Girl Friday: Janet Varney, Creative Spirit





Photography by: Jess Ewald

Janet Varney is a multi-hyphenate: actress, host, voiceover artist, writer, producer, creator. Let’s just say she’s one all-around talented lady. Many know her primarily as the voice of the title character in The Legend of Korra or from her onscreen appearances in shows like Entourage and Dinner and a Movie . Just as successful behind the scenes, Janet is the co-creator and co-producer of one of the largest and most successful comedy festivals in the country, San Francisco Sketchfest . She’s also the creator of the Nerdist podcast The JV Club , exploring all the nasty bits of adolescence with funny women of stage and screen. Typically she’s on the other side of the interview process, but this month we sat Janet down in her ridiculously stylish Hollywood bungalow for our own tête-á-tête to gain some inspiration into how she balances the many facets of her career and keeps her creativity alive.

What initially drew you to working in entertainment?

The honest truth is that while I had thought as a youngster that I’d eventually end up writing and performing for a living, there was a long span from about age 17-26 when I was convinced that just wasn’t possible or realistic, so I took a very long, winding road to eventually end up where I am now. When I actually started doing this for a living, I kind of responded to a bit of a dare by my then-brand-new manager. My sketch comedy group had just done the Aspen Comedy Festival, and I was still living in San Francisco, and the manager I had just agreed to work with (my first ever) cajoled me into coming down to “try pilot season and see what you think.” I begrudgingly packed a suitcase and slept on a friend’s couch for two months… and then I was hooked.

Voiceover is a notoriously difficult career for women to break into. How did you find yourself in voiceover work?

I had long harbored a fantasy of somehow lending my voice to an animated character, but I was extremely intimidated by the voiceover world and it took me about two years, I think, of being down here in LA and having agents to muster up the courage to ask them if they would consider letting me audition for voiceover projects. I’m just really lucky that my commercial agent, Mark Measures, also happened to run a fabulous voiceover department and even MORE lucky that he decided to give me a shot. The Legend of Korra has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I feel so ridiculously lucky to be a part of something that I have such endless respect and adoration for! It’s simply an incredible show, created and written by an incredible team. I’m such a fan of the world they’ve created, I honestly still kind of can’t believe that I’m a part of it!

Rifftrax is Michael J. Nelson’s (Mystery Science Theatre 3000) enterprise and features fellow MST 3k’ers Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett. It’s basically MP3s that you can download and easily sync to play while you watch any one of dozens of movies at home that we’ve recorded riffs for. My writing/riffing partner Cole Stratton and I were brought aboard initially to write for the guys, but then they expanded out and have us do our own. We’re particularly fond of 80s movies like Dirty Dancing, Footloose, and Jaws 3, to name a few. People can check out the goods at rifftrax.com.

Give me the inside scoop on Neil’s Puppet Dreams.

I co-created Neil’s Puppet Dreams with the marvelous Neil Patrick Harris and David Burtka, via Nerdist and The Henson Company. It’s a web series about Neil’s propensity for dreaming in puppets. Fun guest stars, surreal situations, and a bunch of REALLY great puppets star opposite Neil. It’s a total fantasy project come-to-life and I couldn’t be more proud of it.

Your home has such a unique retro style! How would you describe it, what do you love about vintage, and where are your favorite spots to find treasures for your home?

First of all, thanks! I’m delighted that you like it! Hmmm… Describing it is challenging. Maybe bohemian mid-century modern with plenty of whimsy mixed in? That feels pretentious, but, oh well! There are a couple of midcentury Danish shops in LA that I love. I do enjoy a good flea market, no surprise there. I’m also a huge fan of trawling sites like Etsy for smaller, shippable things.

Where did the idea for The JV Club come from?

I knew for a long time that I’d wanted to start a podcast, but like many people in the arts, I’m also really good at telling myself I’m not creative enough or that whatever my contribution would be wouldn’t interest anyone. I wish I’d had all the confidence in the world from the get-go, but I was nervous about podcasting for longer than I should have been. Eventually the desire to do it overcame my fear, and I took a long look at what kind of podcasts were out there, and where I felt there were voices conspicuously missing.

Eventually the desire to do it overcame my fear.

