truTV Reveals 10 Awe-Inspiring Performance Teams Set to Compete in Season 2 of "Fake Off"

Season 2 of Fake Off Premieres Wednesday, May 6, 10 p.m. (ET/PT) on truTV

This summer, 10 teams of gifted performers will set out to stun viewers like never before in the second season of truTV's eye-popping competition series Fake Off. Launching its new season Wednesday, May 6, at 10 p.m. (ET/PT), Fake Off takes viewers into the visually stunning world of Faking, a mix of theater, acrobatics, black light and illusion. In each episode, teams are challenged to reimagine iconic moments in pop culture to see who's got the skills to be named America's Fake Off Champions and walk away with a $100,000 cash prize.

Actor and dancer Corbin Bleu (High School Musical) is set to host the second season of Fake Off. Harry Shum Jr. (Glee, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend) returns to the judging panel and is joined by two new judges: actress, choreographer and Emmy(R)-nominated director Laurieann Gibson (Lady Gaga Presents: The Monster Ball Tour at Madison Square Garden, Making the Band) and actor, creative director and choreographer Beau Casper Smart (Street, Big Bang Theory, Nick Jonas, Jennifer Lopez). Meghan Camarena better known as YouTube sensation Strawburry17, will serve as backstage correspondent, a new role created this season.

Fake Off premiered on truTV in November 2014 in conjunction with the launch of truTV's "Way More Fun" brand campaign. The series produced by Endemol Shine North America earned high praise from television earned high praise from television critics and viewers alike, prompting weekly audience growth after its premiere. In the first season, teams performed brilliant interpretations of moments in pop culture inspired by action-adventure and fantasy movies, video games and the biggest global sporting events.

Season 2 of Fake Off will consist of eight episodes, climaxing with the big finale in which one team will be named the Fake Off Champion and earn the cash prize. Here are the 10 teams vying to be the Fake Off Champion, along with links to their video introductions:

Academy of Villains (San Francisco, Calif.), a performance crew specializing in hip-hop and theatrics. http://www.trutv.com/shows/fake-off/videos/meet-academy-of-villains.html

Astra Dance Theatre (Los Angeles, Calif.), a multimedia dance theatre group from Los Angeles, Calif. http://www.trutv.com/shows/fake-off/videos/meet-astra-dance-company.html

ClownSnotBombs (Berkeley, Calif.), a circus troupe and physical comedy performance company. http://www.trutv.com/shows/fake-off/videos/meet-clownsnotbombs.html

CubeMetricks (Los Angeles, Calif.) a theatrical hip-hop performance crew. http://www.trutv.com/shows/fake-off/videos/meet-cubemetricks.html

The Deca Crew (Brooklyn, N.Y.), a dance crew specializing in technology and prop manipulation. http://www.trutv.com/shows/fake-off/videos/meet-the-deca-crew.html

JUNK (Philadelphia, Pa.), an aerial, dance and physical theater troupe. http://www.trutv.com/shows/fake-off/videos/meet-junk.html

LUMA (Pahoa, Hawaii), a troupe that combines light with dance, magic, puppetry and physics. http://www.trutv.com/shows/fake-off/videos/meet-luma.html

On The Fly (Indianapolis, Ind.), a stunt and daredevil crew composed of aerialists, dancers, flyers and acro-artists. http://www.trutv.com/shows/fake-off/videos/meet-on-the-fly.html

The Surrealists (St. Louis, Mo.), a magician and illusionist trio. http://www.trutv.com/shows/fake-off/videos/meet-the-surrealists.html

Tribe of Fools (Philadelphia, Pa.), physical theater group specializing in acrobatics and comedy. http://www.trutv.com/shows/fake-off/videos/meet-tribe-of-fools.html

Complete details on each of the 10 teams competing this spring on Fake Off are included below.

Fake Off is produced by Endemol Shine North America, with James Sunderland serving as Executive Producer and Showrunner, Eden Gaha, Robin Feinberg and Chris Culvenor serving as executive producers.

Fake Off Season 2: The Teams

Academy of Villains

Home City: San Francisco, Calif.

Number of Members: 12 performers

Age Range: 19-29

Group Leader: Percival Agoncillo

Hailing from San Francisco, Academy of Villains is a young and eclectic performance group specializing in hip-hop and theatrics to tell their stories.

Founded in 2009, Academy of Villains train in a militant style, a unique and efficient training that allows them to pull off moves and techniques that have never been done before. The group does not allow themselves to be limited to one type of theatrical expression. They can turn their hand to silhouette performances, black light performances and of course dance. Their passion for creativity and pushing themselves to be better, means they are ready to take to the Fake Off stage and entertain America.

