Pia Glenn

Teaches at The Black TV & Film Collective

Pia is a writer on Comedy Central’s The Opposition with Jordan Klepper. Pia has also been featured on sites including The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Time, and most notably xoJane.com and Valid Magazine, presented by This Week In Blackness. As a well-spoken Negress, she has been a repeat guest on MSNBC’s The Last Call, as well as The Melissa Harris-Perry Show. Pia also has a YouTube channel (but don’t we all?) where she showcases her comedic and satirical takes on race, gender, and wall twerking. The first part of 2014 saw her weekly Black Weekend Update videos gain a steady following and, like all of her videos, she wrote, shot, performed, and edited every one herself. So please don’t judge the lighting; there’s a long list of things Pia’s better at than lighting.

A Native New Yorker, Pia studied acting at NYU and AMDA and even missed her own graduation because she had booked a gig, which made for the best acting school graduation of all, even if she did have to hold an imaginary ceremony in her mind. Her first agent was under the impression that she was a member of Actor’s Equity when she had not yet joined, so he negotiated an impressive payday for her first regional theater appearance, which she worked extremely hard to feel worthy of. Her Broadway debut was taking over the lead role in the musical Kat and the Kings, which she also worked extremely hard to feel worthy of, since it was no coincidence that she happened to fit the costumes and resemble the departing leading lady if you squinted.

Pia has performed both on and Off-Broadway, as well as in multiple regional theaters and national tours. Episodic television guest and co-star roles have included Strong Medicine, Hannah Montana, and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, where she enjoyed the distinct pleasure of giving Ice T what for, and how! Favorite stage experiences include being handpicked by Eric Idle and Mike Nichols for the lead in the 1st National Tour of Monty Python’s Spamalot once they’d won all their Tony Awards, and also being hand-picked by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay to be their naughty version of Condoleezza Rice on Broadway in You’re Welcome, America: A Final Night With George W. Bush.

With all that hand-picking going on, Pia also somehow wound up dancing in Michael Jackson’s final long-form video “You Rock My World,” and she finds new and inventive ways to work that into casual conversations daily.