Ian Lara and Nadia Brown visit Friends and discuss the necessary impact and contribution of the arts, Amazon's David versus Goliath, and diversity in the theatre industry with host Marina Franklin

Ian Lara is one of the hottest rising comics in New York City.  Last year he taped a set for “Comedy Central Stand up Featuring” which has garnered over 10 million views, he also made an appearance on the first season of “NBC’s Bring the Funny” and made his late-night debut on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. He was a regular player on ‘This week at the Comedy Cellar’ on Comedy Central with his second Comedy Central set hitting the 10 million views mark yet again. He's been featured in The New Yorker Magazine and you can catch his short special streaming on HBO MAX titled ``LA MEETS NY”. Keeping the momentum going he was named one of 2021 “JFL NEW FACES of comedy” the same week he recorded his debut Comedy Central half-hour special which debuted February 10th, 2022.  Starting 2022 with a bang he's already signed on to do another half hour comedy special for HBO MAX produced by Entre Nos.

Nadia Brown leads The Green Room, a 5-part series on Ovation TV that explores the impacts and contributions of the arts to our society and how our economic recovery from COVID will leave thousands behind without support for working artists. Nadia made her Broadway debut as Rose Granger-Weasley as part of the Year 2 cast in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. She currently stars on Other theater credits include: Broadway debut. Stepping Through Blood (New Perspectives Theatre), Serious Adverse Effects (The National Black Theatre), Regional: Learned Ladies (Centenary Stage Company), & Juliet (New Jersey Repertory Company), various roles including Constance, Olivia and Marina in Pericles, Prince of Tyre (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London). Training: B.F.A. from Marymount Manhattan College “Nadia Brown, a seasoned actress who is currently playing Rose Granger-Weasley in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway and the host of the new Ovation TV show The Green Room, to discuss how women are keeping arts organizations alive post-COVID despite little to no support or relief from states and the federal government. While many Americans are hitting museums, plays, art festivals, concerts, and Broadway, conversations around pandemic relief have failed to include the creative economy -- an economy that makes up $919 billion annually and employs millions of women across various sectors. The Green Room is a 5-part series premiering on Ovation TV on March 23 that explores the impacts and contributions of the arts to our society and how our economic recovery from COVID will leave thousands behind without support for working artists. Ovation TV is launching The Green Room in partnership with Be An #ArtsHero, an intersectional grassroots campaign comprised of Arts & Culture workers, Unions, and institutions pushing for relief to the Arts & Culture sector of the American economy.  Nadia Brown takes viewers on a journey that spotlights so many of the incredible women doing this work with minimal opportunities for state and federal relief. Like Nataki Garrett, the first Black woman to lead the Oregon Shakespeare Theater - due to supply chain issues her team had to recycle wigs and repurpose sets because they couldn’t get new ones in time.

Always hosted by Marina Franklin - One Hour Comedy Special: Single Black Female ( Amazon Prime, CW Network), TBS's The Last O.G, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Hysterical on FX, The Movie Trainwreck, Louie Season V, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Conan O'Brien, Stephen Colbert, HBO's Crashing, and The Breaks with Michelle Wolf