Marga Gomez

All Music Guide:

Marga Gomez, best known for her candid, dignified but physical, stand-up comedy, actually got her professional start as an actor. Growing up the bratty only child of well-known Cuban comedian Willy Chevalier and sensual Puerto Rican dancer Margarita Estremera -- Margo The Exotic to Anglos -- Marga came honestly to entertainment. Soon after discovering that humor eased the pain of Catholic grammar school, Marga also discovered drama as an alternative to sports in high school where, incidentally but significantly, she was the only Latina.

Marga abandoned teacher's college, felt unqualified for Spanish showbusiness since she didn't speak Spanish, and was unimpressed with Hollywood and its lack of Hispanic enlightenment. In 1976, she relocated from the Big Apple to San Francisco, seeking independence and the hippie life. Her initial stints, with theater groups Les Nicklettes and The San Francisco Mime Troupe, were brief; subsequently, after seeing a performance by feminist theater company, Lilith, Marga liked them so much that she auditioned and was hired. Thus followed 5 years of performing and touring which took Marga throughout the United States and to Europe. Her success with Lilith convinced Marga that she could make it on her own as a performer.

In 1982, Marga Gomez began her career as a solo act. And, she was rewarded early and profoundly: nominated for the San Francisco Cabaret Gold Awards "Outstanding Female Comedy Solo" in 1984, Marga went on to win in 1986, 1987, and 1988. 1988 was an especially good year for Marga; she not only won the "Outstanding Comedy" award but also "Entertainer of the Year," appeared on PBS' "Comedy Tonight" with Whoopi Goldberg as well as in the made-for-cable "Good Time Cafe." Most recently, Marga did VH1 "Stand-Up Spotlight" with Rosie O'Donnell in the summer of 1991 and co-hosted a benefit with Lily Tomlin.

Wikipedia:

Marga Gomez is a Puerto Rican/Cuban-American comedian, playwright, and humorist. She is openly lesbian.

Gomez got her start in the gay comedy clubs of San Francisco in the mid 1980s, including the Valencia Rose Cabaret founded by Ron Lanza and Hank Wilson. She tours nationally in concert, at universities, nightclubs, cruiseships, and political events. She has appeared on HBO's Comic Relief, Showtime's Latino Laugh Festival, Comedy Central's Out There and the PBS series In The Life. Marga's comedy recording, Hung Like a Fly, is available on Uproar Records. She is profiled in the 2003 award winning documentary Laughing Matters along with Kate Clinton, Suzanne Westenhoefer and Karen Williams.

Gomez won a GLAAD award for Off-Off Broadway theater in 2004 and is the author/performer of numerous theater pieces:

Her seventh solo performance, Los Big Names, was presented by Woolly Mammoth Theatre at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC in 2004 and opened Off Broadway at the 47th Street Theater in April 2006 receiving nominations for the Drama Desk Award and New York Outer Critics Circle Award. The work was inspired by the lives of her entertainer parents Willy Chevalier and Margo the Exotic.

Marga has been produced Off-Broadway, nationally and internationally, and has appeared at San Francisco's Theater Rhinoceros. In 2002 Marga co-wrote and co-starred with Carmelita Tropicana in Single Wet Female for a three week sold out engagement at New York's Performance Space 122 under the direction of David Schweizer. She has also joined the casts of The Vagina Monologues several times, sharing the stage with Rita Moreno, Jobeth Williams, Barbara Rush and others. Gomez’s film and television credits include HBO's Tracy Takes on, Sphere, and Batman Forever. She is featured in indie festival hits Rosa Negra, The D Word, Desi’s Looking for a New Girl, and Fabulous.

Selections from her solo plays have been published in several anthologies including Extreme Exposure (TCG Books), Out, Loud & Laughing (Anchor Books), Contemporary Plays by American Women of Color (Routledge) and Out of Character (Bantam Books). Marga was one of eight playwrights to be commissioned by the Mark Taper Forum's Latino Theater Initiative as part of the 2005 Amor Eterno project. Marga is the recipient of Theater LA’s 'Ovation Award' for her collaboration with Culture Clash at the Mark Taper Forum.