Ryan Archibald
A member of the late-great Harold team People of Earth, Ryan has been an active member of the iO theater is entire adult life and has taught, directed and performed improvisation all over the world. Ryan is a Second Citizen and a part of the Boom Chicago family in Amsterdam. You can see Arch perform every Monday night in the Armando Show at iO.
Teams: Ringo Starr
Shows: The Armando Diaz Experience, Challenger
Bill Arnett
Bill Arnett has been a popular teacher at iO since 2005 and was recently named director of the training center. He has traveled extensively teaching at improv festivals and in workshops around the country as well as in Canada, Australia and the U.K. As a performer Bill has been at iO for 12 years. He has performed with award-winning sketch group Maximum Party Zone and the iO house team People of Earth. He can currently be seen in the hit shows 3033 and The Armando Diaz Experience. He attended the University of Florida where he wrote and performed with Theatre Strike Force, the theater department’s sketch and improv group. He studied electrical engineering.
Check out Bill’s well regarded improv blog.
billarnett.com/wordpress
Shows: The Armando Diaz Experience, 3033
Dave Asher
Dave Asher graduated with a BA in Drama from Northwestern University in 1999. At Northwestern, he performed in its sketch-improv group The Mee-Ow Show (1999) as well as in The Titanic Players troupe (1996-1997). While in school, he took the iO classes and then performed on the iO house team Valhalla from 1996 to 1999. After graduation in ‘99, he moved to Amsterdam in The Netherlands to perform improv and sketch in Boom! Chicago (1999-2004). In addition to hundreds of shows in the 300 seat home theater, he did Boom! shows at private events, music festivals, universities, and a week on the Second City main stage as part of the Comedy Swap in 2002. Dave returned to Chicago in 2004. He joined the company of Child’s Play Touring Theater and toured the country performing adaptations of stories and poems written by children (2005-2006). Dave has also worked in improv as a musician. He music directed with The Second City National Touring Company (2004) and has been the Music Director of The iO since 2006 (That’s over 2000 Harolds!). As an improv teacher, he has taught classes and workshops at iO since 2006. He coached the harold team The Republic (2007-2008) and is currently the director of the iO musical house team The Del Tones. At Northwestern, he taught improv to theater majors. In Amsterdam, he served as Boom! Chicago’s head improv instructor for two years, training improv hopefuls as well as businessmen and women having their first taste of improv presented as team building.
Tim Baltz
Tim started seeing shows at iO Theater in 1995 at the age of 14. He has seen the country with Second City’s National Touring Company, and he performs at iO with the Harold team Bullet Lounge, and the Armando Diaz Experience. His past credits include Traffic & Weather, TAG, Blatzberg, Promise Keepers, and the long-running two-person show Nogoodnicks, among many others. He is a graduate of Loyola University-Chicago with a double major in French and Communication.
Shows: The Armando Diaz Experience, Family Tree House Boat Accident, The Scene, TIM
Joe Bill
Joe Bill is one of the co-founders of Annoyance Theater, where he performed in and directed over 50 productions from 1987-2000, including smash hits “Co-ed Prison Sluts”, “The Real Live Brady Bunch” and “The Screw Puppies”. Bill has coached and performed with numerous ensembles at iO from 1985-1987 and 1995-present. Highlights include Georgia Pacific and the innovative lights out long-form, “The Bat”. He currently performs with the improv supergroup Weasilicious and co-stars with fellow Annoyance co-founder Mark Sutton, in the nationally touring production “Bassprov”, which headlined the 2003 Chicago Improv Festival with special guest Fred Willard. “Bassprov” has toured the United States since 2002, and also was named one of the top 10 comedy shows in Toronto in that same year. Bill teaches improvisation for iO, the Second City Conservatory and Training Center, the Annoyance, the Playground and around the U.S., Canada, UK and Netherlands. He started doing improv in 1977.
Shows: The Deltones, The Armando Diaz Experience
Christy Bonstell
Christy L. Bonstell graduated from Wayne State University with a BFA in theatre before becoming an understudy and teacher with Second City Novi and cast member and teacher at the Improv Inferno. She moved to Chicago where she studied at the Annoyance and iO, where she now teaches. Christy performs with Baby Wants Candy, the Hot Karl and ComedySportz, as well as in many original productions at the Annoyance Theatre.