Astra Dance Theater

Home City: Los Angeles, Calif.

Number of Members: 10 performers and two visual effects artists

Age Range: 27-37

Group Leader: Sasha Travis & Regan Remy

Astra Dance Theatre was created in 2005. The company is an ensemble of dancers, circus performers, stage magicians, clowns, mimes, actors and musicians. Storytellers at heart, Astra Dance Theatre is inspired by classic art, classic, film and classic literature.

Astra Dance Theatre focuses on stories that are timeless and at the forefront of pop culture, making theatre exciting so that the audience experiences powerful, live dance theatre at its fullest. Astra re-creates stories using modern technology and integrated multimedia with a combination of dance and theatre to enhance their storytelling.

ClownSnotBombs

Home City: Berkley, Calif.

Number of Members: Eight performers

Age Range: 29-66

Group Leader: Doug "Slim Chance" McNeely and Kristen Parks

ClownSnotBombs was founded by Doug "Slim Chance" McNeely in 2006 in New Orleans. The troupe began as a collaboration between circus artists and musicians, touring and performing across the country. Nine years later, it has evolved into a physical comedy performance company composed of multi-talented artists, circus performers and musicians. Making props is a big passion of ClownSnotBombs; they've made everything from a stage coach, to an airplane, to a unicycle horse.

Group leaders and a real-life couple, Kristen and Doug fell in love when, upon joining ClownSnotBombs, Doug took Kristen under his wing, teaching her how to ride a unicycle and juggle. And the rest, as they say, is history. In addition to captivating audiences with their humor, the ClownSnotBombs crew also teaches youth programs and hosts a free weekly circus skill-share in the Bay Area.

CubeMetricks

Home City: Los Angeles, Calif.

Number of Members: Nine performers

Age Range: 23-33

Group Leader: Vinh Bui

Hailing from Los Angeles, Calif., CubeMetricks is a crew of diverse performers who have mastered what they call "flotivity," or the ability to seamlessly flow between various dance styles throughout their storytelling. Each performer in the group has an impressive performance resume, with specialties in hip-hop, break dance, parkour, choreography, stunts, martial arts and theatrics making CubeMetricks a force to be reckoned with on the Fake Off stage.

Diversity isn't the only trait that makes this crew stand out. They also utilize what they call "The Cube," a 7x7 oversized box, to create large scale illusions, acrobatic tricks and jaw-dropping visuals. They can levitate or rotate the cube, turn it into a shadow box, or even use it as a projection screen. The only thing they won't do is think inside the box.

The Deca Crew

Home City: Brooklyn, N.Y.

Number of Members: Nine performers, one choreographer and one graphic designer

Age Range: 20-39

Group Leader: Jennifer Weber

Jennifer, an ambitious New York native, founded The Deca Crew in 2004 as an all-girls hip-hop & break dance crew. The group has since evolved to become a co-ed performance group whose passionate performers live to create "magic moments." They seem almost "superhuman" through their physicality alone and pairing their unparalleled movement skills with props and projection creates environments that let the audience's imagination run wild.

Jennifer was recently commissioned to direct the Hip Hop Nutcracker, which was performed in prominent New York theaters. The show was sold-out for each of the four nights the crew performed. One of Jennifer's goals has been to challenge hip-hop's male-dominated industry. It has been her life's work to empower female dancers, bringing them out of the background of music videos and into the forefront of theatrical performance.

JUNK

Home City: Philadelphia, Pa.

Number of Members: Five performers, one director and two designers

Age Range: 20-45

Group Leader: Brian Sanders

Dumpster-diver-turned-show-creator Brian Sanders took his love for found objects and founded JUNK in 1997. Using his signature style of creating inventive, off-the-wall choreography with found objects and other discarded debris gave way to the troupe's name. JUNK is a combination of aerial, dance, acrobatics and physical theatre. They are known for their ingenious use of objects and clever inventions that bridge the gap between dance and physical theatre, bringing performances to life. One of Philly's most exciting choreographers, Brian blends traditional dance theatre with an inventiveness and physicality.

Flying high and manipulating various rigged objects with no fear, JUNK loves to create an illusion of danger, making their audience look at the world in a whole new way. Although their passion lies on stage, the members of JUNK also hold regular day jobs, such as teachers, smoothie blender, doorman and full-time student.

LUMA

Home City: Pahoa, Hawaii & Los Angeles, Calif.

Number of Members: Eight performers and one director

Age Range: 22-27 (performers); 58 (director)

Group Leader: Michael Marlin

LUMA Theater is an exhilarating light spectacle that captures the audience's imagination, using the dark as the canvas and light as the brush, creating colorful illusions. Combining rhythmic gymnastics, dance, magic, puppetry and physics, LUMA provides an unforgettable experience that leaves audiences mesmerized and full of wonder.

