Ariel Schrag
Ariel Schrag is way cooler than you. A cartoonist, television writer, screenwriter and all-around badass, Schrag pumped out four autobiographical graphic novels while she was still a teenager. One of those novels, Potential–a coming-of-age story that documents her first serious lesbian relationship–is being developed into a feature film by superproducer Christine Vachon’s Killer Films; Schrag wrote the screenplay adaptation. She’s seamlessly integrated her relatable life story into the online comic Ariel and Kevin Invade Everything (with comedian/writer Kevin Seccia); live performances of her comics using narration, slide projections and a musical soundtrack (she toured North America with Sister Spit in 2009); original art that has appeared in major magazines, galleries and museums; and courses she taught at leading universities (she graduated from Columbia in 2003). Her extraordinary oeuvre is the subject of the award-winning doc Confession: A Film About Ariel Schrag by director/producer Sharon Barnes. We asked her how being an out lesbian affected her career. “Oh, just a different set of sex acts performed to get to the top,” she quips. One day it will be Ariel Schrag’s universe, and we will happily live in it.
