Wtaf just happened?

WANDA SYKES (Dr. Karl) has been called "one of the funniest stand-up comics" by her peers and ranks among Entertainment Weekly's 25 Funniest People in America.  Her smart-witted stand up has sent her career in many different areas. 

In 2012, Sykes joined forces with veteran producer Page Hurwitz to form Push It Productions, a production company dedicated to creating quality, comedy-based programming for network and cable television outlets.  The company's diverse slate of projects includes sketch comedy, concerts, reality talk/variety, and competition formats.  Their first set of specials; “Herlarious” aired in summer of 2013 and January 2014 on Own and was the recipient of a 2014 Gracie Award.  In just its first year, Push It has made a first look production deal with NBC, had a new series on OWN, and has shows currently in development with NickMom (Comedy Camp) and Comcast.  Push It Productions produced the 8^th and 9^th seasons of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing.”  Last Spring their new show “Talk Show The Game Show” premiered on TruTV and this Fall “Face Value” hosted by Deon Cole will premiere on BET.

Her fourth comedy special shot “What Happened…. Ms. Sykes” premiered in Fall 2016 on Epix.  Shot in Los Angeles, the special will focus on Wanda’s life, family, race and politics as she questions, “How Did I Get Here?” Her first HBO comedy special “Wanda Sykes; Sick and Tired” debuted in October 2006 and was nominated for a 2007 Primetime Emmy for “Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special.” It was taped in Seattle Washington and covered everything from racial profiling to gay marriage. She returned to HBO for her second stand up special “I’ma Be Me.”  This time it was taped at the Warner theatre in Washington DC where she tackled topics like the first black president, gay cruises, being a new mom and aging. The special was nominated for two 2010 Primetime Emmy awards: “Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special” and “Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special.” Her first special “Wanda Sykes: Tongue Untied” premiered on Comedy Central in 2003.

Last summer she was seen in the Fox comedy Snatched with Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn in Hawaii.  Sykes was also seen in the feature films Evan Almighty, the sequel to Bruce Almighty, in which she co-starred with Steve Carell; the New Line feature Monster-In-Law starring opposite Jane Fonda, My Super Ex-Girlfriend, Pootie Tang, Nutty Professor 2; The Klumps, and Down to Earth.

Sykes was previously seen on several television shows over the past few years. She can currently be seen on ABC’S “Blackish,” which she was nominated for a 2017 Primetime Emmy Award for “Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series.” Showtime’s “House if Lies,” Amazon Prime’s “Alpha House” created by Gary Trudeau about a group of Republican Senators who share the same DC rental house, HBO’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” she also spent five years on CBS's “New Adventures of Old Christine.”  In 2010, she starred on her own late-night talk show on FOX, “The Wanda Sykes Show.”  Other TV credits include Fox's “Wanda at Large” which she wrote, produced and starred in; “Wanda Does It” on Comedy Central and on “Crank Yankers” as the voice of ‘Gladys Murphy.’

She can be heard in many animated feature films including Fox’s Ice Ace; Collision Course reprising her voice as ‘Granny’ from Ice Age: Continental Drift; in Dreamworks’ Over the Hedge and Paramount’s The Barnyard.  

Her first book titled Yeah, I Said It, published by Simon and Schuster, hit bookstores in September 2004.  Yeah, I Said It is a hilarious collection of essays touching on life, family and current events.  

She spent 5 years as part of the HBO's critically acclaimed “Chris Rock Show.” As a performer and writer on the show, she was nominated for three Primetime Emmy's and in 1999 won the Emmy for “Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Special.” In 2001, she won the American Comedy Award for “Outstanding Female Stand Up Comic.”  She won three more Emmy’s, in 2002, 2004 and 2005, for her work on “Inside the NFL” for “Outstanding Studio Show – Weekly.”

Sykes was born in Portsmouth, Virginia and raised in Maryland.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Hampton University. Her stand-up career began at a Coors Light Super Talent Showcase in Washington, DC where she performed for the first time in front of a live audience.  

