Charleen Earley hails from Eloise, Michigan and was raised in East Oakland. She’s a mom, freelance writer, journalism teacher, wedding and events planner, and a stand-up comic. She co-produced 10 annual comedy shows for the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition from 2000 to 2010 in Danville and Walnut Creek, eight of them with her best friend, late Stacey Hartmann, and the last two with her sister Rita Caruso.

Over the past 10 shows, she booked Bay Area greats (and personal friends) to include Johnny Steele, Chicago Steve Barkley, Larry Bubbles Brown, Jeff Applebaum, Regina Stoops, Andrew Norelli and dozens more.

With AA degrees in Liberal Arts and Journalism (both from Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, CA), and a BA in English from California State University East Bay, she uses her education and experience to write for every Bay Area newspaper and magazine to include the San Francisco Chronicle, Diablo Magazine and Black Diamond Magazine.

When covering the entertainment beat for the Stockton Record, she interviewed celebrity icons Mickey Rooney, Art Garfunkel, Vicki Lawrence, David Cassidy, Tracy Morgan, Chris Titus, Mark Wills, Greg Kinnear, film director Paul Schrader and more.

Combining both her love for jokes and writing, she published and edited of her own comedy publication called Funny Business Magazine in 2006 and wrote a weekly humor column for the Brentwood Press called Funny Side Up.

She currently writes for the Stockton Record, 57 and 65-Degrees Magazines, the Clayton Patch and the Brentwood Press.

Her love for all-things-print-media is only surpassed by her love of teaching high school students (since 2007) about the world of journalism and making people laugh by telling jokes on stage.

When she’s not writing, she’s riding a tandem with her fiancé Mike Smith in San Francisco and Sacramento, riding her two Arabian horses or going to the movies with her 20-year-old son.

To reach Charleen, e-mail charleenbearley@gmail.com.