Cast and Crew Bios

Sam Simon is a junior Spanish major in WCAS. Sam started with N.U.R.D. last year as a production assistant, and as N.U.R.D.'s current executive producer she has now moved one step closer to her goal of total world domination. Her interests include sports, pigs, radio in general, and eating obscene amounts of chocolate at every opportunity. She loves N.U.R.D., almost as much as the aforementioned chocolate.

Melanie Kahl began as a button pusher, did the acting gig, and now enjoys the glory of being NURD's executive director. She decided a lifelong major in indecision is probably most fitting, but has since moved on to Social Policy with a lustful eye for musical theatre. She enjoys (free) Cosi bread, making faces at the actors through the glass, wearing underwear on the outside, hot tea, knitting, pretending, and NURDs of all varieties. When it comes to the future, she is still pretty darn sure she will change the world.

Steve Persch is the past executive producer. He began working with Radio Drama in the Fall of 2003 as an actor.  Since then he has held just about ever other position N.U.R.D. has.  Steve draws on his education as a theatre major and his improv experience to help lead N.U.R.D.  Steve wrote and directed the Blizzard’s Fall episodes that won “Best Regularly Scheduled Program in the Collegiate Broadcasters, Inc. Awards in 2005.  In addition to N.U.R.D., Steve works on WNUR News and serves as the Weekend Producer on the WNUR exec Board.

Josh Harris has been known to be inextricably drawn to anything that involves noise. He has sound designed for theater, film, and radio and worked on recording, DJing, and compositional projects. When surrounded by shiny things, he will occasionally lapse into a euphoric state known as "ferret shock." Eventually he wants a pet wolf, but for now he has a chocolate labrador and a little lupine statue named Fonzi.

Matt Sudman is an English major from Atlanta and is not only N.U.R.D.'s head writer, but he's an actor-director-producer, too.  You could call him a jack of all trades, but since there's already a guy called Jack in N.U.R.D. that might confuse people.  Matt's greatest dreams in life are to become a Jeopardy! champion and to successfully fend off an invasion of zombies; currently the odds of either happening are rather slim.  Matt is a senior, and at this point and time he doesn't know what he's going to do after he graduates so quit asking him.

Matt Shore, part-time shark handler and full-time parent, is proud to be a member of the N.U.R.D acting ensemble. He's also assistant head writer of the writing ensemble, which means it's only a short amount of time before the head writer falls asleep and BAM!--the old poison in the ear. Now that's what I call usurpation!

Sarah Zucker is a Junior Theatre major in the Creative Writing for the Media program. Despite being born in a cave in the Appalachian foothills, and then spending an 18 year detention in Ohio for purportedly causing every major world war, she crawled her way to a microphone at WNUR and they haven't been able to exorcise her yet. Having been a writer, performer, director, and Webmaster for the show, Sarah hopes one day to finish evolving and drag herself up from the primordial soup, so that she can change her name and move to Europe.

Jack Novak is a sophomore theatre major with a taste for the blood of tormented souls, will  take you out.  You won't know when or where, but trust me, it'll happen.

Thor Rudebeck, a sophmore Radio/Television/Film major, got into N.U.R.D. quite by accident. He was asked to accompany the Christmas show his freshman year on piano, and just basically kept coming back. Now N.U.R.D.'s Music Director, he also acts if the script calls for an accent (or a wussy voice). When he's not playing the piano, making films or doing other radio/television/film-related things, he likes to throw his hammer while riding around in a chariot in the sky, pulled by two goats named Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, to create thunder and lightning. He divides his time between CRC and his home in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Andrew Jorczak is a sophomore theatre major from Houston,TX. He is a fan of the caramel appleempanadas from Taco Bell, except when its like apple lava when you bite into them.

