Originally from Canada and Australia, but a New Yorker at heart, KATE RIGG's performance career began the second she graduated with a degree in acting from New York's prestigious Juilliard school.
A notorious culture and subculture vulture, the allure of the club scene in New York drew her to Caroline's Comedy Club where she quickly caught the attention of the New Talent Booker who slotted her for a series of appearances and features showcasing her particular brand of character based comedy, edgy socio-political commentary, Asian-American slanted jokes, and in-ya-face dirty girl talk. From there she developed edgy, musical one person shows which have toured internationally.
Kate's career includes FOUR MAJOR ELEMENTS: acting, comedy, music, writing/producing original works. Thematically these elements are linked by a hunger for new ideas, iconoclastic imagery, a love of language, challenging ideas about cultural stereotyping and a quest for expanding form and content to open up discussions about pop culture, race, comedy, media tropes, tolerance and linking diverse communities through art. Kate has brought this literate urban multidisciplinary sensibility to work in corporate brand creation and consuting, performances at venues as diverse as The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Institute, Chicago's Museum of Modern Art, NYC's Public Theater and countless clubs, colleges and festivals internationally.
Acting
As an actor she recurs on Law and Order, Fox's Family Guy and was recently seen in the Sundance Festival Favorite "That's What She Said" directed by Carrie Preston. Her other credits include Law and Order SVU, Criminal Intent, Guiding Light, Wonderland, Oz, and various comedy and sketch appearances. Off Braodway she starred in the New York premieres of Dogeaters at the Public Theater, and BFE at Playwright's Horizons. Off-Broadway she was also seen in the Vagina Monologues at the Westside Theater, The Most Fabulous Story Every Told at Minetta Lane, Sez She at the Mark Taper Forum, The Jammer at the Atlantic Theater Co, BFE at Playwright's Horizons and more.
Comedy
Within 2 years of graduation from Juilliard and while juggling theater and TV commitments, Kate was invited to the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival, the Toyota Comedy Festival, The Marshalls Women in Comedy Festival, and developed her first comedy and music revue for NBC's PSNBC in New York, and the HBO Time Warner workspace in Los Angeles. This show "Kate's Chink-O-Rama: featuring the Chinkorama dancers" was a New York city pick of the week at Joe's Pub at the Public Theater, and has toured extensively to comedy festivals, colleges and special events around North America. Her follow up "Birth of a nASIAN" a collection of characters, stand up and trip hop spoken word, was part of the Mark Taper Forum's Summerfest, was developed at La Mama ETC in New York, then toured to MACLA in San Jose, and New World Theater in Massachussets, the Vancouver Comedy Festival, Women in Theater Conference Toronto, ConWorks Seattle, OutNorth Alaska, MACLA, CCE Portland and the Comedy Central Theater L.A as part of their 2007 season and invited to perform at the Smithsonian.
As a standup comedian Kate has appeared on NBC Late Friday, One Night Stand-Up, 2 Seasons of The Dr. Phil Show as a comedy correspondent, CTV Women of The Night, NPR, CBC Radio, Sirius Radio, STAR TV, National Lampoon's International Comedy DVD, Comedy Central, SEX TV, PBS, Showtime, Latin American TV, vH1, LOGO, as well as being profiled in the PBS film "Race is the Place" Alongside Amiri Baraka and Danny Hoch.
Writing/Producing
Kate is the co-creator and executive producer of the reality competition "Dance Your Ass Off" which broke ratings and interactive records for its original network, Oxygen TV in the USA and has sold as a format to 30 countries where it continues to top ratings. She also created and Executive Produced a the hit kids' geocaching competition "Cache Craze" for YTV and 9Story Entertainment . She created the ground breaking interactive series "Cherry Bomb" for RIPE TV setting unique views records and consistently landing in the #1 spot for its distributors including the Sprint network, Adelphia and Time Warner On Demand. She Executive Produced "The Naughty Show Bad Girls of Comedy" for international release on DVD by Eagle Rock Entertainment. As a playwright, Kate has had residencies at the O'Neill Center, Manhattan Theater Club, The Mark Taper Forum, Theater Direct Canada and Dixon Place. Her works have been published and performed nationally.
Music
Kate's band, Slanty Eyed Mama, (with electric violinist Lyris Hung) has tours the US, Canada and Internationally, notably at the Perth International Arts Festival in Australia, the Eurasian Nation Festival, the Asian Film Festival at University of Michigan, Harvard, the A/PI heritage fest in Union Square NYC, LA's GRAND Performances at City Center, The Asian American Jazz Festival in Chicago, Girl Fest Hawaii, Soundfest NYC, The Philadelphia Fringe Fest and the Women in Performance Conference. They continue to bust out the funky urban asian rhymes on stages all over America and were honored to be invited twice as the Smithsonian Institutes' keynote Asian Heritage Month Performance.
Activism
Kate is also an activist and inspirational speaker for under-represented youth, women's rights, mixed race and Asian American causes and minority voices. She is frequently asked to host events and benefits some of which include: The Coalition of Asian Children and Families Benefit (NYC), The Asian Women's Giving Circle Awards (NY), The Asian American Recovery Services Mentor Luncheon (San Francisco), The Sistering Shelter for Homeless Women Benefit (Toronto), Eurasian Nation's Launch Party (NY), Queen's Pride, The Dinah Shore Weekend VIP Pool Party, The Heritage of Pride NYC's Rally in Bryant Park, The NYU Asian Heritage Month Fashion and Arts Show, the A/PI Heritage Month Conference Smith College, A/PI Heritage Month New York in Union Square Park.
Kate has spoken on/written about Asian American culture and representation in Time Magazine, The Globe and Mail, On and Off magazine, BUST, The San Francisco examiner, NPR-Pacific Time, THIS magazine, NOW magazine, CBC Radio, SOHO Arts Journal and A magazine.
In her spare time she enjoys boxing, yoga, photoshop, bargain hunting, nice hotels. fine linens, looking at photos of shihtzus on line, and dreaming of taking a vacation.
http://www.katerigg.com/bio
