We are ecstatic to be joined by actress and writer Jocelyn Bioh. You Might Know Her From her performances in Russian Doll, Ben is Back, An Octoroon, In the Blood, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and her original plays School Girls; Or The African Mean Girls Play and Nollywood Dreams. We talked to Jocelyn about being a true multi-hyphenate and the toast of the New York theatre scene, mining her time from boarding school in her smash hit play School Girls, how she compartmentalizes her writer brain when she’s acting in other folks’ projects, and how the world of film and TV writing is different than the theatre scene. All that, plus we dig into her acting opposite a moviestar like Julia Roberts, her love of reality TV (and Tiffany Pollard), and how her play Nollywood Dreams is finally having its New York debut! 

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Discussed this week:

Sc5eam trailer (the 5 is actually the R, not the C as Anne said)

Horror films mentioned in Scream

Cameos in the Scream series

The House on Sorority Row with previous guest, Eileen Davidson

Terror Train with Jamie Lee Curtis

Johnny Depp vs Skeet Ulrich

The Tourist with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp (trailer is insanely bad)

Johnny Depp profile in Rolling Stone was a wild ride

Two recent guests were in the Child’s Play universe: Dinah Manoff (Child’s Play) and Beth Grant (Child’s Play 2)

Christine Elise is in Child’s Play 2

Child’s Play has been rebooted as a series on Syfy

Jennifer Tilly wearing a Chucky dress on WWHL

Anne’s never seen The Fabulous Baker Boys

Dog City (mole as moll? No, it was a cat)

School Girls: The African Mean Girls Play 

Whitney Houston’s “The Greatest Love of All” plays a huge part in the play

First role was in a Charlayne Woodard one woman show

Attended Milton Hershey boarding school Damian knew the school from the Pennsylvania Thespian Conference 

Natasha Lyonne hired her to write in Russian Doll after seeing her play, School Girls 

Writing screenplay for Americanah and Disney+ adaptation or Once on This Island

Has worked steadily as an actor in NYC: Everybody, An Octoroon, In the Blood, Men in Boats, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

Often works with playwright, Brandon Jacobs Jenkins

Got reamed out by Julia Roberts in Ben is Back

Susan Kelechi Watson DM’d Jocelyn to see what was happening in NYC theatre

Jocelyn adapted Merry Wives of Windsor for this past summer’s Shakespeare in the Park 

Saheem Ali Associate Artistic Director for the Public

Nollywood Dreams  has NYC premiere this fall (thru Nov 28th at MCC)

Carmine’s restaurant in NYC, a very intense place to work

Love Island 

We all agree on Tiffany “New York” Pollard, Making the Band,  D. Woods and Dannity Kane. 

In BJJ’s Everybody the actors drew straws for who would play what role each night. Jocelyn’s role was one of two fixed roles. 

Started opposite previous guest Saycon Sengbloh (ep# in the Signature’s production of In the Blood 

FMK Off Bway theatres: Signature / Playwright’s / Atlantic

Mars 2112

Liza at Sardi’s in Muppets Take Manhattan