Christa Avampato – Creator, Producer, Host, and Storyteller
Christa is a writer and the Founder of Double or Nothing Media whose work lives at the intersection of storytelling, science, and business. A licensed and starred New York City tour guide and the award-winning author of the Emerson Page young adult novel series with an abiding love for all things New York, she created, produces, and hosts NYC’s Secrets & Lies. She began her career managing Broadway shows and national theater tours. Stories have been ever-present in her career and have literally saved her life more than once. An award-winning playwright, screenwriter, journalist, biomimicry scientist, and product manager, she recently graduated with her Master’s in Sustainability Leadership from University of Cambridge, she is finding ways to use storytelling to catalyze financial investments that protect nature and biodiversity. She also works as the digital media product manager at Carnegie Hall, where she looks after Carnegie Hall+, the organization’s streaming television channel. A friend to all animals, Christa’s dedicated to fostering rescue dogs with Muddy Paws Rescue in honor of her soul dog, Phineas, who now lives his best afterlife over the rainbow bridge. Christa lives and works in Brooklyn.
Personal website: christaavampato.com
Instagram: @christarosenyc
Threads: @christarosenyc
LinkedIn: christaavampato
TikTok: @christarosenyc
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Fun secret: “I grew up on a farm and rarely watched television until I was a teenager.”
Marie Carter – Storyteller
Shows: Ghost Stories
Marie Carter grew up in Scotland and has lived in New York City for 25 years. She is a tour guide with Boroughs of the Dead, which specializes in macabre, strange, and haunted NYC walking tours and Cats about Town, a cat history walking tour company. She is the author of the nonfiction book Mortimer and the Witches: A Hisotry of Nineteenth-Century Fortune Tellers, the novel Holly’s Hurricane, and the memoir The Trapeze Diaries.
Website: Mariewritesandedits.com
Instagram: mariewritesandedits
Fun secret: “I am learning to ice skate after years of being terrified of it!”
Vicki Eastus – Storyteller
Shows: Nature
Vicki Eastus has told stories at shows including Story Collider, Generation Women, Awkward Teenage Years, On the Waterfront, and numerous Moth StorySlams. As a professor at New York Law School, she integrates storytelling and improvisational techniques into her classes on legal analysis, writing, and public speaking. Vicki is trying to learn Spanish so that she can eavesdrop on more conversations. She reminds you that the deadline to register to vote in the NYC mayoral election is October 25.
Instagram: @veastus
Bethany Fitch – Storyteller
Shows: Prohibition
Bethany Fitch (she/her) is an NYC-based actor, administrator, and researcher. Recent Credits include Twelfth Night and The Muppet Cabaret (Pendragon Theatre). She served as the Company Manager at Trinity Repertory Company for the 2024 and 2025 seasons. She is also an environmental historian who explores how the environment and art intersect. Her research is published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences.
Instagram: @bethanyfitch
Erin Hunkemoeller – Storyteller
Shows: Ghost Stories, Holiday Maritime Stories
Erin Hunkemoeller is a former Spanish teacher and advocate for vocal health, working to help teachers protect their voices. She now splits her time between managing a mental health therapy group, The Practice LCSW , serving as a learning experience specialist at a data analytics company, and working as a licensed New Jersey real estate agent. Passionate about clean food, cooking, and homesteading, she loves exploring ways to bring research and creativity into the kitchen. Outside of work, she competes in ballroom dance and has spent the last five years volunteering with Hearts & Bones Rescue, helping dogs find their forever homes, including the two of her own! She’s also a licensed NYC tour guide with a passion for uncovering the city’s hidden history and stranger stories.
Instagram: @erin.hunkemoeller
TikTok: @erin.hunkemoeller
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Carla Katz – Storyteller
Shows: Holiday Maritime Stories
Carla is an award-winning storyteller, playwright, and actor whose work blends humor and heartbreak. She has appeared on Stories from the Stage (PBS), The Moth Radio Hour, and The Story Collider, and has performed on iconic New York stages including the Comedy Cellar, Fat Black Pussycat, and Upright Citizens Brigade.
