Emily Maya Mills is a LA-based comedy creator, originally from a lukewarm hot tub in San Francisco. As a house performer at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, she developed a unique brand of “serious comedy” the LA Weekly once referred to as “…a sagacious autopsy of the frailties and foibles of life.” Since earning an MFA in Film & Television Production at USC (’21), Emily has won awards with three festival shorts– Best of Fest, Best Director, Audience Award and Best Horror for her most recent short, Rare Medium (now streaming on Alter). She’s produced cutting edge films like The Bends for USC’s Entertainment Technology Center, Arsenio! Live @ Netflix is a Joke, micro-series’ for various brands, and micro-films like Earthquake Note (Dallas Int’l ’26).

Prior to filmmaking, Emily worked all over your TV as a comic actor and recently starred in the indie feature, The Come Up (post-production). She’s appeared on Orange is the New Black, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Key & Peele, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Parks and Recreation, Harry’s Law, Crash and Bernstein, and as a series regular on DisneyXD’s Right Now Kapow! These days, you you can catch her playing a fictional version of her husband’s wife on the podcast Valley Heat (Time’s Best of, NYT Op-Ed, Vulture, A/V Club), on the LA River hosting her monthly standup showcase, The Frogtown Show, or at her desk prepping her first feature. Emily loves nothing more than making pitch-black cinematic comedies with intense dramatic stakes. Except co-parenting her teenaged steptwins who are already funnier than she will ever be.