About Cora

I’m a comedy writer, director, producer and lyricist. My goal in life is to make people laugh. “Writer” is an umbrella term: I write sketch comedy, screenplays, novels, and lyrics for songs. I like to use writing as a way to communicate how I feel about something and put a funny or ironic spin on it.

I grew up watching British comedies like “Are You Being Served?”, “Keeping Up Appearances”, “Monty Python”, ”Jeeves and Wooster” (so I knew Hugh Laurie was British way before “House”) and listening to classic radio programs like Jack Benny, Allen and Burns. I like very, quick comedy. I also grew up watching Shakespeare and musicals. Some of my favorite writers are Zadie Smith, Margaret Atwood, and Douglas Adams.

I got into screenwriting after college. I was being read,  but wanted to be funnier so I attended the mother church of comedy, Second City of Chicago. There I fell in love with sketch comedy and all you can do and accomplish with it. I assistant directed my writing capstone show at Second City, “Pop Vultures”. A couple months later, I directed my first show at Gorilla Tango Theatre called “Solo In Sanity”. My next show was in Donny’s Skybox at Second City called “Netflux” where we flipped the sexes of favorite characters (Cinderella became Cinderello, Indiana Jones became Conneticut Jones) to see how the stories would be different with their new lead characters. I’d like to do the same thing with Shakespeare’s work.

I discovered I liked writing songs at Second City. I’m a huge fan of Tim Lehrer and was thrilled to learn how to head in his direction. I co-wrote the ending song of Pop Vulture called  “Where Would We Be Without 90′s TV?” I wrote a song for my next show called “We Have to Be Nice to the Nazis” (music by Matt Griffo) which has been my best song to date. It is my “Vatican Rag”. That song got me the opportunity to work with Singers On New Ground. I wrote two songs for their Cabaret, “The World is Better When You’re in Love” and “Thank You for Making Out Next to Me”, Sarah Ritch did the music.

When you have the option to laugh or cry, I hope you choose laugh. I’m here to help you laugh.