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ALLEN STRICKLAND WILLIAMS

Allen Strickland Williams hails from Orange Park, Florida, where he spent most of his days doing his homework to get the hell out of Orange Park, Florida. Upon graduation from high school, Allen decided to leave the hot and humid climate of the South for the frigid winters of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. There he became an Interdisciplinary Studies major, which means exactly what you think it means. Fortunately, Allen was able to stay busy as a member of Cornell's sketch comedy group, where he realized how much he enjoyed writing jokes and being funny on stage. Four years in the group and a screenwriting class later, he was convinced to go to Los Angeles to try his hand at the entertainment industry.

After working for a major television network and learning he'd rather be on stage than behind a desk, he vowed to return to performing comedy. He didn't know enough people in Los Angeles to start a sketch team, so he landed on stand-up as a means to perform without having to rely on anyone else. Allen started leafing through his old sketch book, finding random one-liners and non-sequitur jokes strewn throughout the scene ideas. After trying them out at open mics, Allen was pleased to learn that some of them worked. Thus, a love affair with writing short, simple jokes was born, and is still the driving force behind Allen's comedy. After going up at hundreds of open mics over a few years and filling up dozens of notebooks with setups and punchlines, Allen has now made a name for himself in the city's alternative comedy scene as a consummate joke writer and a unique stand-up comic.

In the fall of 2014 Allen made his television stand-up debut on Conan. He's also performed stand up on Comedy Dynamics' Coming to the Stage on Hulu, The Guest List on SeeSo and Flophouse on Viceland. Allen was recently listed as one of the 10 Best Rising Stars in LA Comedy by The Culture Trip. He was featured on the Holy Fuck live comedy album, and has performed at SXSW and Moontower in Austin, Texas, the Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, Oregon and Funny or Die's Oddball Comedy Festival in both San Diego and Irvine, California. He has performed in Los Angeles at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, The Hollywood Improv, The Laugh Factory, The Comedy Store, Holy Fuck at The Downtown Independent and Nerdmelt Showroom. He has been seen at Comedy Works in Denver, the Punchline in San Francisco, the American Comedy Co. in San Diego and both of the UCB Theatres in New York City. When not tinkering with jokes or going up on stage, Allen has produced videos with his sketch group WOMEN, which has been featured on Tosh.0 and IFC.com's Comedy Crib.

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