who

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Saranne Rothberg

Founder & CEO, The ComedyCures Foundation
Host, "Beating Cancer Daily" Podcast
Stage IV Cancer Survivor

From stage IV cancer patient to ComedyCures CEO, Saranne Rothberg is a sought-after healthcare thought leader, speaker, patient advocate, and health and happiness expert, featured on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX & PBS. Her "Beating Cancer Daily" Podcast is helping listeners in 142 countries on 7 continents with over 400+ original daily episodes. Currently, a People’s Choice Podcast Awards “Best Health Series” Top Ten Finalist. Rated as the #1 Cancer Survivor Podcast in 2024 to 2025, and a Top 5 Best Podcast for Cancer Patients in 2024, 2025, 2026 because of its authentic blend of humor, healthcare, and hope.

Saranne has collaborated with Fortune 500 companies, leading medical centers, The World Health Organization, The United Nations, The National Cancer Institute, U.S. military, and many prestigious universities and non-profits. She creates innovative global wellness-related programming in all media formats, collaborating with a myriad of healthcare professionals, thought leaders, researchers, and entertainers to start conversations, share ideas at healthcare conventions, stimulate research and find solutions across healthcare and many industries.

Saranne is credited with writing the first AI study in cancer survivorship in 2019. The American Association for Cancer Research called the groundbreaking pilot "innovative and exciting". This successful quality of life study was published by AACR after the pandemic and presented at The 2023 AACR Annual Conference. The research findings demonstrated significant improvements in the mental health of patients living with advanced cancer learning and incorporating Saranne's strategies in a platform informed by artificial intelligence.

Some of her original digital experiences include: "The 5-Day Laughter Summit", "The Mindset & Metastatic Cancer Research Study", "The Cancer Health Coach Research Study", "JokeFest: The Funniest Game Show", and The 31-Day "Can We Laugh At Cancer?" Online 'Tumor Humor' Comedy Challenge. Her 2000+ dynamic programs have generated several hundreds of millions of impressions and brought ComedyCures joy around the globe to many people of all ages before, during, and after the pandemic. In addition, Saranne was a pivotal contributor to The New York Times Best Seller and groundbreaking documentary "Radical Remission" with Dr. Kelly Turner.

Today, Saranne is cancer-free. She launched The ComedyCures Foundation from her chemo chair in 1999 to help others rediscover their funny bone, mojo, and purpose. Through award-winning live and digital ComedyCures programs and research studies, patients, caregivers, and healthcare workers around the world learn transformative daily coping strategies that have been proven to decrease their stress, anxiety, and depression while increasing resiliency, self-empowerment, and comic perspective.

Saranne has received many recognitions including being named a "World Health Champion" by The World Health Organization and "Oprah's Hero" in Oprah's New York Times Best Seller "Live Your Best Life". @ComedyCures @SaranneLive

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Saranne's Cancer Timeline

Lauriel Harte Marger

Co-Founder ComedyCures/
TV Writer/Producer

Vision

Lauriel Harte Marger is a writer/co-producer of STAR TREK'S new original series "STARFLEET ACADEMY" on Paramount+. Her latest original primetime drama is in development as a co-production. Lauriel continues to consult on several television and film vehicles, including serving as a "script doctor". She teaches select literary clients through her private coaching practice. Prior to Star Trek, Lauriel served as executive story editor on the television series, “Nancy Drew”.

During the pandemic, her original script won one of the best five comedy scripts of The Writers Guild of America West 2022 competition. Lauriel started her career as a writer and then story editor on FOX's "Prodigal Son", seasons one and two, respectively. Simultaneously, she created and wrote a darkly comedic YA series for Quibi, developed by Character 7 (The Undoing, The Night Manager). And previously, she sold a YA, supernatural drama pilot to YouTube Red with Fake Empire (Gossip Girl, Dynasty). Lauriel is repped by WME, Sugar23, and Felker Toczek Suddleson Abramson LLP.

A storyteller at heart, Lauriel came to TV and film by way of songwriting, after dropping out of high school to sign a record deal at WB Records. As an accomplished flautist, she debuted with The New York Philharmonic at age 11, and has also written songs for many non-profit causes, as a Youth Ambassador for the United Nations and World Health Organization.

After turning down a scholarship to study neuroscience and anthropology, Lauriel couch-surfed in London while enrolled in a writing program at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After living on a futon in Somerville and crashing classes at Harvard, Lauriel sold her first original script at 22.

Lauriel co-founded The ComedyCures Foundation at age 6 along with her Mom, Saranne Rothberg, who was undergoing cancer treatment. Lauriel supports the Bard Prison Initiative, which brings liberal arts education to inmates in upstate New York.