Teams: Ringo Starr
Paul Brittain
Paul has been performing improv and sketch comedy at the iO Theater and elsewhere for the past 7 years. His credits at iO include Rattlesnake High School, TOPAZ, The Late Night Late Show, Ted and Melanie, Shotgun, Mike Helicopter, and The Pilot. He also created and performed his solo show Sex Ed. With “Sex” Ed Vincent at the Chicago Sketchfest, the L.A Comedy Festival, and the TBS Just For Laughs Festival. He’s performed all around Chicago in productions including Mr. 1,000 Miles Per Hour at the Stage Left Theater, Jacoby’s Promise at The Annoyance, The Midnight Hellhouse at The Playground, No Place Like Home at The Neo-Futurarium, and was an ensemble member for thei Second City Theatrical El Show Mas Funny performing in Miami.
Teams: Mike Helicopter
Shows: Challenger
Marla Caceres
Marla Caceres has been improvising, writing, and teaching in Chicago since 2001. At iO, she’s on the Harold team Henrietta Pussycat, is a founding member of Whirled News Tonight, and plays regularly in the Armando Diaz Experience. At Second City, Marla’s performed with Second City Communications, aboard the NCL Dawn, and as part of the cast of El Show Mas Funny in Miami. Marla is also a company member of Barrel of Monkeys, a writer/performer in acclaimed sketch group PennyBear, and was in the Jeff-Award nominated cast of Piven Theatre’s Because They Have No Words. She loves playing with lady groups Mountain Dawn and Maria, and has taught improv to 8 and 9-year-olds and equally rambunctious Northwestern University MBA students.
Teams: Henrietta Pussycat
Shows: Whirled News Tonight, Big Friendly Giant
Andy Carey
Andy Carey has studied improvisation with iO Chicago, The Second City and the Annoyance. After receiving his B.F.A. in Theater Arts from the University of Idaho he worked as an actor and teacher for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and the Idaho Shakespeare Festival. He can currently be seen performing with Quincy and The Improvised Shakespeare Company at iO, and also with Chrysalis Clark, The Big Yellow Bus, Homey Loves Chachi and The Beatbox.
Shows: Improvised Shakespeare
Jason Chin
Jason R. Chin was the iO Associate Artistic Director, as well as the Director of their Training Center. He has coached several teams including the famed teams Deep Schwa and Alpha Squad. He has directed several critically acclaimed improv shows including the improvised news satire, “Whirled News Tonight.” Check out his web page at www.argosagency.com
Shows: The Armando Diaz Experience
Tara DeFrancisco
Tara DeFrancisco was awarded “Funniest Person in Chicago” by the Free Press, “30 Under 30” in the Windy City Times, and “25 Funniest Females 2009” in Curve Magazine for her ventures in stand up, sketch, and improv. She teaches improv courses and workshops to people of all ages and backgrounds across this nation, and that’s about the most rewarding thing ever – traveling to elementary and high schools, colleges, and offices all over the country as both an introductory instructor and a professional Comedy Consultant. Tara has taught for all three theatres (CSz, iO, and SC) in town, both in-house and on location. Tara is a 3-year veteran of Second City Touring Company, a decorated ComedySportz 3-time MVP, and an iO teacher, coach, house performer, and enthusiast. There are no words for how very thankful she is.
Teams: Chaos Theory
Shows: The Deltones, The Armando Diaz Experience
Colleen Doyle
Colleen Doyle grew up, and became terrified of professional sports, in Cleveland. There she wrote greeting cards and performed with The Second City. Since then she has had the good fortune to play all the way from Maine to Ireland to the waters of the Caribbean. Currently Colleen can be seen with the ensembles Mountain Dawn, Dummy, Ringo Starr and Virgin Daiquiri. She is very happy to teach at iO and grateful for all those who’ve gently shoved her along the way.
