Today we’d like to introduce you to Rekha Shankar.
Rekha, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started out in post-production as an assistant video editor working on true crime television. I met some great people, but that line of work really bummed me out. I always wrote comedy on the side (it’s what I truly wanted to do, but unsurprisingly no one would hire me for that straight out of college), and was able to gradually transition away from AE work and into comedy through websites like Reductress and the New Yorker, and by writing for a couple pilots. Eventually, I got hired to write at CollegeHumor in 2017, so moved to LA, and since then I’ve been in the Between Two Ferns movie and also gotten to write for a Netflix sketch show premiering in December called Astronomy Club!
That’s awesome, we’ll have to check Astronomy Club out! Has it been a smooth road getting to where you are today?
I am very fortunate for the many opportunities going to film school provided me and will never discount that privilege. But in other ways, it has not been a smooth road — I have been rejected from so many jobs for which I poured WEEKS of work into applying for. I’ve been rejected from numerous script contests (maybe 20? more?) for which I had to shell out $50+ of AE money to even submit to. I’ve had to scramble around New York City with multiple jobs, trying to wedge in interviews and auditions in between dropping off a hard drive to someone in some random place who wasn’t even there that early in the morning so I had to sleep in the hallway outside their office until they arrived. I have also certainly been rejected from many unpaid improv teams. I’ve had people call me a “diversity hire” when I did end up getting a gig. I’ve had a lot of family changes in the last few years too that have made it really hard to feel settled even when I’m currently employed. It’s hard. You need a good mental health baseline to pursue anything, especially something as fickle and exclusionary as entertainment.
What else should we know?
I’m the head writer for CollegeHumor Originals at CollegeHumor, a website for very good (according to me) comedy sketches! I’m extremely proud of the work our company and the many writers before me have done to update itself for the times and to actually strive for representation in a way that isn’t scummy or tokenizing. Our sketches, in my opinion, are a far cry away from the more fratty comedy we used to be associated with, and I think showing that a big company can evolve is a really important message in the comedy space and beyond.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
I love that in Los Angeles, people take care of themselves. They don’t stay out until bars close (often), they exercise more (than not at all), and people just seem to have an overall better quality of mental health than at least I felt I had living in New York City.
I do not like the lack of convenience in this city, especially the public transportation situation – build a bus lane! Then everyone would be taking the bus! That shit absolutely needs to change.
Contact Info:
- Website: youtube.com/collegehumor – they can check out CollegeHumor’s work here!
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rekha_s/?hl=en
- Twitter: twitter.com/rekhalshankar
- Other: rekhashankar.com – they can check out my work personally here!
Image Credit:
Gregory Wallace Photography, Ryan Anthony Martin, CHMedia
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