Marga Gomez

Marga Gomez is a Puerto Rican/Cuban-American comedian, playwright, and humorist.

Gomez got her start in the gay comedy clubs of San Francisco in the mid-1980s, including the Valencia Rose Cabaret founded by Ron Lanza and Hank Wilson. She tours nationally in concert, at universities, nightclubs, cruiseships, and political events. She has appeared on HBO's Comic Relief, Showtime's Latino Laugh Festival, Comedy Central's Out There and the PBS series In The Life. Marga's comedy recording, Hung Like a Fly, is available on Uproar Records. She is profiled in the 2003 award-winning documentary Laughing Matters along with Kate Clinton, Suzanne Westenhoefer and Karen Williams.

Awards, nominations, and critical reception

Gomez won a GLAAD award for Off-Off Broadway theater in 2004. She received nominations in 2006 for the Drama Desk Award and New York Outer Critics Circle Award while performing at the 47th Street Theater. Nominated for the NCLR Bravo award for outstanding performance by a female in a variety or music series in 1996.[1]

"Amazing, she's like a lesbian Lenny Bruce" - Robin Williams[2]

Theater, author, and performer

Marga Gomez's of numerous theater pieces including:

  • Latin Standards [3]
  • Los Big Names,
  • A Line Around The Block,
  • Memory Tricks,
  • Marga Gomez is Pretty, Witty & Gay
  • jaywalker,
  • The Twelve Days of Cochina
  • Marga Gomez's Intimate Details
  • "Long Island Iced Latina"
  • "Not Getting Any Younger"

Her seventh solo performance, Los Big Names, was presented by Woolly Mammoth Theatre at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC in 2004. Her unique comedic voice was inspired[4] by the lives of her parents Willy Chevalier, a Cuban comedian, and Margo Estremera, a Puerto Rican dancer.[5]

Marga has been produced Off-Broadway, nationally and internationally, and has appeared at San Francisco's Theater Rhinoceros. In 2002 Marga co-wrote and co-starred with Carmelita Tropicana in Single Wet Female for a three-week sold out engagement at New York's Performance Space 122 under the direction of David Schweizer. She has also joined the casts of The Vagina Monologues several times, sharing the stage with Rita Moreno, Jobeth Williams, Barbara Rush and others.

Selections from her solo plays have been published in several anthologies including Extreme Exposure (TCG Books), Out, Loud & Laughing (Anchor Books), Contemporary Plays by American Women of Color (Routledge) and Out of Character (Bantam Books). Marga was one of eight playwrights to be commissioned by the Mark Taper Forum's Latino Theater Initiative as part of the 2005 Amor Eterno project. Marga is the recipient of Theater LA's 'Ovation Award' for her collaboration with Culture Clash at the Mark Taper Forum.

In 2015 Gomez presented her solo show, "Pound" at Dixon Place in NYC.[6]

Movie and television

Gomez's film and television credits include HBO's Tracy Takes on, Sphere, and Batman Forever and Netflix "Sense8: Christmas Special".[7] She is featured in indie festival hits Rosa Negra, The D Word, Desi's Looking for a New Girl, and Fabulous.

Personal life

Marga Gomez was born and raised in New York where she lived in 169th street. She attended a Catholic school for five years, then transferred to a public school where she excelled in creative writing and humanities,[8] before moving to San Francisco at the age of 20 to pursue a creative career.[9] She is openly lesbian.[10]

Notes
  1. "Marga Gómez". IMDb. Retrieved 2015-06-04.
  2. "Marga Gomez". www.margagomez.com. Retrieved 2015-06-04.
  3. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/12/theater/latin-standards-review-marga-gomez.html?_r=0
  4. Habell-Pallan, Michelle (2005). Loca Motion. New York: New York U. pp. 194–198.
  5. BRESLAUER, JAN (October 13, 1993). "'Pretty, Witty' and Mainstream : Lesbian Comedian Marga Gomez Says There Are Signs of Acceptance". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2015-06-04.
  6. Isherwood, Charles. "Review: Marga Gomez's 'Pound' Mocks Depictions of Lesbians on Film". New York Times.
  7. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5031232/fullcredits/
  8. Gomez, Marga. "Ask Me". www.margagomez.com. Archived from the original on 2015-06-05. Retrieved 2015-06-04.
  9. Wilson, David. "The Epochalips Interview: Marga Gomez". Retrieved 2015-06-04.
  10. Schiffman, Jean (September 26, 2011). "Mirthful, maturing lesbian comic Marga Gomez performs in San Francisco". The San Francisco Examiner. Archived from the original on October 21, 2011. Retrieved September 29, 2011.
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