Teams: Ringo Starr
Shows: Dummy
Kate Duffy
Kate Duffy has studied, performed and coached improvisation for the last 10 years at The Annoyance Theater, iO Chicago and The Second City. You may have seen Kate performing with Atticus Finch, Otis, The Baritones, Corporation Incorporated, KNC: Fight Lamps, and Strawberry Quick. Kate teaches improvisation at The Second City and for companies around the country. Currently, you can see Kate perform with Children of a Lesser God, The Signatures and FELT, the critically acclaimed puppet show, at iO Chicago.
Teams: Deep Schwa
Shows: Felt, The Mary Kay Letourneau Players Present...
Todd Edwards
In 1999 Todd W. Edwards moved from Richmond, Virginia to Chicago to study at the famed Improv Olympic Training Center. A decade after that move he is happy to join the faculty. Dreams do come true if you are tenacious enough. Todd can be seen downstairs in the cabaret space playing with Classic Thunder.
Teams: Chaos Theory
Mike Enriquez
Mike Enriquez took his first step on the iO stage as a performer in 2000 after completing the iO Training Center, as well as The Second City Conservatory and the ComedySportz Training Program. He had the privilege of being an original member of the former iO house team, Fox Force Five, during its entire five years but now enjoys performing with the amazing team The Signatures. Enriquez is currently an ensemble cast member and an assistant artistic director for ComedySportz Chicago. He has coached several Harold teams at iO, including the wonderfully talented Revolver. His only known flaw is that he uses the word “NICE!” way too much.
Teams: Henrietta Pussycat
Shows: The Armando Diaz Experience
Noah Gregoropoulos
Noah Gregoropoulos has been performing, directing and teaching improvisation for over eighteen years. He began teaching at iO in the late 1980’s, and in 1999 he took over the Performance Level workshops when his predecessor, Del Close, passed away halfway through a class session. Gregoropoulos has also taught improvisation at iO West, Second City and Columbia College, as well as free-lance workshops throughout the U.S. and Europe. As an improvisational performer, he has played on several house teams at iO including his current team, Carl and the Passions. He was a founding member of the critically acclaimed troupes Jazz Freddy and Atlantis, toured much of the English speaking world with “Modern Problems in Science” and was part of the original cast of iO’s “Armando Diaz Experience”, in which he still performs every Monday. As a director, Gregoropoulos mounted “Lois Kaz” the first-ever long-form improvisation show at Second City, “Close Quarters” which has become a standard form for advanced improv classes and troupes, and the first Atlantis show, along with several other lesser efforts that don’t warrant mentioning. he directed the revue “If the White House is a Rockin’, Don’t Come a-Knockin’” at Second City’s e.t.c., as well as two of The Second City National Touring Companies. Gregoropoulos has appeared in films, plays and on television and radio (big whoop), and was a staff writer on the ABC sitcom, “Dharma and Greg.”
Teams: Carl & The Passions
Shows: The Armando Diaz Experience
Jeff Griggs
Jeff Griggs has taught and coached at iO for several years and is a long standing member of the house team, Deep Schwa. Among other groups, Griggs performs with Meta Five and Aphasia at venues and festivals around the country. Besides acting and directing, Griggs has also written several stage plays that have been produced in theaters around Chicago. His book Guru: My Days with Del Close is available from Ivan R. Dee Publishing.
Teams: Deep Schwa
Shows: The Armando Diaz Experience
Paul Grondy
Paul Grondy has been improvising for 15 years. While performing each Wednesday night at the iO, with Carl & The Passions, Paul can also be seen improvising on Monday nights in The Armando Diaz Show.
Teams: Carl & The Passions
Shows: The Armando Diaz Experience
Lyndsay Hailey
Lyndsay Hailey is proud to add depth to the Virginia contingent at iO. She is a graduate of the iO Training Center, the Second City Conservatory Program and the Second City Music Program. She recently closed Love is Dead at the Annoyance Theater, and can currently be seen in the Annoyance Production, Space Future. The Pegasus Players Theater Company, Beverly Arts Center, and After School Matters apprenticeship program enable Lyndsay to teach improv to any human in the Chicago Public School system who will listen. Teaching Level 2 for iO is one of her greatest successes. Lyndsay owes all of those successes to her incredible, patient and supportive friends, family and iO family. GO HOKIES!
