An actor, playwright, screenwriter, graduate of the Idyllwild Arts Academy, trained in sketch comedy acting and writing at The Second City (Chicago), Chicago City Limits (NYC), A.C.T (SF), and New Movement Theater (NOLA).

In San Francisco: trained at A.C.T.’s Studio Program as an actor and playwright; performed in a variety of theatrical productions and in shorts and low budget independent films.

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In Los Angeles: honed skills as a screen and television writer at Writers Boot Camp and as an actor and playwright training with members of Tim Robbins’ Actors’ Gang Theater.

In New Orleans: wrote, produced and acted in an original three-act stage play titled “The Zeitgeist Chronicles” about the 2008 election of the first African American president; re-written as “Red, White & Blues” currently being shopped to theaters in Los Angeles.

 

Creative Partnerships: actor/writer Nick Gomez (“The Walking Dead”; “The Red Road”; "She-Hulk" as: "Wrecker"), (writer/director/stand-up comic) Jason Slawson; (actor/writer) AJ Rivera ("Another Life") -- currently developing original projects for television and film.

 

Most recently: studied acting with Mercedes Ruehl at HB Studios (via Zoom).

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Also most recently: a member of the Robey Theater Company (Los Angeles) Playwrights LAB under the tutelage of dramaturg Daphnie Sicre and artistic director Ben Guillory.

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Along with producing/creative partner Nick Gomez, teamed up with Director Richard Zelniker and his production company Lucid Pictures to produce "ALL IN THE MUSIC" as a feature. Currently seeking investors and production companies to begin the next phase of casting and filming with the intention of a theaterical release.

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As an actor: repped by theatrical agent Leigh Keene for film and television roles and Tracey Michaels for commercials; as a screenwriter and playwright: currently repped by literary agent Lanette Mastandrea through Sovereign Talent Group.

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And now...

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Born in Manhattan in the wild-wild '70s.  Raised in Bergen County New Jersey as a "shuttle baby" (wherein his Italian-American mother would "shuttle" him frequently between bucolic, middle class, ethnically diverse New Jersey to the urban enclave of Bay Ridge Brooklyn -- aka: "Guinea Gulch" -- to visit his Italian born immigrant grandparents and plethora of aunts, uncles and cousins).  It was also here where he, starting at the age of five, attended a school for dance full of girls as the only boy where he studied the basics (ballet, tap, Broadway Jazz -- "Jazz hands!"), and was teased mercilessly for it by the dopey Jersey boys during soccer practice.

 

At age 11, his parents divorced and he relocated with his mother and brother to suburban St. Louis for seven years (where he lost the "Joisey" accent) to attend a private boarding school during the preppy Reagan Cold War '80s; enrolled in acting classes; continued dance training with the St. Louis Ballet Company; "stole the show" his freshman year in a production of "South Pacific" as Luther Billis ("get the picture?"); and spent a teenage summer living in Chicago attending the infamous Second City training program -- among classmates such as Hal Sparks and Matt Dwyer -- where Bonnie Hunt was always really nice to him. 

 

Until, finally escaping the oppressive boredom (and generic "whiteness") of suburban '80s middle 'Merica for sunny Cal-i-forn-ia where he attended a performing and visual arts boarding high school in the San Jacinto mountain range (two hours east of Los Angeles), was the lead in the musicals (Seymour in "Little Shop of Horrors"; Pippin in "Pippin"... even though he could barely sing) and transitioned to Modern Dance training in the Bella Lewitzky technique.  It was also here where he became a devotee of the work of Eric Bogosian that culminated in a senior year capstone: a night of 10 monologues from a collection of Bogosian's one-man shows.

 

After graduating as a theater major, he returned to his Tri-State Area roots to attend a musical theater conservatory -- living in the Beacon Hotel with a host of colorful characters and classmates that included his partner-in-crime from high school, future Broadway performers, and the future Pink Power Ranger.  But, due to his lack of interest in becoming a Broadway chorus boy, he dropped out and lived as a '90s bohemian in the East Village of Manhattan. 

 

Until, returning to the Midwest, yet again, for a freshmen year at a liberal Arts college in a town close to Alton Illinois (the birthplace of Miles Davis) as a theater major, and tried his hand at Modern Dance choreography in the dance program.  

 

That lasted all of one year -- (which included a brief stint living in the Capital Hill section of Seattle during the height of the "Grunge" scene with a then unknown up-and-coming improv actor/musician by the name of Reggie Watts) -- until, once again, he hightailed it to California for a short stint in Los Angeles working in television production. 

 

He then decided to follow a girl (with flowers in her hair) up to San Francisco where he rode out the entirety of the Dot-Com bubble, pursuing the "Actor Life" (it's also where he wrote his first screenplay HUNTING DIANA). 