Her solo shows Body Parts and Angelina sold out the NYC SOLOCOM Comedy Festival. Her play Raccoons won the 2024 Players Theatre Short Play Festival, and her play The Swan was produced in the 2022 New York Theater Festival Summerfest.
Carla has led storytelling workshops in the United States, Paris, and South Africa. Offstage, she is a labor lawyer and Rutgers professor. She lives in Hoboken, NJ, with a strong coffee habit and her dog River, who is unimpressed by stories but deeply invested in treats.
Personal Website: www.carlakatz.com
Instagram: @cakatz
Vicky Kuperman – Storyteller
Shows: Nature
Vicky has performed globally for almost two decades and was named one of Huffington Post’s new comedians to watch. She’s been seen on Live From Gotham, Nickelodeon, The Maxim comedy Showcase, and is heard regularly on SiriusXM. Her comedy albums Love’s a Joke, When I Could Feel, All Good! and Three’s Comedy are in regular rotation on SiriusXM. Her book How to Spy on Your Neighbor was top 10 in political-humor on Amazon (it was written in 2017 and it’s coming true, page by page). In her comedy, she talks about everything from her Russian-Jewish family, world travel, and marrying a younger guy, to her favorite topic: dogs.
Personal website: vickykuperman.com
Instagram: @vickykuperman
TikTok: @vickykuperman
Melissa McGovern – Storyteller
Shows: Prohibition
Melissa McGovern is a Storyteller, Coach, Podcaster, and proud sober New Yorker. Melissa inspires others to live bold, badass, alcohol-free lives and take center stage in their own stories.
Instagram: @thesobernewyorker
Margo Mitchell – Storyteller
Shows: Prohibition
Margo is an improv comedian, storyteller, and chaotic creator who’s studied everywhere from UCB to Second City to the Magnet (yes, she’s that kind of overachiever). She hosts riveting trivia nights, solves fake murders on stage, gives tours of NYC and once gave a graduation speech so moving she’s still chasing that applause high to this day.
Instagram: @magicalmargo
Taylor Moore – Storyteller
Shows: Prohibition
Taylor Moore is an actor, musician, DJ, Comedian, and Speaker who has appeared on Law & Order SVU, East New York, and POWER: Book II & III. Her band Taylor Moore & Friends features her on Drumset, Percussion, and Vocals. Her recent work focuses on researching and uplifting lesser-known stories of women in American music, particularly pioneering drummer Viola Smith, whose career broke gender barriers long before it was common to do so.
Website: https://mstaylormoore.com/
YouTube: @MsTaylorMoore
Instagram: @MsTaylorMoore
Facebook: @MsTaylorMoore
Ashley Semrick – Storyteller
Shows: Nature, Ghost Stories, Holiday Maritime Stories
A public historian and veteran classroom educator who has been teaching in New York City classrooms and museums for over fifteen years, Ashley is endlessly passionate about the connection between historic sites, social studies, literacy, and art. She specializes in the inquiry model to generate student curiosity and engagement in the classroom, in museum galleries, and while giving tours throughout the city.
When not teaching in her 4th grade classroom, she visits classrooms all over New York City as a costumed interpreter and educator, portraying Emily Roebling and talking about bridge science in support of their Brooklyn Bridge social studies units. As a licensed NYC tour guide, her historical walking tours focus on the history of the NYC subway, the building of the Brooklyn Bridge, and development of the surrounding downtown area. You can also find her at the 19th century Merchant House Museum in Noho, leading tours about the house and her ghostly inhabitants.
Ashley’s consulting work focuses on helping classroom teachers develop standards-aligned curricula to strengthen integrated humanities work, develop site-based learning experiences, and grow student engagement strategies.
Personal website: ashleysemrick.com
Instagram: @HelloSemrick
Book her as Emily Roebling
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