Shows: The Deltones, 40% Chance Of Hailey, The Lyndsay Hailey Variety Hour
Charna Halpern
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR OF THE iO THEATER
Charna Halpern has been teaching performers how to work together for more than 25 years. Having founded the world famous iO in Chicago and Hollywood, Halpern’s theaters are the meccas of training in the art of improvisation and act as a recruiting stop for television shows like Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report and MADtv, supplying Hollywood with writers and performers. She is the author of the improv training manuals Truth in Comedy and Art By Committee.
Nate Herman
Nate Herman has been writing, performing and directing comedy professionally since 1967, starting at The Second City (cast member and Jeff Award winning director) and going on to National Lampoon’s Lemmings (at the Village Gate in New York and on the road), The National Lampoon Radio Show (writer and performer), National Public Radio (weekly topical comedy pieces on All Things Considered with Warren Leming), and Saturday Night Live (staff writer: four seasons; Emmy nominated writing staff). His band, Wilderness Road, recorded for both Columbia and Warner/Reprise records. He has headed the iO Comedy Writing Program since 2008.
Barry Hite
Barry hails from tiny, pastoral Mechanicsville, Virginia. He has been learning, performing and directing at iO for the last few years. A founding member of the house team Bullet Lounge, he has also been lucky enough to perform in smaller, scrappier outfits with names like Swim Buddies, Black Ted Williams, Tha Weave, Davey DickRocket and Traffic & Weather. He has also performed at The Chicago Improv Festival, The Del Close Marathon, The Toronto Improv Festival and Chicago Sketchfest. He was most recently involved in a remount of Close Quarters and is proud enough of that fact to place it at the end of his bio.
Shows: Family Tree House Boat Accident, Challenger, Barry Hite: So Very Important
Cesar Jaime
Cesar has been with the iO theater for over 15 years. In that time, he has had the pleasure – and honor – of studying and playing with some of the best improvisational teachers in he world, including Del Close, who directed Cesar in the group “The Lindbergh Babies”, the first graduation class to have an actual run of shows that went on for two and a half years.
He has coached and performed with numerous teams and also teaches improv around the country in academic and corporate workshops.
His performance experience includes playing with The Playground Theater, The Noble Fool Theater, ASSSSCAT (UCB-LA), iO West, and he’s also an alumnus of The Second City Touring Company.
Cesar currently plays with the critically acclaimed show “Felt” and iO’s most popular show, “The Armando Diaz Experience and Hootenany”.
He is very honored and grateful to be teaching at iO.
Teams: Ringo Starr
Shows: Felt, The Armando Diaz Experience
Shad Kunkle
Shad Kunkle performs with Carl & The Passions each Wednesday at iO, where he also coaches The Reckoning. He has also played with The Placebo Effect, 5 Chinese Brothers and The Rooftop Players.
Teams: Carl & The Passions
Shows: The Armando Diaz Experience
Michael Lehrer
Michael Lehrer’s solo appearances include Chicago Underground Comedy, TBS Just For Laughs Festival, the Andy Kaufman Award (Semi Finalist), ESPN Radio, and the nationally syndicated Sports Action Team. Past solo shows include C’mon (Miami Improv Festival), Heartbreaker (iO Del Award Nominee), and Karate Ain’t Karate If You Don’t Hit Nobody (iO Del Award Nominee). He currently appears in Armando at iO Chicago and recently received a Jeff award for Best New Work and Best Revue with the cast of The Second City e.t.c.
Lisa Linke
Lisa Linke has studied at The Second City, The Annoyance and The iO Training Centers. She performs with Cougars at iO, and elsewhere with Mustang Repair, Double Date, Big Yellow Bus, and occasionally with DSI. In 2007 she co-wrote and performed in Flawed as Rain, and wrote and performed in the weekly scripted show Ink. She has previously performed with The Baritones & Sex In The Suburbs with Noble Fool Theater, Indra’s Net, Improvidate, LEAP, and Corporation, Inc., which performed at the Chicago Improv Festival as well as the dc comedyfest.
