Cast Bios

Trace Beaulieu was a founding writer/performer on “Mystery Science Theater 3000” (MST3K) , playing Dr. Forrester and Crow” for the show’s first seven seasons as well as the feature film version of MST. Trace continues to work as both a performer and writer. As an actor, he has appeared on “Freaks and Geeks” (6 eps), “The West Wing” and several independent features. He was also the host of “People Traps” on Animal Planet. Trace’s writing credits include ABC’s “America’s Funniest Home Videos”, “Fast Food Films” on FX, and authoring the popular comic book “Here Come the Big People!”. Trace is also a dedicated visual artist with pieces in many collections.

Frank Conniff played the beloved character TV’s Frank on “MST3K” for five seasons as well as writing on the show through that span. Since moving to Los Angeles, Frank has worked as a writer/producer on the ABC series “The Drew Carey Show” and “Sabrina the Teenage Witch”, HBO’s “Perversions of Science,” and “The New Tom Green Show” on MTV. Frank has also worked extensively in animation as head writer for Nickelodeon’s “Invader ZIm” and writer for “Disney’s Twisted Fairy Tales”. He has created both animated and live pilots for USA, Bravo, Nickelodeon and MTV. Frank also stays busy as a performer in TV roles, with his stand-up act, and as creator and host of the live show/webcast series “Cartoon Dump”.

Joel Hodgson started his comedy career while at Bethel College in Minneapolis Minnesota, opening for Christian rock bands. He then moved to Los Angeles and performed stand-up in comedy clubs across the country, becoming a regular performer on “Late Night with David Letterman”, ”Saturday Night Live”, and selected to be on “HBO’s Eighth Young Comedians Special”. After talking a hiatus from stand-up and moving back to Minneapolis, Joel created “MST3K” which he also hosted for five seasons. Joel has written several movies, including Disney’s “Honey We Shrunk Ourselves” with Nell Scovell. Over the last ten years, Joel has been a consultant with his brother, studio artist and designer Jim Hodgson working on projects as diverse as ride theme-ing “The Beatles Yellow Submarine” (Sony), magic consultants for “Sabrina, The Teenage Witch”(ABC) and Penn and Tellers “Sin City Spectacular”(FOX), supervising producers for the live event “Robot Wars” and “Everything you need to Know” (Discovery). Creative consulting on the game shows “You Don’t Know Jack”(ABC) and “Smush” (USA) as well as Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC). Joel sporadically appears in the long running play “Girly Magazine Party” as well as Frank Conniff’s “Cartoon Dump”.

Mary Jo Pehl spent seven years as a writer and performer on MST3K, both in character roles and then regularly as the evil Pearl Forrester. She is a regular contributor to Minnesota Monthly, and she’s also written for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Catholic Digest, Bon Appetit, and PBS. Her work has also appeared in several anthologies, including “Life’s A Stitch: The Best of Contemporary Women’s Humor”, and “Travelers’ Tales: The Thong Also Rises.” Mary Jo most recently co-hosted a weekly radio show in the Twin Cities. In addition, her commentaries have aired on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and “Weekend America”; and PRI’s “The Savvy Traveler”. She has appeared in various stage productions from New York to Los Angeles, and most recently has been featured in “Bad Seed” in Los Angeles.

J. Elvis Weinstein began his stand-up career in Mpls. at age 15. He was 17 when he became one of the founding writer/performers on MST3K (first 33 eps). He was the original voice of Servo and Gypsy, and played Mad Scientist Dr. Lawrence Erhardt. Since moving to Los Angeles at 20 he has worked as a writer/producer on “Freaks and Geeks” (NBC), “Malcolm and Eddie” (UPN) , “Dead Last” (WB) and “My Guide to Becoming a Rock Star (WB) and Talk Soup (E!). He was also the Head Writer on “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (ABC) and “Later with Greg Kinnear” (NBC). J. Elvis has also written drama pilots for HBO, UPN, Sony, and co-created and executive produced “Fast Food Films” for FX. He continues to perform as a stand-up comic and musician (he penned the Cinematic Titanic Theme) and has written material for comedians Garry Shandling, Dennis Miller, Roseanne Barr and Louie Anderson.