A pioneer of this unique brand of innovative illuminated entertainment, LUMA has toured extensively throughout the United States and worldwide since 1998.

On The Fly

Home City: Indianapolis, Ind.

Number of Members: 10 performers/operators, two directors

Age Range: 19-39

Group Leader: Jason Whicker and Jennifer Ragan

On The Fly is a daredevil stunt-rig crew composed of fierce aerialists, dancers, flyers and acro-artists, all with an edgy and intense energy that can't help but spill off the stage. Based in Indianapolis, On the Fly was founded by Jason Whicker and Jennifer Ragan, who met working on another production in South Florida. They soon partnered together to create an original show titled BEAUTIFUL: A Cirque-tale, which combined theatre, projection, aerial effects and puppetry.

Jason and Jennifer recruit performers from all over the country and run their show like a mini-boot camp, which they admit is intense and not for everyone. They believe their unique style of aerial dance, stage combat and theatre will give them a leg up in the competition on Fake Off.

The Surrealists

Home City: St. Louis, Mo.

Number of Members: Three performers

Age Range: 29 - 34

Group Leader: Joel Meyers

The Surrealists are a magical trio of performers who are ready to wow audiences through storytelling in a way that's never been seen before on the Fake Off stage. With backgrounds in close up magic, grand illusion and mentalism, The Surrealists will shatter stereotypes and push boundaries through magic that includes interaction with technology, big stunt illusions and much more, creating a performance that is anything but traditional.

Hailing from St. Louis, MO., Los Angeles, CA. and Montreal, Canada respectively, performers Joel Meyers, Joseph Réohm and Spidey may have different styles and origins, but they do have one thing in common: magic was a childhood dream and passion. As a result of their mutual success in the magic world, these three guys have become so close, they consider themselves brothers.

Tribe of Fools

Home City: Philadelphia, Pa.

Number of Members: Six performers

Age Range: 24 - 38

Group Leader: Terry Brennan

Tribe of Fools is a fun and energetic group of friends who enjoy blurring the lines between physical theater, circus, dance, acrobatics and other highly visual and kinetic storytelling techniques. Embracing the physicality of storytelling, this crew is dedicated to telling stories using movement and pushing themselves to their physical limits while creating dynamic characters that make you laugh until you cry. Tribe of Fools brings a sense of levity and fun to their productions in order to make complicated and difficult themes accessible and identifiable to the audience.

Tribe of Fools is a total collaborative effort. They create performances by tweaking their zany ideas until they become awesome. Tribe of Fools' only goal in life is to do something they love and have fun doing it. By day the members of Tribe of Fools work as professional actors, circus teachers and theater technicians.

About Endemol Shine North America

Endemol Shine North America delivers world-class content and compelling storytelling to multiple platforms in the U.S. and across the globe. Endemol Shine North America is part of Endemol Shine Group, the newly launched global content creator, producer and distributor with a diverse portfolio of companies in the U.S. that are behind some of the most prominent hit television formats and series in the world. Its Endemol Shine Latino division oversees all Spanish-language sales and development in both the U.S. and Mexico. And subsidiary production companies include Authentic Entertainment, Original Media, True Entertainment and 51 Minds Entertainment. In addition, Endemol Shine North America has a strategic partnership with Ryan Seacrest Productions.

Endemol Shine Group's companies in North America are behind hit series including Below Deck (Bravo), Bullseye (FOX), Big Brother (CBS), The Biggest Loser (NBC), Fake Off (TruTV) Hell on Wheels (AMC), Ink Master (Spike), It Takes a Church (GSN), Keeping Up with the Kardashians (E!), Kingdom (DirecTV), Knife Fight (Esquire), MasterChef (FOX), MasterChef Junior (FOX), Restaurant Startup (CNBC), Swamp People (History), The Island (NBC), The Real Housewives of Atlanta (Bravo), Steve Harvey (NBCU), T.I. & Tiny: The Family Hustle (VH1), Steve Austin's Broken Skull Challenge (CMT), Wipeout (ABC) and many more.

About truTV

truTV takes viewers on a fun ride that surprises and entertains. The network delivers a dynamic mix of action, comedy and competition, featuring engaging characters and compelling new worlds that pull you in and leave you wanting more. Currently seen in 92 million U.S. households, truTV features such popular original series as Impractical Jokers, The Carbonaro Effect, Friends of the People, Hack My Life, How to Be a Grown-Up, Barmageddon and Breaking Greenville as well as the upcoming Billy on the Street, Those Who Can't, Six Degrees of Everything, Santas in the Barn and The Hustlers. In addition, truTV is a partner in airing the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship.

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