In 2010, she won a GLAAD award for promoting a good image of equal rights for gays and lesbians. 

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Team JON LUCAS and SCOTT MOORE (Writers/Directors) are best known as the writers of The Hangover, starring Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zack Galifianakis. Winner of the 2010 Golden Globe for “Best Comedy,” The Hangover grossed more than $275 million dollars domestically, making it the highest R-rated comedy of all time. The script earned Lucas and Moore nominations for “Best Original Screenplay” from both the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). 

 

Most recently, Lucas and Moore wrote and directed the sleeper hit Bad Moms, starring Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, and Christina Applegate. Produced for just $20 million, Bad Moms went on to earn more than $180 million worldwide, making it the highest grossing

R-rated comedy of the year. The film also won the People’s Choice Award for “Best Comedy of 2016.”

 

Lucas and Moore’s other credits include the hit holiday comedy Four Christmases, starring Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon, the romantic comedy Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, starring Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Michael Douglas, The Change-Up, starring Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman, and 21 & Over, starring Miles Teller and Skylar Astin, which they also directed. 

 

Lucas and Moore met in 1999 while working for Daniel Petrie, Jr., the Oscar-nominated writer of Beverly Hills Cop and The Big Easy, and have been working together ever since. In 2013, Lucas and Moore created and wrote their first television show, “Mixology,” which aired on ABC in 2014. 

SUZANNE TODD (Producer) is an award-winning producer whose movies have grossed over three billion dollars worldwide. In 2016, after producing films under her Team Todd banner with her sister Jennifer, she launched Suzanne Todd Productions with the STX comedy, Bad Moms. Written and directed by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore, the film stars Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Christina Applegate, and Kathryn Hahn. The success of the film has already spawned the sequel A Bad Moms Christmas which will be released November 3, 2017. She recently wrapped production on Magic Camp for Walt Disney Pictures. The film stars Adam Devine, Gillian Jacobs, and Jeffrey Tambor, and will be released April 2018. She’s currently in production on the female Santa Claus film Nicole for Disney starring Anna Kendrick, Bill Hader, and Shirley MacLaine.
Earlier in 2016, Todd released Alice Through the Looking Glass, which has grossed three-hundred million worldwide. It is the sequel to the Oscar winning Alice in Wonderland, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, Mia Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, and Anne Hathaway. Todd’s other producing credits include Across the Universe, Memento, Celeste and Jesse Forever, Must Love Dogs, Prime, Boiler Room and the Austin Powers Trilogy. She also executive produced HBO’s successful “If These Walls Could Talk” and “If These Walls Could
Talk 2.” Both films went on to earn numerous awards and honors including Emmy, Golden Globe, and SAG Award wins. She is currently working on a new installment with Lena Dunham and HBO.
In addition to her work in Film and TV, Suzanne has also branched out into interactive entertainment, working as a creative and business consultant for Activision/Blizzard on their game development. She consulted on the multi-billion-dollar Call of Duty franchise, including Black Ops, Black Ops 2, Modern Warfare 3, Ghosts, and Advanced Warfare. Similarly, Todd consulted on Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure and Skylanders: Giants, which together have grossed over $2 billion in game sales with more than 175 million toys sold.
Over the years, Todd has been presented with numerous awards including Women In Film’s celebrated Lucy Award, the Spirit Award for “Best Picture,” Cosmo’s Fun Fearless Female Award, the Glaad Media Award, three Saturn Awards, several MTV Movie Awards, and a People’s Choice Award. She regularly devotes her time and resources to several charitable causes including

St. Joseph Center and Tia’s Hope, serving on the Board since its inception. She has also served as Vice-Chair on the Board for the Archer School for Girls and is a major fundraiser at her children’s schools. In addition, Suzanne mentors aspiring filmmakers through the USC Stark Mentorship Program and the Producers Guild of America. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Directors Guild of America and Producers Guild of America.

