Television and Film Comedy Writer

There will be a free screening of Will & Harper at the Englert prior to the lecture beginning at 5:15 pm. Doors open for the documentary showing at 4:30 p.m., and doors open for the lecture event at 7:15 p.m. 

Harper Steele is an Iowa City native and a graduate of the University of Iowa. She is an Emmy-winning veteran comedy writer and producer, most known for her thirteen years with Saturday Night Live where she eventually became the head writer. After leaving Saturday Night Live, Steele took over as Creative Director of the comedy website Funny or Die, started by her friends Adam McKay and Will Ferrell. While at Funny or Die, Steele wrote the films, Casa De Mi Padre, Deadly Adoption, and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga. Most recently, Steele was the subject of the new Netflix documentary Will & Harper, which chronicles her evolving relationship with longtime collaborator and friend Will Ferrell. The documentary centers around a road trip the two friends take across America for the first time since Harper’s transition, and nearly thirty years after they first met on the set of SNL. Will & Harper premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and debuted September 27 on Netflix.

The lecture will be moderated by University of Iowa English professor and author Melissa Febos. Melissa Febos is the author of four books, including the memoir, Whip Smart. Most recently, she published a craft book, Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative, which was a National Bestseller and an LA Times Bestseller. Febos is a 2022 Guggenheim Fellow, a 2022 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, and the winner of the Jeanne Córdova Nonfiction Award from LAMBDA Literary.