Biography
Lucas Kavner is a Brooklyn-based writer, performer and comedy person from Plano, TX.
He's the author of the plays Fish Eye (Time Out Critic's Pick, included in New York Magazine's Best Theatre of the Year) and Carnival Kids (NY Times Critics Pick, with Lesser America). Previously he wrote Barnes & Noble: Frisco, Texas and co-wrote the rock musical, Love Money, which both premiered at Ars Nova. He recently received a commission from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Ensemble Studio Theatre to write a play about the invention of gum. His plays have been developed with Naked Angels, Ars Nova, Studio 42, Williamstown, SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Flea, Colt Coeur, IAMA Theater Co, Rattlestick, PTP/NYC, Ensemble Studio Theatre and others.
Onscreen he's been seen in projects for Comedy Central, ESPN, VH1, ABC and Netflix, and commercials for various products, including an unexpected stint as the spokesperson for Buitoni pasta. His comedy videos -- including 'Romney Rock,' 'Song for Sarah' and the Tim James series -- have been viewed millions of times online and have been featured on the BBC, MSNBC, and ITV News, and NPR and online in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Huffpost, Time Magazine, Gawker, Vanity Fair and The Atlantic, among other places.
He's been a member of multiple house improv teams at the Peoples Improv Theatre and makes up one half of the award-winning comedy duo Swords (Sketchfest winners 2009 and 2010, Chicago Improv Fest, Out of Bounds Fest, etc.) He performs with HELLO every Friday night at the PIT and tours and performs with famed improv group Baby Wants Candy. For two years he hosted Showgasm, the popular variety show at Ars Nova.
As an actor he has performed or workshopped shows at the Kennedy Center, Playwrights Horizons, Atlantic, Abingdon Theatre, Dixon Place, Ars Nova, The Playwrights Realm, The McCarter, New Dramatists, Naked Angels, the American Repertory Theater (in the 2011 Elliot Norton/Broadway World Award winning show, The Blue Flower, for which he was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor), and the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where he spent two seasons. He most recently co-starred in the world premiere of John Mellencamp and Stephen King's Ghost Brothers Of Darkland County, with music direction from T-Bone Burnett, which debuted at the Alliance Theatre and toured major theaters and rock venues around the country.
