Orlando Bishop
Writer? Director? Stand-up comic? Producer? “I’m just a storyteller,” Orlando Bishop explains through a smile. “For me, it’s all about doing what I need to do to serve the project, whatever I need to do to achieve the ultimate goal: A good story, well told.”
He was raised in Flatbush, Brooklyn. In the summer of 1989, the Brooklyn boy walked into a Manhattan multiplex to see Do The Right Thing. He had found his calling. “My heart raced. Sweat trickled down the side of my face. I walked out of that theater knowing, ‘I want to do that! The funny thing is I didn’t even know what ‘that’ was.”
Not knowing what “that” was, he set out to find out. His journey took him to Yale, where he graduated with degrees in both Film Studies & African- American Studies. He then attended the Univ. of Southern California School of Cinema-Television’s Peter Stark Producing Program.
He's written for Hollywood companies including Fox Searchlight, MTV Networks, Nickelodeon, & Wesley Snipes’ Amen Ra Films. In the television world, he developed projects for Big Ticket Television & New Line Television. In 2005, he was hired as a staff writer on the WB’s 7thHeaven. During that season he co-wrote Got MLK?, a special episode commemorating the King Holiday. Most recently, he wrote & directed Dinner For Two, featured by TVOne at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF).
Seeking to sharpen his comedic voice, Orlando performed at his first stand-up open mic. What started as an exercise to serve his other writing became a new passion as he performed & eventually hosted shows at The Comedy Store, performed & produced at The Hollywood Improv, & worked rooms throughout LA, the Inland Empire, & San Diego, eventually spreading his wings & hitting stages in NY & Chicago, before headlining an AZ casino.
That comedic work led to storytelling shows, particularly at Rogue Machine Theatre’s Rant & Rave shows, where he’s performed multiple times & was a guest producer. All this storytelling, joke-telling, & performance experience led him to create Unstuck As F*ck, a solo show he describes as “what would happen if Anthony Robbins & Richard Pryor had a baby.” The show had its well-received world premiere at The Studios of Key West in December of 2021.
Whether slinging jokes on a reservation in Arizona, inspiring through tears & laughter in Key West, hosting his UnstuckAF podcast, or crafting dialogue from behind his desk in LA, Orlando Bishop seems to have figured out what “that” was… & what he is… a storyteller.
Writer? Director? Stand-up comic? Producer? “I’m just a storyteller,” Orlando Bishop explains through a smile. “For me, it’s all about doing what I need to do to serve the project, whatever I need to do to achieve the ultimate goal: A good story, well told.”
He was raised in Flatbush, Brooklyn. In the summer of 1989, the Brooklyn boy walked into a Manhattan multiplex to see Do The Right Thing. He had found his calling. “My heart raced. Sweat trickled down the side of my face. I walked out of that theater knowing, ‘I want to do that! The funny thing is I didn’t even know what ‘that’ was.”
Not knowing what “that” was, he set out to find out. His journey took him to Yale, where he graduated with degrees in both Film Studies & African- American Studies. He then attended the Univ. of Southern California School of Cinema-Television’s Peter Stark Producing Program.
He's written for Hollywood companies including Fox Searchlight, MTV Networks, Nickelodeon, & Wesley Snipes’ Amen Ra Films. In the television world, he developed projects for Big Ticket Television & New Line Television. In 2005, he was hired as a staff writer on the WB’s 7thHeaven. During that season he co-wrote Got MLK?, a special episode commemorating the King Holiday. Most recently, he wrote & directed Dinner For Two, featured by TVOne at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF).
Seeking to sharpen his comedic voice, Orlando performed at his first stand-up open mic. What started as an exercise to serve his other writing became a new passion as he performed & eventually hosted shows at The Comedy Store, performed & produced at The Hollywood Improv, & worked rooms throughout LA, the Inland Empire, & San Diego, eventually spreading his wings & hitting stages in NY & Chicago, before headlining an AZ casino.
That comedic work led to storytelling shows, particularly at Rogue Machine Theatre’s Rant & Rave shows, where he’s performed multiple times & was a guest producer. All this storytelling, joke-telling, & performance experience led him to create Unstuck As F*ck, a solo show he describes as “what would happen if Anthony Robbins & Richard Pryor had a baby.” The show had its well-received world premiere at The Studios of Key West in December of 2021.
Whether slinging jokes on a reservation in Arizona, inspiring through tears & laughter in Key West, hosting his UnstuckAF podcast, or crafting dialogue from behind his desk in LA, Orlando Bishop seems to have figured out what “that” was… & what he is… a storyteller.
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