Fancying herself a critical thinking interventionist qua spiritual humorist, Mocha Jean Herrup practices the comedic arts in order to fight fascism, create world peace, and chat about her cats. She is an accomplished filmmaker with a doctorate in Radio-TV-Film, but her true passion is live performance. She loves to be onstage, connecting with an audience. In 2002 Mocha Jean co-created Austin’s Kings ‘N Things, now the oldest standing drag king / gender based performance troupe in the US.

Her work ranges from celebrity parodies (Lance Bass & Billy Idol) to stand up comedy to one woman shows. She regularly emcees for Kings ‘N Things and has performed standup at the annual International Drag King Community Extravaganza (Athens, Ohio & Austin, Texas) and recently opened for comedian Dana Goldberg at Austin Pride.

Her one woman show, “Letters of Compliment & Complaint,” recounts her years of writing letters to the business community and has been enthusiastically received at the Ladies Are Funny Festival (LAFF) and Frontera Fest in Austin. She performed Standup, a Series curated by Mary Jo Pehl, at Cafe Caffeine in Austin, TX on August 29, 2009. While she hates to perpetuate stereotypes, being Jewish makes her funny (and extremely knowledgeable about digestion).

Mocha Jean’s award winning films have screened in festivals around the world, on the Sundance Channel, Northwest Airlines, and at the Walker Art Center. Her most recent film, TODAY, I BECOME A MAN has played at The Copenhagen Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, South By Southwest, and the Dallas Video Festival.

Her lectures and workshop offerings include:

• All That Gender Will Allow - Performing Queer Documentary: a presentation and discussion of queer documentary with a screening of her short films.
• The Best Shows on TV: a look at how current shows reflect a new ability for TV to represent complex social issues as systemic rather than individual problems.
• Letters of Compliment & Complaint: a letter writing workshop that compliments her show of the same name.