 

Until, returning, once more, to that college in the Midwest to finally obtain a BA in Mass Communications and Global Studies (with an emphasize on screenwriter, cinema and journalism -- where he was involved in an award winning documentary about post-apartheid South Africa serving as a segment producer, on-camera interviewer, and writer -- filming throughout South Africa).

 

After graduating from college, he lived in a few places around the U.S. (including a short stint in Santa Fe New Mexico where he "flirted with" working for actor, writer and producer: Val Kilmer). 

 

Until, finally making his way back first to Bergen County New Jersey, and then into lower Manhattan, before landing a "day job" for an airline based out of JFK. 

 

His adventures in the airline biz led him to create his first original TV show concept (and write his first TV pilot formerly titled "Come Fly With Me"): PUNCH THE SKY (*which is one of many TV pilots and screenplays available on this website *by request). 

 

After seven years living in the Kew Gardens section of Queens New York, he relocated to the French Quarter of New Orleans for a seven year stint as a "quarter rat" where he produced and acted in a stage play he wrote, as well as continuing his love for improvisational acting at The New Movement Theater. 

 

In 2018, he returned to Los Angeles and continues to "grind it out" -- writing and acting in original content and shopping projects for theater, film and television.

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Most recently trained with Mercedes Ruehl through HB Studios in New York (via Zoom); current member of The Robey Theater Playwrights Lab in Los Angeles; is repped as a writer/content creator, and is available for acting roles and commercials.

 

Contact: Leigh Keene for theatrical, Tracey Michaels for commercials, and Lanette Mastandrea for literary @ Sovereign Talent Group. 

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He's available for hire! 

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And now...

 

THE FUN STUFF!

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An avid New Orleans Saints fan (proud member or the Who Dat?! Nation) and tv, film and theater devotee who watches all the "Second Golden Age" cable and streaming tv shows everyone else watches, is well versed in classic films and the art of cinema, and is a theater geek and high school for the performing arts brat -- whose favorite movie is "It's a Wonderful Life", favorite play is "Death of a Salesman" and favorite TV show is "All in the Family" -- and annoys everyone with non-stop chatter about:

 

--Bob Fosse and Broadway legends (especially Lin Manuel Miranda &  David Mamet)

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--The LAByrinth Theater Company (and the collective works of Eric Bogosian & Stephen Adly Guirgis)

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-1970s sitcoms written by Norman Lear

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--Why you should see more theater in Los Angeles (because some of it is really good!)

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--Modern Dance (before they changed it to "Contemporary") 

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--The history of the Second City (and improvisational comedy in general)

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--Jazz musicians and the New Orleans Jazz Fest (a 15 year veteran)

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--This one place you have to go to on Frenchmen Street to hear this killer brass band!

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--Beat Generation writers (and especially City Lights Bookstore in North Beach)

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--The Rat Pack vs the Brat Pack (hint: one is sooooo much better than the other)

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--"Generation X"... (we're still here, damn it!)

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--Why you have to listen to this one Tom Waits album!

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--The god-damn "Rocky Horror Picture Show"!

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--"Down By Law", "Repo Man", "The Brother From Another Planet" & "Do the Right Thing"

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--Classic & Punk Rock (and basically all "Rock" in general, especially the Who and Springsteen)

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--The '60s and '70 counterculture (especially Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies)

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--Lenny Bruce & Bill Hicks (and other iconoclastic stand-up comedians)

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--Greenwich Village, NYC in the '70s and '80s (and, of course, CBGBs)

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--San Francisco & Seattle in the '90s (and why "Grunge" is a dirty word)

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--Marc Maron (his podcast WTF?!, his tv shows, and the scripts he wrote for him!  #BOOMERLIVES)

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--Saturday Night Live (especially the Not Ready For Prime Time Players era)

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--Your mom!

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And now...

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THE "MADE FOR SOCIAL MEDIA" BIO

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When he's not at a Saints bar (during the NFL season), or the Comedy Store with one of his writing and creative collaborators, who's a Comedy Store comedian, you may see Montagne flying a particular airline that starts with a "jet" and ends with a "blue".

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While living in New Orleans for seven years, Montagne was "tri-coastal."  But now he settles for being just plain old "bi-coastal." (In his personal life, he is completely straight -- though some have thought other-wise... and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!).

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Montagne has recently cut back on the amount of time he spends on social media, especially *Facebook (which is an unholy time vampire that slowly eats away at our collective souls), and has grown obsessed with a tv show about vampires.

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Montagne is available to write your next: bar mitzvah, bat mitzvah or quinceañera speech (English translation only); wedding toast; protest march chant; break up text; Facebook rant (*in which case: ignore the above paragraph); disenchanted with the whole stinking thing middle aged white man in America article (are you listening, Esquire Magazine?!)