The SAG-AFTRA Foundation and The Writers Guild of America East invite you and a guest for a panel discussion with ODD MOM OUT’s Jill Kargman, Julie Rottenberg, Elisa Zuritsky and Abby Elliott, moderated by Meredith Vieira.
SYNOPSIS
Odd Mom Out is Bravo’s first scripted half-hour comedy series starring acclaimed author Jill Kargman, playing a satirical version of herself as she navigates the treacherous and elite ecosystem of New York’s Upper East Side, and the uber-wealthy mommy clique inhabiting this fantastically outrageous domain. A New Yorker through and through, Jill Weber (Kargman) embraces her quirky and somewhat unconventional life with her loving husband, Andy Weber (Andy Buckley, The Office) three great kids, and a best friend who shares the same love for donuts and snarky retorts, Vanessa Wrigley (KK Glick, College Humor). However, the posh and decadent world of Andy’s classically blue-blooded family slowly takes over as Jill valiantly tries to resist all the delicious temptations and perks their wealth can afford. From accepting her in-laws’ aristocratic, and perhaps cloudy, legacy to interviewing for a family burial plot at the most prestigious cemetery, Jill constantly battles staying true to herself while weighing the benefits of fitting in. Jill’s frenemies and in-laws only fuel the pressure for her to conform, including the status-obsessed Weber family matriarch, Candace (Joanna Cassidy, Six Feet Under), brother-in-law Lex (Sean Kleier, Madam Secretary) and his wife, Brooke (Abby Elliott, Saturday Night Live), who reigns over a group of quintessential Upper East Side mombots with an iron credit card.
PANELIST BIOS
Jill Kargman - Actor, Writer
A born and bred New Yorker, Jill Kopelman Kargman, age 41 (yes, she embraces her real age), is not afraid to dish about life on the Upper East Side. Kargman graduated in three years with honors from Yale University where she was an art history major.
After graduating, Kargman started her writing career in the magazine world as an assistant and has since written more than 200 articles for publications including Vogue, ELLE, Harper's Bazaar, GQ, Condé Nast Traveler, Departures, and Allure. She also created the column EyeSpy for Style.com which ran for five years. She then began working in television and wrote for several shows for MTV including So Five Minutes Ago and the MTV News docu-series Who Is.
After her magazine, movie, and television work, Kargman began writing novels to give her more flexibility to be home with her three children: Sadie, Ivy, and Fletch. She is a New York Times best-selling author of multiple books, including The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund, her personal essay collection, Sometimes I Feel Like a Nut, (which was No. 3 on the Humor chart behind Chelsea Handler and David Sedaris), as well as Momzillas, which was translated into fourteen languages and appeared on charts worldwide.
This summer she is premiering her one woman show, a heavy metal cabaret at Williamstown Theater Festival, which will transfer to the Café Carlyle in 2017. Her newest comedic essay collection Sprinkle Glitter on My Grave will be published in September by Random House.
Julie Rottenberg - Co-Showrunner and Executive Producer
Julie Rottenberg started her career in New York as a playwright and sketch comedy writer, and also worked for years as a comic book editor at DC Comics. She then teamed up with lifelong friend Elisa Zuritsky (they met when they were 9 at a Saturday morning acting class), and joined the writing staff of their favorite show, HBO's Sex and the City. During their four seasons with the series, they earned three Emmy Award nominations, including two for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series (for My Motherboard, My Self and The Ick Factor) and three Writers Guild Award nominations (for My Motherboard, My Self, Change of a Dress, and The Ick Factor).
Rottenberg and Zuritsky then went on to write pilots for HBO, ABC, and CBS, and even put their childhood years at a performing arts camp to use when they wrote for NBC's Smash. Together they’ve written features for New Line, Summit, and Revolution Films and solo, Rottenberg made her film directorial debut with Who’s Afraid of Rosencrantz?, a short film written with Zuritsky and produced by L-Studio for their Puppy Love series.
Rottenberg has contributed humor, opinion, and entertainment features for publications including The New York Times, Slate, Real Simple, and Marie Claire. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y, with her husband, multi-media artist Ben Rubin, and her two children.
Elisa Zuritsky - Co-Showrunner and Executive Producer
She got her start writing humorous entertainment pieces at the New York Post. Her work has also been published in The New York Times, The New York Observer, McSweeney's, and Huffington Post. In 2010, she wrote and directed Civil Unions: A Love Story, a short film about marriage equality.
In 1998, she teamed up with lifelong friend, Julie Rottenberg, and began writing for television, most notably on HBO’s Sex and the City, where they were nominated for three Emmys and three Writers Guild Awards. They have written for New York-based series, including Six Degrees and Smash, and have also developed pilots for both cable and network TV.
Zuritsky lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Jordan Barowitz, and their two children.
Abby Elliott - Actor
Abby Elliott is best known for her four seasons as a cast member on NBC's Saturday Night Live. She was the first second-generation cast member on SNL, following in the footsteps of her father, actor and comedian Chris Elliott. Abby's television credits include How I Met Your Mother, Happy Endings, Garfunkel and Oates, Inside Amy Schumer, King of the Hill, and 2 Broke Girls. She has appeared in several films including the indie picture Life Partners, Paramount's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, High Road opposite Lizzy Caplan and Andy Daly, Sex Ed along with Haley Joel Osment and Matt Walsh, and No Strings Attached with Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher. Most recently, Elliott co-starred in the film Stereotypically You alongside Aaron Tveit, Kal Penn, Louis Black, Chris Elliott, and Annaleigh Ashford, which premiered at the 2016 Santa Barbara Film Festival. Additionally, she voices the character Janna on Disney's Star vs. The Forces of Evil and will be guest starring on Hulu's hit comedy Difficult People this season. Before SNL, Elliott worked and trained with other SNL alum at the Groundling's Theater and The Upright Citizen's Brigade.