I never really thought I’d do something so female-only-oriented, but that was just where my heart led me on this particular endeavor. And I have to say, I am so happy it turned out the way it did. It was one of those things that I didn’t have to overthink. Like how people talk about a feeling of channeling something. There’s really no way to say that without eliciting multiple eye rolls, but for those of you who have created something you’re proud of but also kind of felt like divine inspiration of some kind, I guess that’s what I’m talking about. Commence eye-rolling.

You’re also the co-founder of SF Sketchfest. I was there with you this year and you’re incredibly involved and hands on in every little bit of it, it seems! It’s a huge endeavor in a city you don’t even currently live in. What type of time commitment and travel does this demand from you?

My partners David Owen and Cole Stratton and I founded SF Sketchfest 13 years ago when we still all lived up there. Now Cole and I are down here, but luckily the phone and internet make it possible for us to do the bulk of our pre-production from LA. But I’m crazy about San Francisco and in many ways it still feels like home, so doing the festival is an amazing way to stay connected to the city I love. We do spend about half the year planning it, and we do other events off-season, so it’s a lot of work. But very worth it.

Where did your love for mountain biking come from?

I grew up with a bicycle-obsessed dad, so every road trip we went on (and there were many: he writes books about ghost towns and mining camps across the western US and Canada), we’d have our bikes strapped to the rack atop our Datsun pickup! It’s something I feel like I need to do to stay whole. LA can be a stressful town, and there’s just something so freeing about riding up into the hills of Griffith Park, coming across horseback riders, coyotes, and deer. Puts the whole ‘Hollywood thing’ in check!

Do you have any essential travel tips or products you swear by?

Oh! I need someone to tell ME some good travel tips and products! I just got back from New Zealand and Australia and I do feel like those compression socks keep your feet from swelling up. Wow, that is the most unglamorous answer I could possibly have come up with… but it’s true! Aaaaaaand… hydrate hydrate hydrate. What a snore. How many times have you heard THAT?

What would you say are the most valuable lessons you’ve learned from your career? From your personal life?

I like to say that this business has the potential to turn you into the best or the worst version of yourself. If you choose to believe all the superficial stuff, and try to become what someone else says you should be, you could easily be the assholiest version of yourself of all time. And as we’ve all seen, that certainly happens. But if you take the hard stuff and really look carefully and critically at where your ideas about yourself come from, and whether you have humility and

This business has the potential to turn you into the best or the worst version of yourself.

gratitude, it can shape you into, weirdly, the most zen version of yourself. I guess I just keep trying to take those opportunities and use them appropriately.

From my personal life I would say that all of the cliches that adults you respect and look up to are right about getting older. All that stuff they tell you about how you’ll get more comfortable with yourself and who you are as you get older; how things that seemed like a huge deal will seem so insignificant (in a good way) later in life, and to celebrate and cherish the small and lovely moments in your everyday… I mean, that’s all super overstated by everyone and so cliched, but that is because it turns out IT’S ALL TRUE!



What advice would you give to other young women looking to begin a career in entertainment?

I would say don’t be afraid to wait until you know who you are. Which is a really vague statement. But my experience was that I had a really great time NOT worrying too much about my

Don’t be afraid to wait until you know who you are.

hair or my weight or the sound of my voice for a long time before I had to start taking that stuff more seriously as a side effect of this career. I mean, we all think about that stuff to a certain degree, especially in this culture. But sometimes people say “Do you ever wish you’d gotten into show business sooner?” And I always say no. I needed to live and work in a world where my hard work was rewarded (it can be very arbitrary in Hollywood) and my brain and creative voice had a chance to develop without any pressure on it. That may not be true for everyone, but I think that nobody should be afraid to take a breath and do things at his or her own pace. If you’re present to yourself and your day-to-day, I think you’ll steer yourself towards where you want to be without torturing yourself over it.

Girl Friday is a phrase more common to the 1940s and 50s, defined as “a female employee who has a wide range of duties,” and is most recognizable from the film, His Girl Friday. Here at Move LifeStyle, we’re resurrecting its saucy vibe for the title of our last column of the week which profiles inspiring women in the workforce. Click here for more Girl Friday Interviews.

Photography by: Jess Ewald