Oakland Noir

Jerry Thompson is an accomplished violinist, playwright, and poet. His works have appeared in Zyzzyva, James White Review, and Freedom in this Village: Twenty-Five Years of Black Gay Men s Writing. He is the coauthor of Black Artists in Oakland. Thompson owned Black Spring Books, an independent bookstore, and is the creator and organizer of the original Sister Circle Reading Series. He is currently working on a play about the prison system, a memoir, and a poetry collection.

Read by Traber Burns, Keith Szarabajka, Adenrele Ojo, Kevin Kenerly, Hillary Huber, Carrington MacDuffie, Mirron Willis, Kirby Heyborne, Priya Ayyar, Neil Shah, Thom Rivera, and Scott Brick

Keith Szarabajka has appeared in many films, including The Dark Knight, Missing, and A Perfect World, and on such television shows as The Equalizer, Angel, Cold Case, Golden Years, and Profit. Szarabajka has also appeared in several episodes of Selected Shorts for National Public Radio. He won the 2001 Audie Award for Unabridged Fiction for his reading of Tom Robbins’s Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates and has won several Earphones Awards.

Adenrele Ojo is an experienced audiobook narrator and actor. A self-described theater brat, she spent many late nights as a young child falling asleep on theatre chairs as her dad directed and her mother performed. Born in Brooklyn and raised in Philadelphia, she received her bachelor of arts in theater from Hunter College in New York.

Kevin Kenerly, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, earned a BA at Olivet College. A longtime member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he has acted in more than twenty seasons, playing dozens of roles.

Hillary Huber is a multiple Audie Award finalist, an Earphones Award winner, and an AudioFile Best Voice. She has recorded over six hundred titles spanning many genres and holds a bachelor's degree in English literature. A voracious reader and listener, she was raised in Connecticut and Hawaii but now splits her time between California and New York.

Carrington MacDuffie is a singer and recording artist, who first began reading audiobooks featuring poetry.  The recipient of multiple Earphones Awards and six Audi nominations, she has read novels by Jackie Collins, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, Anna Quindlen’s Still Life with Bread Crumbs, and Christopher Buckley’s Florence of Arabia.  She also co-narrated Transgressions: Death's Betrayal by Macmillan Audio.  MacDuffe has published her own audiobook, Many Things Invisible, featuring poetry integrated with music and sound.

Mirron Willis

Recently appeared as Banquo (MacBeth) and Antonio (The Merchant of Venice) with the Houston Shakespeare Festival 2015 Season. And last season as King Henry (Henry IV, Part I) and the Duke in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

In three seasons at the Ensemble Theatre (Houston, TX), Mirron appeared as JP in What I Learned in Paris, Malcolm X in The Meeting. Henry in Race, and as Countee Cullen in Knock Me A Kiss (2013 Giorgee Award for Best Leading Actor). Other roles include, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry VI Parts 2 & 3, and A Raisin in the Sun with the world-renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival

Mirron has narrated close to 150 audio books across various literary genres and has won several Earphone Awards for Excellence and is an Audie Award finalist and winner. Notable works include The Smokey Dalton Series by Kris Nelscott; My Song: A Memoir by Harry Belafonte; The Long Fall (Booklist, Best of 2009) and others by Walter Mosley; Uncle Toms Cabin, Elijah of Buxton, The Translator; and the biography of William Wells Brown: An African American Life. Mr. Willis also performs as guest narrator with the Houston Symphony.

Film and TV guest appearances include, Criminal Minds, Private Practice, The Exes, Monk, 24, Seinfeld, Cheers, The Parkers, Living Single, E.R., Star Trek: TNG and Voyager, Independence Day, among others. Mirron resides and records audiobooks on his family’s historic ranch in East Texas.

Kirby Heyborne is an accomplished actor, musician, and comedian. He has received critical acclaim for his starring roles in the award-winning World War II drama Saints and Soldiers, the lighthearted family comedy The R.M., the award-winning boy-band mockumentary The Sons of Provo, and the award-winning quixotic comedy Pirates of the Great Salt Lake. He has had starring roles in thirteen features and many short films. Kirby has also appeared on the WB's Everwood and many national commercials. Recently, Kirby was seen as a recurring character on the hit FOX sitcom Free Ride. Kirby has received a number of AudioFile Earphones Awards for excellence in audiobook narration. He has narrated such titles as Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, Black Swan Green by David Mitchell, Breathers by S. G. Browne, and The Genius by Jesse Kellerman. Kirby is a cofounder and director of the celebrated Los Angeles-based improv comedy group The Society. Also a successful musician, Kirby has released four solo albums and has had his music featured in many films. Kirby has delighted audiences across the country with his ability to blend heart-warming stories, beautiful music, and comedic wit.

Priya Ayyar is a renowned audiobook narrator and actress who received her bachelor's degree and master's degree from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She has appeared in notable television shows such as Arrested Development, Nurse Jackie, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. When not narrating, she writes and works in television in California.

Neil Shah is an Audie Award-nominated narrator and AudioFile Earphones Award winner who has recorded over one hundred audiobooks. A classically trained actor with an MFA from the Old Globe/University of San Diego program, Neil has appeared off-Broadway and on regional stages, as well as in film and television.

Thom Rivera is a multiple Earphones award-winning narrator. He is also a classically trained television, film, theatre, and voice actor. Based in Los Angeles, he spent twelve years living and working in New York City. He has toured nationally and performed at regional theatres and Shakespeare Festivals throughout the US. On television, he can be seen in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, New Girl, The Mindy Project, and the CBS series Zoo.

Scott Brick first began narrating audiobooks in 2000, and after recording almost 400 titles in five years, AudioFile magazine named Brick a Golden Voice and “one of the fastest-rising stars in the audiobook galaxy.” He has read a number of titles in Frank Herbert’s bestselling Dune series, and he won the 2003 Science Fiction Audie Award for Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. Brick has narrated for many popular authors, including Michael Pollan, Joseph Finder, Tom Clancy, and Ayn Rand. He has also won over 40 AudioFile Earphones Awards and the AudioFile award for Best Voice in Mystery and Suspense 2011. In 2007, Brick was named Publishers Weekly’s Narrator of the Year.

 Brick has performed on film, television and radio. He appeared on stage throughout the United States in productions of Cyrano, Hamlet, Macbeth and other plays. In addition to his acting work, Brick choreographs fight sequences, and was a combatant in films including Romeo and Juliet, The Fantasticks and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. He has also been hired by Morgan Freeman to write the screenplay adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama.