Jennifer performs stand-up in New York, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area- anywhere that will have her, really. (Follow her on Instagram @theschempire or click here for the latest dates!)  She opened for comedian Jeff Applebaum last February at a sold out show at the 300-seat Downtown Theatre in Fairfield, CA,. She wrote for, and hosted the 2017 Arty Awards (honoring theatre in Napa and Solano Counties) on the very same night as the Emmys.  In other words, she's basically Stephen Colbert.  She also recently performed at The Lady Laughs Comedy Festival in Wichita, KS, and has performed her standup at The Belly Room @ The World Famous Comedy Store, Dangerfield's, The Broadway Comedy Club, and other fabulous spots like Kiabacca Bar, The Village Lantern, Barney's Beanery and a good handful of demoralizing open mics.

 

Jennifer honed her improv and sketch comedy skills, writing and performing at The Groundlings and The Second City in Los Angeles.  She's created a number of original characters, who often appear in her stand-up sets (and who occasionally "open" for her, as well as for various rock-n-roll bands, including The Help feat. Barbara Menendez, and The Green Demons of New Orleans.)

 
Jennifer appeared  as "Esther Feinberg" in the ABC Television remake of "Dirty Dancing”, playing bridge (with Debra Messing and Katey Sagal) and cutting a rug with her husband “Leon" (played by the dashing Michael Lowry.) Though the final edit features mainly her Jersey dialect and the back of her beautifully coiffed head, there are many other opportunities to see Ms. Schemke's full visage. 

 

Check her out as "Gidget", the excessively happy, yet secretly tortured, Laughter Therapist in Season 1 of Brandon Rogers' critically acclaimed series "Magic Funhouse".  When you're done with that, look for her as a totally different character, terrifying farm matron "Mama Gladys" on Season 2, streaming now on Amazon and iTunes.  She also makes frequent appearances in other Brandon Rogers productions- as "Mary Potter", the object of a poodle's affection in "Darlene is Spiritual" and "A Day st the Beach", and the mustachioed "Sir Mr. Billman" in "Stuff and Sam", on Facebook Watch.  

The short films she wrote and directed, "Pimp My Rascal” and “Abs Like Jesus” were official selections of the Los Angeles Comedy Shorts Festival and the Short Toronto Indie Film Festival.  She is currently submitting her latest short film, “Soleil Ombre”, an homage to Godard and The French New Wave, to film festivals worldwide.
 

A few of her other favorite recent performances include: "Wine Lovers, the Musical" (Le Petit Theatre, directed by Broadway’s Holly-Anne Ruggiero), "The Velveteen Rabbit" (Southern Rep., directed by “Walking Dead’” actor, Ann Mahoney-Kadar), and the short horror film "Crazy Stairs” (Directed by Reed Daigle, DP Carlos Bible), for which she received "Honorable Mention" for Best Actress.  She was also thrilled to recently perform at Mack Sennett Studios (one of the last remaining silent film studios) for Smirnoff's 75th Anniversary of the Moscow Mule, under the direction of New York-based immersive and experiential director, Mikhael Tara Garver.

Coming up next, Jennifer is creating content out the veritable wazoo, writing new sketches, and developing many ideas, including a show based on the menagerie of her original characters mentioned above. 

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Jennifer Schemke is a Bay-Area native.  She holds a BA and MFA in Theatre and Acting from San Francisco State and DePaul University in Chicago, and is a graduate of the Tom Todoroff Conservatory in New York City. 

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