Justin Porter & Vidya Rajan Join the Roster
Things are about to get super sketchy at LMA in Melbourne.
We are extremely excited to welcome Justin and Vidya to the LMA family. They will kick things off in Melbourne with a Level 1 Sketch Comedy Writing Class – and you can register right now!
Justin Porter attended the USC Film school in Los Angeles, CA and has worked in the visual effects industry at Luma Pictures for over 7 years, where has collaborated on such films as True Grit, Avengers and the upcoming Doctor Strange.
Justin trained in improv at I.O. West in Los Angeles, where he performed on the mainstage Harold Team Waterloo before moving to Australia. He has since performed regularly with Improv Conspiracy in the Melbourne Fringe Festival 2014/’15/’16 and Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MCIF) 2014/’15/’16, along with the sell-out show Improv Against Humanity (Fringe/MCIF 2016) and Now Showing: The Improvised Movie.
In MCIF 2016 Justin directed Daniel Pavatich’s sketch comedy show #1 NINJA and was part of the four-man improvised soap opera Gays of Our Lives, whose sell-out proceeds were donated to Minus 18, Australia’s largest network for GLBTIQ youth. Previously Justin toured to Austin, Texas to improvise with Adam Kangas, Daniel Pavatich and Marcus Willis as part of Bear Attack in the Out Of Bounds Comedy Festival which then went on to Melbourne Fringe 2014 and MICF 2015.
In 2009-2010 Justin was part of a sketch troupe that performed in a monthly comedy show at the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center. With several of those members he formed an offshoot comedy group called CraBiMoSi (Crazy Bitches Mostly Single) which filmed various sketch comedy projects, including the popular and sometimes controversial Pocahontas music video (parody of Lady Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’). Justin has contributed to the monthly sketch show Champagne Factorysince 2015 and is writing and staring in ApocOlympics a two man sketch show with Dan Pavatich in the 2016 Melbourne Fringe
Vidya Rajan is a writer, theatre-maker and improviser from Perth, Australia who now calls Melbourne home.
She has trained extensively as an improvisational performer with Perth based companies Just Improvise, The Big Hoo-Haa (Perth) and at iO Chicago in America. She continues to work with these companies, as well with a number of Melbourne outfits such as Champagne Factory and Soothplayers. Vidya also has experience coaching and teaching improvisational performance for children and adults.
Vidya is also a writer of prose, plays, sketch and satirical content. Recent writing credits include The Fault Report, Melbourne Fringe award-winning experimental comedy Asian Ghost-ery Store (co-creator, writer, performer), and the participatory art adventure Friendquest (Best Theatre Award Nomination Perth Fringe World 2015).
She is currently completely a Masters of Writing for Performance at VCA, and is a 2017 Melbourne Theatre Company Connect ambassador. Upcoming projects include a comedy writing project as the recipient of a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellowship, and Melbourne Fringe 2016.
Please welcome them both as the newest additions to the LMA Roster.
