David Edward Perry was raised in Takoma Park, Maryland, and found his calling to the arts after seeing the original Broadway production of The Wiz. Pursuing a degree in mass communications led to working as an entertainment reporter, television game show host, and a broadcast producer for the U.S. Government. He worked as a studio production host at Walt Disney World and an elementary substitute teacher in Maryland. The high-energy interactive storytelling show he created during that time, The Bear Show: Reading Adventures for Children, was featured in The Washington Post. Perry moved to Los Angeles to further his acting career and was a founding member of The Straight Jacket Society, performing sketch comedy. In 2006 he was a featured performer at the LA Festival of Sketch Comedy, and in 2008 he was nominated for a NAACP Best Supporting Actor Award for his performance as Booker T. Washington in Ragtime: The Musical.

Perry relocated to Birmingham in 2009 and continues his career in film, stage, and comedy. In 2016 he was brought on as an instructor of devised theater and comedy at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. He created and directed the teen anti-bullying sketch comedy show, “Take Out Bullying,” and was hired as the Alabama regional editor of the entertainment website Broadway World. His in-depth reviews cover all of the community theaters across Central Alabama. His latest venture, bringing Birmingham’s first sketch comedy company to life, launched in 2018 under the name “PERRY: 30 min sketch comedy” (perrycomedy.com).

The lecture will take place at 11:30 am and the workshop at 2:30 pm, both in Allen Library 111, at the Jefferson Campus of Jefferson State Community College, 2601 Carson Road, Birmingham, AL 35215. Events are free and open to the public.