Tremendosaur is a Los Angeles based sketch comedy troupe, consisting of writer/performers Justin Michael and Jacob Reed. They met while performing together with USC’s premiere improv troupe, Second Nature, and the short-lived but wildly successful sketch group, The Consortium.
As Tremendosaur, they have performed at The UCB Theatre, iO West, and have produced comedic shorts for Current TV, Cracked.com, and Universal Music. Their work has been featured by College Humor, Today’s Big Thing, YouTube, Funny or Die, Caroline’s Comedy Club, and all over the magical pixels that make up the internet.
Justin and Jacob briefly hosted a ridiculous television show for Playboy and were recently hired as staff writers for an untitled Comedy Central pilot. One of these jobs makes their parents incredibly proud.
Justin Michael is an LA-based comedian, writer, and weird human being. He performs all around LA, but his favorite place is probably the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, where he’s been a part of Tremendosaur’s Big Hollywood-ish Sketch Show, Tournament of Nerds, Sketch Cram, Let’s Do This!, UCB’s Sketch Showcase, and Matt Besser’s Prop 19 Show. Beyond UCB, he’s performed live sketch and improv at iO West, The Westside Comedy Theater, Second City, The Improv Space, San Francisco Sketch Fest and many-a black box theater.
Outside of live material, Justin has written/produced/acted for Comedy Central, Funny or Die, The Weinstein Company, and Universal Music. His work has been featured in The Hollywood Reporter, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and a bunch of other magazines only stodgy old men read. He was a staff writer on Matt Besser’s Comedy Central sketch show, “This Show Will Get You High,” as well as a host for Current TV, Playboy TV and IFC.
If you’d like to continue our relationship beyond this bio, check out my tumblr. If you like doing the twitter thing, follow @heyjustin. If you don’t like anything, you should try grilled cheese. It’s great.
Jacob Reed attended USC, where he double-majored in Film and Fine Arts. On campus he performed with and directed the long form troupe Second Nature, and co-coordinated Fracas!, the first purely collegiate improv festival in the country.
At the UCB Theatre, Jacob has performed in Cagematch, Let’s Do This, 3-on-3 and is a proud member of the Harold team, Bangarang! Whenever possible, he performs with the teams Ladies & Gentlemen and long(ish) time UCB cagematch champs Fiasco!. Outside of UCB, Jacob runs FTWednesdays at The Improv Space and performs with Mission IMPROVable at M.i.’s Westside Comedy Theatre. He was also a member of the iO West team Roberto Alomar.
Jacob is also one half of the sketch comedy group Tremendosaur, whose work has been featured by UCB NY, Current TV, College Humor, Cracked, and throughout the interwebs. For half a year he and his tremendo-cohort Justin Michael hosted a TV show for Playboy where they were around naked people. Like, lots of naked people. It was weird.
Harry Chaskin
Harry is a multi-talented artist and filmmaker who can do anything. There has been no project we’ve thrown at him he wasn’t able to tackle. Recently, Harry’s stop-motion animated short, ‘Bygone Behemoth,’ was screened at SXSW in Austin. Harry is a recent graduate of the CalArts film/video school. You can check out his blog at http://kittensincarbonite.wordpress.com.
Harry shot Inches Away From Ordinary, CW Sneak Peek, Let’s Help People, Mario Kart: Road to Insanity, and Mr. Huggles. His artwork/storyboards/make-up/assorted artistic brilliance appears in Curse of the Duck Hunt Dog, Oops! All Lansburys and Video Will.
Dave Crabtree
Dave was with Tremendosaur in its early days but has since moved on to be a professional digital media preditor (yes, producer / editor) at FOX Reality. Yes, he works in reality TV. Yes, he’s young and handsome. Yes, he’s vainglorious. After graduating from USC, Dave went on an Asian death trip to document pirates in the Straits of Malacca (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore). He then returned somehow, sat in a box for six months, and came out with a 72 minute film about crazy water thieves called, “Porampo: Pirates of the Malacca Straits.” Dave’s latest venture is Gunslingers LA.
When he sleeps, Dave dreams of the days when Jacob, Justin, and he used to regale hoards of cheery fans every Friday Night with Second Nature Improv. WORD.
Dave shot November Holidays, Utilities Guy, Trick-or-Treat, Secret Admirer, Holiday Shmoliday, Tickle My Butt, Halloweenies, Tremendosaur and the Pitch Meeting of the Crystal Skull, Five Second Rule, Old People vs. Technology, Video Will, Cursed Clown Car, Inches Away From Ordinary and Bad Babysitter.
Brennan Maxwell
When he’s not dicking around with us, Brennan has shot all kinds of legit stuff including music videos, feature films, and the television programs Last Call with Carson Daily and Oprah. You can view his reel at BrennanMaxwell.com.
Brennan shot Mrs. Doubtfire is Hawt and Rock Guru.
Danny O’Malley
Filmmaker, musician, and all around creative heavy-hitter, Danny is a graduate of USC’s Film School (where we met him). His work has screened at Slamdance and has been featured by Paste Magazine. Recently, Danny worked with former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp and his band, The Rentals, on a film series called Songs About Time. Danny lives how he will die… Eventually. You can view some of Danny’s work on his vimeo page.
Danny shot Bloody Mary. He also did VFX on Curse of the Duck Hunt Dog and The Best of Simon and Carfunkel.
