Who

Emily Flake is the Owner and Operator. She is a humor writer and staff cartoonist for the New Yorker (and other places), the author of a small clutch of books, an illustrator, and a sometimes performer. She brought St. Nell’s to life via a successful Kickstarter campaign. Nell’s is named for Nell Gwyn, a comedic actress and bawd who was the toast of Restoration England (Its subtitle, “featuring Kim Scheinberg,” is in honor of a writer, poker expert, and exceptionally generous soul who backed the Kickstarter at the highest possible level). You can see more of her work at www.emilyflake.com when you’re done here.

Laura Ornella is the Director of Programming for St. Nell’s. While she has a lot to learn about Zoom (Laura’s words, not Emily’s), Laura is excited for her new journey with St. Nell’s. Laura is also a Cuban American actor and writer based in comedy. Her work has been showcased at Just For Laughs, on Vulture, and Comedy Central. She founded the comedy platform Humor Darling, is a writer and actor for sketch team Wilburn and hosts the character show JINX! You'll find Laura performing characters 'round town or filming something ridiculous in the streets. Visit www.lauraornella.com for more info.

Kate Villa was the Director of Programming, and is now the Ghost of Programming Past. She is now the Director of Comedy and Institutional Programming at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, an enormous job that we’re so proud of her for getting, even if it took her away from us. She is a comedian, writer, and producer who was born in DC, bred in Chicago, and buttered in New York. Kate has written and produced for TruTV, Showtime, Comedy Central, Discovery+, MTV, Cartuna/IFC, and Wondery. Kate has contributed jokes and games to NPR’s ‘Wait…Wait…Don’t Tell Me!,’ NPR’s ‘Ask Me Another,’ and formerly, Mad Magazine. More of her humor can be found in The New Yorker and McSweeneys. She wants to write a book. She’s manifesting it. You can visit her at www.kate-villa.com.

Ruth Ann Harnisch (henceforth to be referred to by her official title, Ruth Ann Har-Har-Harnisch) helps pay for all of this s***! Ruth Ann is the Founder and President of the Harnisch Foundation, which supports a constellation of entities doing visionary social change work. The Harnisch Foundation also operates Funny Girls, a program devoted to strengthen girls’ leadership skills through improv, and ran Awesome Without Borders, which distributed grants of $1000 each week to support projects all over the world.