Todd lives in Los Angeles with her three children, a rescue puggle and two chinchillas. She is an avid player of video games, poker and tennis.
MITCHELL AMUNDSEN (Director of Photography) was the cinematographer on CHiPs, Ride

Along 2, starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart, Now You See Me, Transformers, Red Dawn, and Premium Rush. He recently finished filming The Happytime Murders starring Melissa McCarthy.
Amundsen's early credits include working as a production assistant for Michael Apted on First Born and technician on Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish and The Outsiders. He worked assistant camera on Joel Coen's Raising Arizona and was a focus puller on the Glass Menagerie, directed by Paul Newman, and Michael Lehman's Heathers and Meet the Applegates.
He then became a camera operator, working on such films as Wolfgang Peterson's In the Line of Fire; John Singleton's Higher Learning, Nick Castle's Major Payne and Mr. Wrong; Betty Thomas' Private Parts; Richard Donner's Conspiracy Theory; Ron Howard's Edtv; Barry Sonnenfeld's Wild Wild West; Billy Bob Thornton's All the Pretty Horses; and Michael Bay's Armageddon.
He subsequently rose to second unit director for Bay's Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys II, and The Island; Gore Verbinski's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl; Frank Marshall's Eight Below; Gary Ross' Seabiscuit; Paul Greengrass' The Bourne Supremacy; J.J. Abrams' Mission Impossible III; and Brad Bird's Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.
MARCIA HINDS (Production Designer) returns after having worked on Bad Moms, and has worked extensively in both film and television over the past 30 years. Her most recent feature film as production designer is the upcoming Magic Camp for Disney and How to Be a Latin Lover which was released this past Spring.
Her other feature film credits include Get a Job, the 2014 re-make of Annie, Friends with Benefits, Easy A, Tooth Fairy, Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, Fired Up, John Tucker Must Die and 28 Days.
She was nominated for an Emmy Award and won the Art Directors Guild Award for “Excellence in Production Design” for her work on the Six Feet Under pilot in 2002. She was previously nominated for an Emmy for “Winchell” in 1999. 
JAMES THOMAS (Editor), who edited Bad Moms and now most recently A Bad Moms Christmas, got his start editing music videos and commercials in London in the early 90’s for artists such as U2, Sting and Blur.
But working with comedy soon became his passion and he was able to transition over to television with his first freelance editing gig, “The 11 O’Clock Show.” There he met Sacha Baron Cohen and began a collaboration spanning more than 18 years. He continued to hone his craft initially moving with Baron Cohen to both the British and HBO variants of “Da Ali G Show” and then onto feature film projects including; Borat, Bruno, The Dictator and the latest installment The Brothers Grimsby.
The “11 O’clock Show” was also where he met director James Bobin. Thomas and Bobin have worked together on many successful TV shows and Movies including: “Flight of the Conchords” for HBO, The Academy award winning The Muppets for Disney and now most recently Alice Through the Looking Glass also for The Walt Disney Company.
Thomas lives in Los Angeles, California and has three daughters. 
JULIA CASTON (Costume Designer) returns from having done Bad Moms, and has extensive experience in both film and television, and is currently designing “The Kicker,” a CBS pilot executive produced by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock. Her credits also include two notable collaborations with director Lee Toland Krieger: the Sundance hit Celeste and Jessie Forever, starring Rashida Jones, Emma Roberts, Elijah Wood and Andy Samberg, and Krieger’s short film, Modern/Love.
Additional feature credits include Nick Moore’s Wild Child, starring Emma Roberts; Matt Ross’s 28 Hotel Rooms, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; Rodger Grossman’s What We Do Is Secret, an LA Film Festival premiere; Rodman Flender’s Idle Hands; and Scott King’s Treasure Island, a Sundance Official Selection and winner of a Special Jury Prize.
