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BRASSETTE -MCKEON SKETCH COMIC, ACTOR, VOICEOVER ARTIST, TV HOST
by Kerri Cooke Amy Brassette-McKeon is an accomplished actor, voiceover artist, sketch comic and TV host who was born and raised in Lake Charles. She credits interest in her career with being part of the Barbe High School speech team. “Speech team was a training ground where I took chances, played, pushed my skills, honed my comedic timing and learned how to control a room,” Brassette-McKeon says. Upon graduating from Barbe in 1997, Brassette-McKeon spent a year at Northwestern State University studying theatre. She then transferred to McNeese State University and performed with two improv and sketch comedy troupes started by comedian and filmmaker Jeff DeRouen, a.k.a “Jeff D,” every Wednesday night at Dagostino’s Bistro on Broad Street, owned by Joanne Devito. Brassette-McKeon realized a career on Broadway was no longer her dream and decided to move to Los Angeles in 1999, where she would reside for 11 years. She produced a 24 character 30-minute demo tape edited by her friend Farrah Higginbotham and created a modeling portfolio with the help of Victor Monsour to pursue work in TV and film. Otto Models signed her, which led to work in music videos and commercials. Her demo tape was seen by the William Morris Agency, with whom she signed a contract, and Brassette-McKeon 54
became a series regular on Cedric the Entertainer which ran for 22 episodes. She also obtained a twoyear holding deal with Twentieth Century Fox. Brassette-McKeon was featured in the first Apple iBook and the first Apple iPhoto commercials. Other work by Brassette-McKeon included an episode of Duck Dodgers in which she was able to work with Bob Bergen and Henry Winkler. She also did some voice work on The Simpsons. Brassette-McKeon worked in the southeast market after moving to Baton Rouge in 2010 and then to Orlando two years later. While in Baton Rouge, she did photography for commercial and editorial clients, including 225 Magazine and In Register Magazine. She also signed with an agent to do film and TV work, primarily in New Orleans. Brassette-McKeon worked with the likes of Brendan Fraser, Matthew McConaghey, Kristen Bell, Arnold Schwartzeneggar, and Mila Kunis and filmed movies such as Maggie (2015), Hypnotized (2015), Smothered (2016), and Race To Win (2016). She had a leading role in the first film written and directed by John Schneider and starred in True Detective on HBO with Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConahay. Brassette-McKeon also hosted a dating show called My Amazing Cheap Date (2021) in which couples compete by going on an all-day date with a $50 budget. Lake Charles native Jeff
Thrive Magazine for Better Living • November 2024
D. co-wrote Brassette-McKeon's jokes for the show, and local SWLA boutiques credited in My Amazing Cheap Date include Suzanne Johnson’s Olive & Indigo, Ashli Waldrep’s Wardrobe Mobile Boutique and Kaysie Bolton’s Bayou Blend. Moving back to Lake Charles in 2014, Brassette-McKeon continued auditioning and represented video production companies before moving to Colorado after
Hurricanes Laura and Delta and the May flood of 2021. Since settling in Colorado, Brassette-McKeon has a voice over studio in her home and narrated an audiobook for Audible with over 40 characters titled The Big Free, is writing creative projects, doing on camera coaching for nonprofits and focusing on her family with hopes to host and do more sketch comedy in the near future.