Mike Roe

Mike Roe auditioned for American Idol, but was neither good nor bad enough to make it to national TV. But what a gift to Hollywood's karaoke nights.

He's a multiracial Hawaiian-Puerto Rican writer who grew up all along the West Coast. A childhood custody battle cut him off from his mom's side of the family and the culture that came with it. He's spent his adult life fighting to reclaim that, with the wreckage of families still trying to love each other running through everything he writes: crime, faith, identity, and the people history skipped over.

Mike came up in L.A.'s comedy scene, graduating from UCB's Improv and Sketch programs before being selected for house sketch teams at the Pack Theater and iO West. He's also a journalist with more than a decade at LAist/KPCC, Southern California's NPR affiliate, followed by stints covering entertainment at TheWrap and LateNighter. His L.A. Press Club Award-winning oral history of 30 Rock's "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" led to writing _The 30 Rock Book_ for Abrams.

He originally planned to attend seminary after college but decided he didn't want to spend his life preaching to people already inside the faith tent. He's been trying to reach everyone else since.

Mike is a fellow in Fuller Seminary's Resilient Artist Project and has developed work through Roadmap Writers and Script Anatomy. He lives with his wife and occasional writing partner Kristiana in Burbank.

Honors & Awards

First Place Entertainment Reporting, Los Angeles Press Club - "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah: An Oral History" - 2019

Selected, The Grey List 2025 - THE PEOPLE'S KINGDOM - 2025

Selected, DAF x The Onion Diverse Writers Workshop - 2026