From its genesis through season six, Caston designed for the award-winning television series, “The Middle,” created by Eileen Heisler and DeAnn Heline.
Other television credits include the pilot for HBO’s “Untitled Sarah Silverman Project,” directed by Charlie McDowell; Don Scardino’s “Sober Companion;” and “Surviving Suburbia” for ABC. Most recently she collaborated on NBC’s new television show “Great News.”
While Star Wars, Van Halen, and Bye Bye Birdie may be responsible for his love of movies, music, and theater, it was a chance meeting with Henry Mancini in college that changed CHRISTOPHER LENNERTZ (Composer) life forever. In awe of Mancini’s ability to compose for any genre, Lennertz has modeled his career to be just as diverse. He has written music for some of the world’s greatest storytellers. Whether its soaring heroics for Seth Rogen as a hot dog saving the world in Sausage Party or the lush orchestral melodies of Steven Spielberg’s “Medal of Honor” series...a stark, out of tune gospel piano for Mark Ruffalo’s battle with addiction in Thanks for Sharing or futuristic dystopian Americana for J.J. Abrams’ “Revolution,” this classic eclectic ability has now become his signature. He has worked in almost every genre imaginable and spent weeks on Billboard charts. He has an Emmy nomination for the cult hit “Supernatural,” a Grammy for his arrangements on Ozomatli’s album Street Signs, and an amazing eleven BMI awards for blockbusters like Bad Moms, Horrible Bosses, Ride Along, and more.
“At the heart of everything is a collaboration.” says Lennertz “Collaboration to tell stories that move people.” To embrace this spirit of musical storytelling, Chris has teamed up with legendary artists like Grammy winners Arturo Sandoval and Dave Grusin, The RZA, and Sheila E. as well as members of Pearl Jam, No Doubt, The Beastie Boys, Dave Matthews Band, Jurassic 5, and Jane’s Addiction. Collaborations with directors Tim Story, Seth Gordon, John Favreau, and Ben Stiller as well as producers Chris Meledandri, JJ Abrams, Seth Rogen, Brett Ratner, Doug Liman, Ed Norton, McG, Joel Silver, and so many others have led to a stream of box office successes.
Equally comfortable on the small screen, on stage, and at festivals, Lennertz has written eclectic scores for Marvel’s Agent Carter and Sundance award-winner Adam for Fox Searchlight. He has written with Broadway legends David Zippel, Glenn Slater, and Oscar and Tony winner Alan Menken on Sausage Party as well as the musical adventure Galavant. He is also one of the most in demand composers in video games with hits like Medal of Honor, James Bond, The Godfather, and the Mass Effect series. His passion for education and philanthropy plays a major part in his life serving on the board of Education Through Music Los Angeles and The Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation as well as Hands Together in Haiti. He personally launched the Symphony of Hope project after the 2011 earthquake to rally the film music community around the cause.
Ultimately mixing his love of storytelling, his eclectic background, and his relentless passion for all styles of music, Lennertz has become one of the most valued and sought-after composers in Hollywood today.
# # #

A BAD MOMS CHRISTMAS STXfilms and HUAYI BROTHERS PICTURES Present A SUZANNE TODD Production A Film by JON LUCAS & SCOTT MOORE “A BAD MOMS CHRISTMAS” MILA KUNIS KRISTEN BELL KATHRYN HAHN JAY HERNANDEZ CHERYL HINES PETER GALLAGHER JUSTIN HARTLEY with CHRISTINE BARANSKI and SUSAN SARANDON Music by CHRISTOPHER LENNERTZ Music Supervisor JULIA MICHELS Costume Designer JULIA CASTON Edited by JAMES THOMAS Production Designer MARCIA HINDS Director of Photography MITCHELL AMUNDSEN Executive Producers BILL BLOCK MARK KAMINE WANG ZHONGJUN WANG ZHONGLEI FELICE BEE DONALD TANG ROBERT SIMONDS ADAM FOGELSON OREN AVIV MILA KUNIS Produced by SUZANNE TODD, p.g.a. Written and Directed by JON LUCAS & SCOTT MOORE
© 2017 STX FINANCING, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.