Matt Robinson, a freshman Chemical Engineer, stumbled into NURD one day while blinded by the rays of sunlight that never penetrate the walls of Tech. Since that day, NURD has helped Matt cultivate his prowess for using funny voices not just for radio drama, but also to enhance his making-fun-of-weird-people skills. When he is not possessed by the ghost of Louis Armstrong, he enjoys coffeeshops, toothpaste for dinner, losing all his valuable personal items, and scrubbing the dirt off. the dirt that NEVER COMES OFF! DIRTY DIRTY UNCLEAN DIRTY DIRTY!!!!

Karen Shimmin is pregnant…with N.U.R.D. enthusiasm. Knocked up for the very first time this fall as a new addition to the N.U.R.D. acting ensemble, she's excited about her bundle of radio drama joy.  When she's not nursing her new-found love for the radio, Karen can be found compulsively brushing her teeth, discussing her love for cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies, and missing the mountains.

Laura Cohen is connoisseur of comic books, coco puffs, and aliterations. She is a superb danser (with an "s"), an excellent wit, and is world-renown for her delightful habit of laughing at her own jokes. She is often called "LoCo" and occasionally "Crazy Laura" depending on who you're talkingto. Sometimes, she goes on the internet, and sometimes not. Sometimes she goes to the website "marriedtothesea.com" and laughs at those jokes so much she farts a little. Once, she helped a friend take out her weave, which is how she came to be an honorary black person. Laura's sense of humor rivals that of an 8 year old boy.

Emily Crockett is a fifth year senior, majoring in both Vocal Performance and Creative Writing (Poetry), and after five years she is ready for school to end, end, for the love of all that is holy END, come what may in the working world (or non-working, as in the likely case of an opera singer and poet).  But while she's still sticking around she's thrilled to continue being a voice actor, writer, and occasional button monkey with NURD, as she has been for 5 or 6 quarters, she can't remember exactly, all she knows is she's been here longer than God but not as long as Steve "Papa" Persch.  She is a human kazoo a la the Police Academy/Spaceballs guy, she is from, not of Texas, but still vigorously advocates the use of the word "y'all," and she is, as always, the terror that flaps in the night and the batteries that aren't included.

Alex Weisman is ridulously short. He takes great steps to keep up with those walking at a
regular pace with him. He takes his facebook marraige very seriously and hopes that one day, he
may have a bachelor party. It's highly unlikely.

Connor Kobeski is a Weinberg freshman getting his feet wet for the first time in voice acting on
the radio (If only you could see him standing in his washtub of water during the shows). He enjoys everything old: from being the voice of old men on the air, to old time radio dramas, and even old folks activities including cooking, gardening, and hard-core beach volleyball. Connor is lookingforward to becoming a familiar fixture at N.U.R.D., but the screws for mounting him on the wall haven't come in yet.

Faith McAuliffe is a freshman Performance Studies major. She loves gum, picture books, and does NOT play basketball, thank you very much!

Alex Brown is a freshman RTVF major who loves monster trucks, ignorant people and pain. Alex may or may not be a pathological liar.

Yunji Kim is a Senior RTVF major with a very physical history (drumline, Blast, Theatre, and and some-degree in Hae-Dong Gum-do when she was 12). Her wish of wanting a "quiet" life in Radio/Television/Film is shaken (and for good), for the wind directed her to return to NURD for the second quarter. Life happens, and she is here to experience it fully!

Jillian Foley is an indecisive freshman in Weinberg who enjoys calculus, faking hard orchestral music on her cello, really good chocolate, and the smell of clean laundry. She can also solve rubik's cubes .... not that it does her any good on the radio.

Jessica Lowe bears a striking resemblance to John C. Reilly and has decided that radio is her medium of choice.  She would not like to thank her parents for this wonderful opportunity.

Robert Karol is a senior theater major who has written for NURD since sophmore year. Post-Crisis, his stories were hamstrung by retcons that included replacing Superboy with Mon-El (as 20th century hero Valor), Laurel Gand and Kent Shakespeare (Impulse).  The efforts of numerous writers and artists were unable to restore the series' popularity, spending most of their time rewriting past adventures to fit post-Zero Hour continuity. In 2004, Robert Karol was cancelled, though DC announced a new version, a "back to basics" approach by Mark Waid and Barry Kitson.