Joy Gohring

Joy Gohring is an American actress, comedian, writer, director, and producer. Her comedy career has included performing with the Austin improv and sketch troupe Monks' Night Out, co-writing and performing Without Pants with Johanna Stein at the 1999 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, and work for Oxygen, including Ripe Tomatoes and the comedy series Good Girls Don't, in which she starred as Jane. As a filmmaker, Gohring wrote, directed, and produced the short film 18 through the American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women and directed the documentary web series Undergrads: South, produced by James Franco's Rabbit Bandini Productions.

Early life and career in Austin

Gohring was born in Cincinnati and moved to Austin, Texas, when she was a few months old. In 1990, she was a student at Anderson High School in Austin. Gohring graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992 after majoring in journalism and history.

Gohring's early work in Austin included the role of Yora in the comedy film Teenage Catgirls in Heat, directed and produced by Scott Perry. During the 1990s, she also performed with the Austin alternative improv and sketch comedy troupe Monks' Night Out.

Acting and comedy

In 1999, Gohring and Johanna Stein co-wrote and performed Without Pants at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. Following the festival appearance, they performed the show at ImprovOlympic in Hollywood. In July 1999, they performed Without Pants: The 11 1/2 Month Anniversary Show at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival. A review in the Winnipeg Sun gave the show three and a half stars, praising the pair's combination of physical and verbal comedy and their choreography.

By February 2000, Variety identified Ripe Tomatoes as a half-hour weekend primetime sketch comedy show featuring Gohring and Stein alongside Tracy Vilar and Emmy Laybourne. A March 2000 profile in Los Angeles Magazine described Gohring and Stein as having risen over the previous two years from performances at ImprovOlympic and reported that their Aspen appearance led to a deal with Oxygen. Producers Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner saw Without Pants at the festival and signed Gohring to create and star in Ripe Tomatoes. Gohring later said that six or seven episodes were filmed, although only a couple aired. She also appeared in another Oxygen comedy, Running with Scissors. Gohring and Stein also appeared together in the comedy film Radio Free Steve, alongside Dean Haglund. A 2004 profile described Gohring as a longtime regular at Austin's Cap City Comedy Club, which she credited with helping develop her comedy. Later that year, Gohring starred as Jane in the Oxygen comedy series Good Girls Don't, written by Claudia Lonow. Carsey and Werner called Gohring in to audition for the lead, and by June eight episodes had been filmed for broadcast that summer. She later performed the show at the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2005. Reviewing the Edinburgh production for The Sunday Herald, Iain Macwhirter praised its "touching humour" and Gohring's energy while finding the remainder of the material less successful. The following month, she performed with Bernadette Pauley and Rachel Feinstein in a University of Alaska Fairbanks benefit show for Hurricane Katrina relief; the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner described the three performers as "nationally known comedians."

In 2007, Gohring played Glory in the film Mojave Phone Booth, a woman convinced that aliens had invaded her body. Reviewing the film, Variety described the storyline involving Gohring's character as its "funniest, most surprising segment." Later that year, Gohring performed as Senator Kim McFriendly, a fictional candidate for the 2008 United States presidential election, in a series of online political-comedy videos.

In October 2020, Gohring performed during the opening night of the Alameda Comedy Club. In its coverage of the event, the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted her pandemic-themed opening material and wrote that her set brought "much-needed laughter back to 2020."

Filmmaking

Gohring made her directorial debut in March 2007 with the short drama You Wish, about a teenage girl caring for her bedridden mother. She said the film retained the rhythms of her comedy, beginning lightly before becoming darker. Through the program, she wrote, directed, and produced the short film 18, released in 2009. The film starred Portia Doubleday, Jake Abel, and Nolan Gerard Funk, and concerned a young woman deciding whether to remove her mother from life support on her eighteenth birthday. In its 2009 "25 New Faces of Independent Film" feature, Filmmaker described 18 as an "excellent AFI-sponsored short" while profiling its cinematographer, Paula Huidobro. Gohring also co-created and directed the science-fiction comedy web series Date a Human. Gohring and Franco presented the pilot during South by Southwest in March 2012. Her short film Mental, a previous Female Eye Film Festival winner, was screened at the festival's 2013 Sudbury edition. Gohring later served as a producer on the short film Play Nice.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role / credit Notes 1993 Shameless Waitress 1994 Teenage Catgirls in Heat Yora 2001 On Edge Whistle Blower 2002 The Third Wheel Drunk Office Girl Uncredited 2007 You Wish Director Short film 2011 Bad Actress Dr. Monika 2011 Balls to the Wall Li'l Ben's Mom 2013 Bloom Producer Short film 2014 They Dissect Frogs, Don't They? Woman Short film 2014 Play Nice Producer Short film 2016 Gay Cake Director 2021 Shook Interviewer

Television

Year Title Role / credit Notes 2000 Ripe Tomatoes Creator, star Oxygen sketch comedy series 2004 Good Girls Don't Jane Oxygen comedy series 2004 The World Stands Up Self Stand-up comedy series 2005 CSI: NY Donna 2005 The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson Self

Web series and online work

Year Title Role / credit Notes 2007 Senator Kim McFriendly videos Senator Kim McFriendly Online political-comedy videos Date a Human Co-creator, director Science-fiction comedy web series 2012 Undergrads: South Director Documentary web series