author of a book on stand-up, I Killed and in 2010 he produced and performed in an award winning documentary on the world of stand-up comedy, I Am Comic. Currently he is writing a movie adaptation for HBO of Bill Maher's book, True Story and performing around the world.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Peter Dobson. Peter was 21 when he landed his first starring role - after being chosen from a nation wide search - in the Tri-Star Pictures musical, Sing, from the producers of Fame and Footloose. This was followed by the critically acclaimed adaptation of Hubert Selby's Last Exit To Brooklyn, and Neil Simon's The Marrying Man. Director Robert Zemeckis cast him in the title role of the short lived but highly acclaimed comedy TV series CBS's Johnny Bago, which led to starring roles in numerous TV series and TV movies, including Michael Mann's Miami Vice. Other notable series include CBS's Lenny, FOX's Party of Five, HBO's Tales From The Crypt and Norma Jean and Marilyn. He portrayed young Elvis Presley in Academy Award winning Forrest Gump. Following that were Peter Jackson's cult classic The Frighteners, and Drowning Mona. With his growing popularity, he was then offered the title role in the USA Network series Cover Me: The True Life of an FBI Family. Following the series-run of Cover Me, he moved behind the camera. He wrote and produced the hilarious Sundance Film Festival favorite, his first film, Choose Life. (A story about two hit men obsessed with the 80's pop group Wham!). He then went on to produce his first feature Double Down starring himself and Jason Priestley. His second short film White Mule, proved that he is a force behind the camera as a Writer/Director, and was selected at 2013's Cannes Film Festival, among many others. And this has led to his upcoming feature film in Development, Exit 102: Asbury Park, attracting the great Robert Evans as Producer. Most recently, Dobson is executive producing and starring in new TV Series in development Dirty Dead Con Men.

Steve Cooper talks with actor David Starzyk. David started out on stage productions in New York and Boston before moving to Los Angeles. Since being in LA he has amassed an impressive resume which includes recurring roles on such shows as Desperate Housewives, 7th Heaven, Charmed, NYPD Blue, Boston Legal, Days of Our Lives, Pacific Blue, Veronica's Closet, The Young and the Restless, Hot and Cleveland and many others. He has also guest starred on series like Person of Interest, Castle, iCarly, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Without a Trace, Entourage, Charmed, Lost, Two and a Half Men, Bones, Masters of Sex, Revenge, The Mysteries of Laura, Blue Bloods and Mad Men to name a few. He has appeared in many commercials and was featured in the Chase Sapphire campaign.

Steve Cooper talks with writer/groupie Pamela Des Barres. Pamela is known as the World’s Most Famous Groupie or Queen of the Groupies, but has many other facets, fascinations and unique talents. Known mostly for her heady dalliances and friendships with classic rock’s elite dandies in the 60s and 70s, she presciently kept copious diaries about those madcap revolutionary days and nights. Pamela has written four books, I'm With the Band, Take Another Little Piece of my Heart, Rock Bottom: Dark Secrets in Music Babylon and Let's Spend the Night Together: Backstage Secrets of Rock Muses and Supergroupies. Known as Miss Pamela, she has shared her history on endless TV and radio shows and documentaries, including two memorable stints with both Oprah and Larry King. Last year she wrote and produced an hour-long VH1 Doc interviewing an array of supergroupies based on her most recent book. She has been teaching ongoing women’s writing workshops in Los Angeles and all over the country for twelve years, inspiring like-minded dolls to share their desire, stories and ideas in a totally safe environment. She calls these writing parties Groupie Therapy. And as an ordained minister, Pamela performs unique one-of-a-kind rock & roll weddings.

Steve Cooper talks with actors Larry Poindexter and Rebecca Metz. Larry and Rebecca stop by the studio to discuss the proposal called Actors Equity's proposed new 99 Seat Agreement. Thousands of actors in Los Angeles have come together to oppose a proposal by Actors’ Equity, the theater actors' union. The new proposal seeks to prohibit its members from lending their talents to small, nonprofit theaters by requiring these theaters to increase actor compensation nearly 1,000%. If this passes it could be very damaging to the LA theatre community and could cause some of these smaller performance houses to close. Larry and Rebecca both accomplished actors on stage, TV and screen are just two of the many Hollywood working and successful talents that are taking a stand.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Roxanne Hart. Roxanne is best known for her roles as Camille Shutt on Chicago Hope and as Brenda J. Wyatt in Highlander. An accomplished stage actor she has also been a recurring character on TV shows such as Dream On, Hung, E.R., Law & Order, Medium and Oz and guest starred in numerous shows including Remington Steele, Cold Case, Party of Five, House M.D., Numb3rs,Grey's Anatomy, Bones, Private Practice, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, The Mentalist and many others.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Lex Medlin. Lex is best known for his roles as Owen French in Drop Dead Diva and as Detective Andy WIlliams in Southland. He has appeared in countless commercials and has been a co-star or recurring character in numerous series such as Happy Hour, Rock Me Baby, Mental, Still Standing and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. His acting covers both comedy and drama and has guest starred in hit series like Castle, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Closer, Modern Family, The Crazy Ones, Criminal Minds, The Mob Doctor, Hot in Cleveland and The Mentalist.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Kurt Fuller. Kurt is best known for his role as Woody in Psych and Zachariah in Supernatural. He appeared in numerous films, working with acclaimed film directors such as Brian DePalma, Paul Schrader, Harold Ramis and Ridley Scott. His film career include appearances in Ghostbusters II, Wayne’s World, Reflections on a Crime, Pushing Tin, Scary Movie, Auto Focus, Anger Management, Ray, The Pursuit of Happyness and Midnight in Paris. He also has an extensive television career. From his screen debut in 1984, playing a cameraman in an episode of Knight Rider,he has appeared as a regular, recurring character and guest in numerous television shows such as The Good Wife, Parenthood, Manhattan Love Story, The Crazy Ones, Franklin & Bash, Scandal, Grey's Anatomy, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, My Name is Earl, Ugly Betty and countless others.

Steve Cooper talks with actor Roma Maffia. Roma is best known as Liz Cruz on the FX Network series Nip/Tuck, the anesthesiologist colleague of two dysfunctional plastic surgeons. She began her acting career in Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway productions. In 1994 she made her film debut playing the minor role of Carmen in director Ron Howard's film The Paper. Soon after, she landed a role on the television series Chicago Hope. Her television career continued as she played Grace Alvarez, the forensic pathologist for the Violent Crimes Task Force for four seasons on NBC's Profiler. She has had guest-star and recurring roles on shows such as ER, The West Wing and The Sopranos. Her most widely seen performances may be playing Seattle attorney Catherine Alvarez in the film Disclosure, also starring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. She followed this up with a series of performances as Vanessa Galiano in the TV series, Law & Order and as Judge Victoria Peyton on ABC's Boston Legal. Other movie credits include Nick of Time, Eraser, Married to the Mob, I Am Sam, Double Jeopardy and many others. Currently she portrays Linda Tanner on Pretty Little Liars.