A highly-original sketch comedy series featuring “exaggerated parodies” of veganism has once again cleaned up in the US.
Vegan 101, created by former Melbourne talent Joanne Rose, took out Outstanding Sketch Comedy Series, Outstanding Guest Actress Louisa Kendrick and Actor Will Ryan (both in the Vegan Potluck episode) at the LA Web Series Festival earlier this week.
This follows awards and positive word-of-mouth the multi-platform series has collected since its launch in mid-2009.
Rose, a member of The International Academy of Web Television (IAWTV), also joined the Women of the Web panel at the festival to discuss the benefits and challenges of running your own show in cyberspace, and was also a guest on The Web Series: Global Phenomena panel, speaking as a producer from Australia.
Eventually moving to the US in 2004, Rose wrote the first sketch for the hilarious show in mid-2009 and it premiered in the US on Koldcast TV and Will Ferrell’s Funny Or Die.
“I had been focused solely on acting in Los Angeles for several years at the time and I felt the increasing urge to take my career in a whole new direction,” Rose tells IF.
“As a dedicated vegan since 1994, I am very passionate about my project and wanted to use humor to educate, entertain and inspire others about the vegan lifestyle, rather than use traditional ways.”
Shot on the Panasonic AG-HVX200 for a budget of less than $5000, the first series featured six short episodes and series two – which stars Hollywood actor Eric Roberts (The Expendables, The Dark Knight) – begins production next week.
“Eric Roberts is an incredibly talented actor whose passion for the vegan lifestyle and animal rights [and] was the ultimate choice for the second season,” Rose says.
Roberts will play lead character Dr Eaton Wright, host of TV show Eating Right, who promotes “vegan awareness” inside and outside of the vegan community using “risqué and oddball antics”.
Second season episodes include: Vegano, Miso Soup For The Soul, The Book Signing, Vegan Fitness Coach, Vegan Hypnosis, Vegan of the Year and Vegan Holiday at Sea.
“I wanted to take the second season in a new direction and to feature regular characters. The running time for the episodes will vary from 2-6 minutes,” Rose says.
“I love every aspect of creating series for the web so I definitely want to continue this in the future.”
Other Aussie web series to take out awards at the LA Web Series were Looking At You and The Future Machine.
For more on the rise of the web series medium, see the April/May edition of IF magazine.