Mandy Kaplan is an actress, voice-over artist, singer, writer, and ninja living in LA. Her voice can be heard in hundreds of commercials/video games/audiobooks, and her face can be seen starring in the feature film 30 Nights of Sex available on Tubi, which she co-wrote and produced. Her hilarious cabaret Miscast: Right Singer, Wrong Song has been running in LA for over twelve years and has raised thousands of dollars for Project Angel Food. And now… she is host of Make Me A Nerd, where she enlists her fabulous friends to introduce her to their fandoms, and co-host on Once and Future Parent where she chronicles the journey of parenting a high schooler toward launch. She was co-host of the podcast The Mandcave with her comedy partner Mandy Fabian. She can also be heard providing insights on movies and pop culture across The Next Reel Family of Film Podcasts.
🌐 IMDb • Mandy Kaplan
🍿 Watch 30 Nights of Sex on Tubi
💃 See Miscast: Right Singer, Wrong Song
😇 Learn More about Project Angel Food
🎙️ Subscribe to Make Me A Nerd
🎙️ Subscribe to The Mandcave
🎙️ Subscribe to Once and Future Parent
Krissy Lenz is back in the nerd chair, this time making the case for Serenity — the 2005 movie that exists only because Fox couldn’t kill Firefly hard enough. Mandy watches the space western, meets the Browncoats, and discovers that a fandom is hardcore when it can get a movie greenlit, commission a documentary about getting the movie greenlit, and also organize themed parties called Shindigs.
Mandy Kaplan has been handed a Hugo-winning, Nebula-winning, Mormon-authored military sci-fi classic about a six-year-old being psychologically tortured into committing accidental alien genocide, and reader, she has THOUGHTS.
Mandy Kaplan has thoughts about 42 Japanese ninth-graders being forced to murder each other on a deserted island, and honestly, who among us doesn’t?
Sailor Moon was made for five-year-old Japanese girls and somehow became a queer awakening for an entire generation. Jonny Lee Jr. is back to explain why, and Mandy has feelings about Tuxedo Mask that she cannot control.
Mandy finally meets the world where improv, fantasy, and a Goliath with a ginormous hidden heart collide — and it turns out The Legend of Vox Machina was designed exactly for people who need a good fart joke before they’ll commit to an eight-hour campaign. Hem Brewster, lead producer at Blighthouse Studio and D&D lifer, joins from Iceland to explain how a group of voice actors playing in someone’s basement became one of the most successful Kickstarters in history — and why none of that required knowing a single rule.
Plan 9 from Outer Space was declared the worst movie ever made — by people who hadn’t even watched it. Mandy finally does, and walks away utterly charmed.
A 2012 micro-budget alien bluegrass musical starring the lead singer of Twisted Sister somehow became one of the most charming films you’ve never seen. Mandy watched it skeptical, played a drinking game through it, and came out the other side recommending it far and wide.
Manga is one of the biggest storytelling mediums on the planet, and Mandy has been successfully avoiding it her whole life — until now. World-renowned expert Helen McCarthy hands her three wildly different titles, explains why a pirate cartoon is secretly a manual for surviving childhood, and makes a convincing case that the comics your mom threw out were probably worth something.
Marvel made a superhero show where the hero spends eight episodes trying not to be a superhero, and somehow it’s the most compelling thing they’ve done in years. Mandy and returning guest Matthew Fox break down why Wonder Man works precisely because it ignores everything you expect from the MCU.
Kevin Williamson returns to the franchise he created, Neve Campbell returns to the role she built, and Scream 7 opens to franchise-record box office and a 34% on Rotten Tomatoes. Pete Wright, Tommy Metz III, Steve Sarmento, and Mandy Kaplan dig in. Full spoilers. Strong opinions. One and a half stars from Tommy.