Shea Vassar is a Cherokee writer and comedian based in Oklahoma. She dabbles in various creative mediums which utilize existentialism to look at Indigenous diaspora, connection to land, generational trauma, and the irony of being alive.

Shea is a 2024 Sundance Native Labs Artist in Residence while in development with her sitcom pilot, Julie Takes a Walk: think Desert Hearts meets a 2000s rom com with a northeast Oklahoma setting.

In April 2025, Shea collaborated with an incredible team, including co-director Frankie Pedersen, to create a proof of concept short film version of Julie Takes a Walk. This is currently in post production.

Howdy Cat Comedy is Shea’s comedy production company and she has produced over a dozen live comedy shows in New York. Her ‘That’s Poetic!’ show, which Timeout NY calls “the lovechild you didn’t know you needed” due to its mix of jokes and poetry, was in residency at Friends & Lovers in Crown Heights through August 2024.

In a previous life, Shea worked as a journalist. Her bylines have been featured by Men’s Health, Roger Ebert, and all over the internet, Shea still writes about television via her newsletter ‘Shea Watches TV’.