About the Show
The story of the world's most secret agents...the backups!
An official “Gold Selection” of the 2021 Hear Now Festival, official selection of the Prince William County Libraries Podcast Discussion Club, and the #1 Comedy Fiction Podcast in Moldova! Featured at the Austin Film Festival Writer’s Conference.
Mission: Rejected is a Porch Room Production through its podcasting arm, Extraordinary Missions Limited.
Mission: Rejected was created by Pete Barry, J. Michael DeAngelis and John P. Dowgin, collectively known as The Porch Room, who also serve as the head writers. After success in theater and film, Mission: Rejected is their first foray into scripted audio drama. Paige Klaniecki, a rising LA screenwriter who also voices Gloria, has been a staff writer since season two.
Episode direction is by J. Michael DeAngelis or Pete Barry. Editing and sound design is by Pete Barry or John Dowgin. Original music is by Pete Barry.
Pete Barry is a screenwriter, playwright, musician, actor, and director. His screenplay Marian, a retelling of the classic Robin Hood story, is in development with Sony and Pascal Pictures. He is a co-creator, writer, sound designer, and producer of the full-cast podcast comedy Mission: Rejected.
Pete’s short plays can be found in several anthologies, including Shorter, Faster, Funnier: Comic Plays and Monologues, Plays for Two, Plays for Three, and Off Off Festival Plays, 34th Series. He shared the NJACT Perry Award for Outstanding Production of an Original Play for Accidents Happen, which is also published as a short play collection by Samuel French. His full-length play Antony & Cleopatra: Infinite Lives, co-written with J. Michael DeAngelis, was performed at the New York Fringe Festival.
He is a co-founder of The Porch Room, an independent theater, film, and audio production company, where he has written and produced full-length and short plays.
Pete is a member of the Writers Guild of America and the Dramatist Guild of America and was named a 2013 Young and Hungry List writer.
J. Michael DeAngelis is a podcaster, writer, actor and director. In the audio fiction space, he is the co-creator of Mission: Rejected, which he also produces, writes, directs and occasionally acts in. He has contributed as a writer to Listen Rinse Repeat and as a director on Things (Un)said. His voice can be heard on Oz-9, Plumb Forest Podcast, and Listen Rinse Repeat. He is also the creator and co-host of the informational podcast CS Radio: The Official Podcast of the University of Pennsylvania Career Services.
His short play, Drop (co-written with Pete Barry), was a winner of the 2009 Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival. He has written or co-written the plays Fan Fiction, Deep Fried Everything, Reunion Special (part of Accidents Happen), Reverie and Signs from God. He starred in and co-wrote the short film Tails Between Their Legs, which was a winner of the National Film Challenge. He shared the 2009 NJACT Perry Award for Outstanding Production of an Original Play for Accidents Happen. His latest play with Pete Barry, Antony & Cleopatra: Infinite Lives, sold out its entire run at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, followed the next summer by an acclaimed run at the New York International Fringe Festival.
A proud graduate of Muhlenberg College, Michael lives and works in Philadelphia. He is a member of the Dramatist Guild of America.
John P. Dowgin is a writer, director, actor, co-founder of The Porch Room, and co-creator of the “Mission: Rejected” podcast (as well as the voice of M:R's eternally confused Dr. Biff Studebaker). His screenplays have earned finalist honors at the Austin Film Festival and ‘Top 50’ honors from the Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship Competition. As a playwright, John wrote two entries in the Porch Room's one-act compilation ‘Accidents Happen’ which was published by Concord Theatricals (formerly Samuel French) and has been performed on four continents. Other stage works include the science fiction one-act ‘Zebulon’s Calling’, which was performed by Sci-Fest LA on a slate alongside the works of Clive Barker and Neil Gaiman. As a director, John created the short film ‘Prey’, which premiered at 2022’s NJ Web Fest, and helmed the New York premiere of the Porch Room’s original stage play ‘Antony & Cleopatra: Infinite Lives’. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, their two sons, and two disturbingly large cats.
Paige Klaniecki is a podcaster, writer, and actor. She is part of the writing team of Mission: Rejected, for which she also acts, and has had several short plays performed with the Philadelphia Dramatists Center and the Underground Shakespeare Company. A Philadelphia native, she currently resides in Los Angeles where she works in entertainment research & analysis.
She is an excellent Legend of Zelda player.