Shannon Manning - "My motto as I live & learn is to dig and be dug in return"

About me

Shannon Manning studied at the the University of Chicago (BA History), the School of the Art Institute, and with the legendary comedy inspiration Del Close. She produced TV news and weather computer graphics, wrote and produced a Chicago Bulls scoreboard animation, and started one of the first web publishing businesses in Chicago and directed for fun and for stage, including a play called Dead Dads.

After moving to New York in 1997, she taught and directed improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, Magnet Theater (which she also co-founded), and Drinkytown, including the political improv show Red All Over and the ongoing music and improv show Beauty Love Truth. She has performed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien as a piece of cheese and other characters. She also helped to manage the estate of Charles Mingus, was the corporate cash manager for a major publishing company, webmastered Pathetic Geek Stories, and published and edited Pipe Up! magazine. She has been a TV writer and producer for LifetimeTV, Fuse, Kraft, the Food Network, and more. She wrote and produced video for a weekly politics and news show with Daily Show creator Lizz Winstead.

In 2008, she was New Media Deputy for Obama for America - New York. She shot volunteer recruitment videos, customized NY State's website on barackobama.com, blogged on the official NY HQ blog to promote and share volunteer activities, and did some old media data crunching for NY's phone banking and outreach to battleground states, volunteer efforts that were unprecedented and pivotal in the successful election of the President.

She is now the talent buyer for Union Hall, Brooklyn, and continutes to foment subcultural revolution via Sparkle Television, a video and web production company, by growing community and connecting artists through Improv for Poets and Geniuses workshops, hosting Sparkle Variety nights, and always and forever, Beauty Love Truth.