After years of keeping these sketches in my computer and telling people "I know, I need to just shoot them, I know," I finally have the team that can make it happen... we just need the finances to get it done.

MCKENNA, MERCEDES, and MARYAM

During their time at Harvard, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck wrote Good Will Hunting. Elizabeth Holmes created Theranos when she was just a student at Stanford. Well, Mercedes Riegé, Maryam Alkhaja, and I (McKenna Merriman) neither went to Harvard nor are convicted felons... but what does our story have in common with celebrity DILFs and psychopathic CEOs? It started in college.

2023. The winter of my sophomore year at The New School. I'd enrolled in Professor Caplan's Script Analysis class because even though it started at 8:00 PM every Thursday and was over a mile from my dorm, I'd heard how funny of a professor he was and that he played really unsettling short films for his students (worth it). It was in this class I first met Mercedes. She sat right in the front of the class and was beautiful, kind, and always had the answers Professor Caplan was trying to get us all to say. I wanted to be her friend. Of course, because class ended at 9:40 PM, none of us were in a rush to stay behind and chat, but we followed each other on socials and left it at that. 

(Mercedes and McKenna as director and producer/1st AD on please call dad)

Later that fall, I took Cinematography with Professor Kauffman. It was in this class that I met Maryam, and it became obvious very quickly that she was the smartest person in the room. She was focused, humble, and actually liked operating the camera (instead of being scared of ISO numbers and shutter speeds like myself). Like Script Analysis, this class also ended at the classic New School 9:40 PM, and I never got to work with her in a group. Before we rushed out to leave one day, I remember  our professor lecturing us on the importance of getting to know each other, "This is your network. You never know who you could end up working with someday."  

(Maryam and McKenna as director of photography and 1st AD on The Student FIlm by Michael Hernandez)

A year and a half later in the spring of 2025, one of my best friends was shooting her thesis (shoutout to Spilled Milk by McKenna Kaye!). Since I still didn’t know what "aperature" was and only studied screenwriting, she gave me a non-technical role: 2nd assistant director to her 1st AD and producer, Mercedes. After spending a month watching Mercedes send emails to location owners and edit call sheets like her life depended on it, we got to set and that was where I got to meet Maryam again, this time as a 1st AC. 

In the year since that shoot, the three of us have had the pleasure of getting to make a combined 6 short films, 1 ad campaign, and 1 pilot with each other. These projects have been featured in The New York Indie Shorts Festival, The Big Apple Film Festival, The New Screen Fest, and more.

(Maryam and Mercedes as director and producer/1st AD on Forever Mama)

WHY NOW?

Maryam, Mercedes, and I are serious about the art we make and want to keep telling stories that make people laugh, cry, feel, think, eat, run, sleep, breathe, write, type, jump, fish, fly, iron...

Now, the three of us are tackling sketch comedy.

(McKenna presenting her "research" on Saturday Night Live in 2016)

Since I discovered 30 Rock in middle school, I knew I wanted to be a comedy writer. There was no emotion I felt that Tina Fey couldn't make even an ounce better and I wanted to learn how to do that too. For almost a decade I've actually been writing sketches, performing god-awful live readings of them with my friends at dinner in the cafeteria, sending them over email for them to read when they get off work, or some other crazy third thing that makes you want to donate money to this project.

After years of keeping these sketches in my computer and telling people "I know, I need to just shoot them, I know," I finally have the team that can make it happen with Mercedes and Maryam. And because I now have produced and AD’d nearly a dozen projects, I know what it actually takes to make my sketches come to life. 

As of August 2026, when Mercedes, Maryam and I are not busy on set DP-ing projects or PA-ing on union shoots, we have been recruiting our crew and cast for Up High, Down Low. All the sketches are written and ready, but...

We need the funds to make them happen.

We recently announced we will be holding a screening of all the projects we've collectively worked on in the past year to fundraise for these sketches (message [email protected] or [email protected] for details!) but are hoping to fundraise at least

$6.3K to pay for equipment rentals, locations, food, transportation, props, and to pay our crew.

For example, our Sherwin Williams sketch (one of my favorites) needs three separate filming locations and possibly child actors- without your donation, this sketch cannot be made.  

No amount is too small. We will happily accept catering offers (know a friend that works at a restaurant?), brand deals (know anyone with connections to Claire's?), cars for transportation (have an SUV?) and location donations (know anyone with connections to Men's Warehouse?) if you cannot donate financially. Thank you!

THE SKETCHES

Hello! Thank you for your interest in my sketches. They mean very much to me and I am very very happy to have you. I've been a sketch writer for almost 10 years and that is WAY too long to just be WRITING them. It's finally time, for you (and I) to WATCH them. But it's only possible with YOU.

Before you scroll, please stand up, do some jumping jacks, take an espresso shot (or a shot-shot), maybe scruffle your hair a bit, and get into loopy zoom-y mindset. Ahhhhhhh. Great.

Okay pals, we've got five sketches on the line. "Oooo, so cool, so they're all like, coming together to tell a story." EEERRR! What are they? A collection of brain dumps written in procrastination mode amidst a final exam or an unpaid ConEdison bill. 

Let's dive in. 

1. Special Satch

Special Satch asks the question've all been thinking: "What if there were lovers to be found in the classic SNL-style commercial parody?" When Man 1 can't seem to hold all his belongings at Men's Warehouse, Man 2 comes to the rescue with his unique satchel bag. Will they find love in a hopeless place?

For fans of: saying "I'm JOKIN!" when their friends food looks better than theirs, Heated Rivalry.

Budget needs: locations, ambitious lighting set up. 

2. Sherwin Williams

Sherwin Williams takes us back to elementary school days, where a fun outing to the mall with friends could turn dark after pickup. Three kids show the dichotomy of this coming-of-age experience in two places: Sherwin Williams and Claire's.

For fans of: Telling children that aren't yours that Santa isn't real, pregnancy scares.

Budget needs: locations, child actors.

3. OCD Support Group

OCD Support Group isn't just for those of us with intrusive thoughts but for anyone who's had one of those dreams that is so bad that you can't even tell your friend about it... When Megan joins an OCD support group, her peers learn that hand washing and flipping a light on and off three times is just one side affect of their disorder. 

For fans of: crying when Mufasa dies in The Lion King, Anthony Jeselnik.

Budget needs: locations.

4. Shark Tank

Shark Tank is a safe space for people who's explore page is flooded with compilations of AI dancing dogs, people falling off of rooves, horses running, and old James Charles apologies. This is a Shark Tank parody, with one special appearence from a beloved Food Network star.

For fans of: The Rizzler, those viral Bad Lip Reading videos in 2010s.

Budget needs: payment for our editor's very heavy lifting! 

5. Game Night

Game Night embraces the fact that sometimes jealousy is the best policy when it comes to attraction. What? Who said that? Huh? A couples dinner party takes a turn when a new game is introduced. 

For fans of: Stalking your ex's tagged posts just to feel something, ~classic~ SNL.

Budget needs: props.