Meet our Player Characters
Learn more about the cast of The Party and where else you can find them on the internet!
Nabila Hossain (she/her)
"DM"
Nabila Hossain is an actor, born in Bangladesh, raised in Boston. DM is the role she asked to audition for after seeing their lines from another set of sides. She is very glad she did.
Nabila moved to LA to pursue acting after landing the starring role of Leila in Brown Girls web series. The show went on to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series, and was pulled in for development at HBO and Freeform.
Nabila’s training spans from classical technique with the Stella Adler Academy of Acting, improv with Groundlings, scripted comedy with Lesly Kahn, and acting with Jason Alexander (Seinfeld). At this point, all of her ensemble comedy sitcom dreams have come true. While she is conjuring up new dreams, Nabila is continuing her decade of experience in competitive Bollywood dancing, designing highways, and enjoying devouring all things: The Party.
Leah Jarvik (she/her)
"Thistle"
Leah is an award-winning actor and performer, originally from Seattle and currently based in Los Angeles. She first fell in love with Thistle at THE PARTY's table read and is happy to report that she now understands almost all of the D&D dialogue that went over her head that day. Other favorite recent roles include the solo performer in Every Brilliant Thing, Agnes in Agnes of God, and Emily in Our Town.
Leah holds a Bachelor of the Arts in Theatre and English from Haverford College, and has completed additional training with Bryn Mawr College, New York Stage and Film’s Powerhouse Theatre, the Secrets of Chekhov, New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, P3East, and SCT. She keeps one foot in the Seattle theatre scene as Artistic Administrator at Seattle Public Theatre and Literary Manager at Macha Theatre Works. When she's not working, you'll find her doing aerial circus, singing, or crying while listening to a touching audiobook.
Jewell Karinen (she/her)
Jewell Karinen makes a lot of films with her friends. Unlike her character Ecstasy, Jewell loves improv and totally buys into The Improv Coach’s bullshit. She’s been performing narrative improv for about one million years. Jewell also loves being queer and hopes The Party will someday be referred to as the nerd version of The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo.
Jewell is young enough to conceive TikToks that get five million views but old enough to have watched the entirety of Neon Genesis Evangelion four episodes at a time (thanks Netflix’s DVD-mailing service). When cosplaying as a screenwriter, Jewell is developing a feature script about hot musicians with extremely messy interpersonal drama. When cosplaying as a person who can remember her AC, Jewell is playing a Warlock.
Jewell encourages big fancy casting directors to try and offer her a better role than Ecstasy (her dream role). Go ahead! Try!
Zach Kumaishi (any pronouns)
"Yorick"
Zach Kumaishi has been a D&D nerd since the early twenty-teens. They have been cast as a mischievous elf-like creature a, frankly, suspicious number of times. Zach spends most of their free time either playing TTRPG’s or doing martial arts.
Grayson Niles (he/him)
"Jean"
Grayson is an actor and comedian from Ottawa, Canada. He is the only cast member who is really into sports and everyone kept razzing him on set while he was reading ESPN. In his defense, there were a lot of big games happening and he has bad self-control. He loves garlic bread and big talk (as opposed to small talk), and if you see him ask him if he's been running because he just recently decided to get into shape and needs to be held accountable (see: self-control).
Finally, he truly had the time of his life making this series and has fallen head over heels into friendship with everyone on The Party. This was his favorite project he's ever worked on and counts his blessings to be a part of it.
April Yanko (she/her)
"Viola"
April Yanko (she/her) is a writer, actor, and all-around weirdo, originally from Pittsburgh but currently living in LA. Her film "Pulling the Plug on Mom" recently won “Best Produced Short” at Austin Revolution. She’s studied sketch writing and improv at UCB and the Pack Theater with incredible teachers like Sam Brown (Whitest Kids U' Know), Keisha Zollar (Astronomy Club), and Eric Moneypenny (Eric Andre, Midnight Show). April performs sketch on The Pack house team Kickball every 3rd Sunday in Hollywood.
She is commonly found make-up-less, sporting her signature bright undone hair, wearing a character T and a pair of sweats she got at Target six years ago because they don’t show her underpants when she bends over.
April plays Newbie/Viola in The Party, but irl April is a big ol weeb and could have easily bonded with the party members about a number of nerdy things. April values making people feel like they aren’t alone and believes laughter is the best way to access difficult topics. All of her Neopets are alive and well.
