Xander is a native 10th-generation Texan, born in San Antonio and grew up in Round Rock. He holds a B.S. in Radio-Television-Film and a B.J. in Journalism from the University of Texas at Austin. Xander has years of experience as a stage and musical performer, including productions of CATS, The Tempest, and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. In 2020 Xander created a satirical news comedy series, The What's UPDATE with Xander Kwiecien. The show started at Texas Student Television, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to move the show back home to Round Rock. He built a cozy TV studio and continued producing, writing, and performing The UPDATE. The show provided the opportunity to interview some amazing guests like Greg Proops, Jim Beaver, Tim Russ, Richard Horvitz, and Madeleine Smithberg, the co-creator of The Daily Show. During this time, Xander also launched a multimedia production company, Planet X Abstractions. Xander's academic focus is comedy as an indispensable form of communication, intersectionality and representation in visual media, and documentary filmmaking. He is a huge fan of stand-up and improv comedy. In his spare time, Xander enjoys cooking and consumes as much TV, film, and video games as humanly possible.
Areas of focus: comedy, intersectionality, representation, documentary filmmaking