Mike Lemme is a comedian, playwright, theatre director and producer finding unique ways to survive in New York City for the last 12 years. In 2023, Lemme's play Before The Drugs Kick In received nominations for two of the biggest awards at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world; the BBC Writersroom Popcorn Award for Best New Writing and the Mental Health Foundation Fringe Award. The play recently wrapped its fourth New York City extension with additional runs in Los Angeles and London.​
Known for putting on shows in unique locations, Lemme has previously sold out shows inside tiny co-working spaces in London and Rome as well as in Austin, Texas, where he developed new material while sitting around a conference room table with complete strangers. At the beginning of the pandemic, Mike turned his bedroom into a theater for his cult-classic zoom series, ‘Talking Privately.’
A former intern for Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Fallon, Lemme previously warmed-up studio audiences for ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ and had a short story published in The New York Times. In 2016, he self-funded a 15 night residency at the UNDER St. Marks Theater and turned that into his first film, Help Wanted. Lemme is also the writer and director of Bathroom of a Bar on Bleecker, a play about recording the final episode of America's number one comedy podcast, which is essentially Joe Rogan meets Macbeth.
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Mike is a co-founder and member of the board of directors for CoverMyFee, a 501(c)3 non-profit determined to cover the initial application fee for artists of all genres submitting their work to festivals, competitions and development programs.
Photo by Mike Ford