Brett Lyons
Teams: Deep Schwa
Shows: The Armando Diaz Experience
Sarah Maher
Teams: Mike Helicopter
Timmy Mayse
Timmy Mayse has been performing improv at the iO Theater and other venues for 8 years. iO credits include Solid State, The Diplomat Motel, Challenger and famed house team Deep Schwa. He has also performed at the Del Close Marathon and Chicago Sketchfest. At Second City Timmy’s performed with Second City Communications aboard the NCL Pearl and has written and performed Jacoby’s Promise and Fisting at the Annoyance Theater.
Teams: Deep Schwa
Shows: Challenger, TIM
George McAuliffe
Teams: Revolver
Charlie McCrackin
Shows: The Reckoning
Susan Messing
Messing, a New Jersey native, is a graduate of Northwestern University. She has performed for over eighteen years with Chicago’s iO Theatre, and created and teaches their Level 2 Curriculum which is used in Chicago and LA’s iO West. At the legendary Second City, Messing wrote and performed in two mainstage revues and directed their National Touring Company. Messing is a founding member of the infamous Annoyance Theatre where she has created roles in over thirty original productions, including Co-Ed Prison Sluts, The Miss Vagina Pageant, and Your Butt. In addition, she conceived, co-adapted (with Mary Scruggs) and directed the critically acclaimed What Every Girl Should Know…An Ode to Judy Blume for the Annoyance stage, where she also continues to teach. You can see Messing’s critically-acclaimed show, Messing with a Friend, now in its third year, every Thursday night at The Annoyance. Messing is an adjunct professor for Loyola University, DePaul University’s Theatre School, and The University of Chicago. Her standup act with her puppet, Jolly, has been featured at the HBO/US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, and on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend and NBC’s Late Fridays. You can hear her voice on radio and tv ads. Susan has been cut from several blockbuster films, but her recent movie role in Let’s Go to Prison! as a bad stripper in a halo brace, made her very happy. Her daughter, Sofia Mia, is very four, very ridiculous, and very awesome.
Adal Rifai
Teams: Revolver
Shows: Whirled News Tonight
Rance Rizzutto
Teams: Chaos Theory
Shows: The Deltones
Jessica Rogers
Jessica Kelley Rogers began performing in her hometown of Miami, Florida. After falling in love with improvisation at the University of Florida (Theatre Strike Force and A.C.I.I.), Jessica moved to Chicago to study and perform improv while pursuing her other passion, elementary education. A graduate of The iO (formerly the Improv Olympic) and the Annoyance Theater, Jessica, an 8th grade math teacher, also teaches improv to adults at The iO and The Second City. Jessica has been directing The Second City’s Teen Ensemble since 2007.
The new Artistic Director of the Teen Comedy Fest (CIF Production), Jessica can currently be seen performing with The Playground’s Member Ensemble International Stinger. Since her move to Chicago in 1999, Jessica has performed in and taught at a variety of improv / comedy festivals around the country, including the Chicago Improv Festival. She has played with several improv ensembles at iO, The Annoyance, and The Playground. A former performer with The Improv Playhouse in Libertyville, she has worked with teens at the Audition Studio North, Beverly Arts Center, and several Chicago Public Schools. She developed curriculum for The Second City’s improvisation program and their Educational Touring Company, formerly EdCo. Jessica’s directing credits include teen and adult productions at Sketchfest, Donny’s Skybox, and The Bailiwick Theater.
Kevin Sciretta
Kevin Sciretta has been improvising, writing and performing in Chicago for 6 years. In the past he’s performed with pH Productions, DSI’s The Beatbox, Ghettoblaster and for The Second City abroad the Norwegian Pearl. Currently, he improvises with The Deltones, Bullet Lounge and the New American All-Stars, while writing/performing with the Cupid Players and Hot Toddler. He is very happy to teach here.
Teams: Chaos Theory
Shows: The Deltones, Challenger
Jason Shotts
Jason Shotts has been a part of the iO Theater for the past eight years. He’s been lucky enough to play with the groups Dummy, Henrietta Pussycat, Armando Diaz, OTIS, Willie Nelson Slept Here, Cougars, FELT, Brad Renfro, Mayhem, Chesterfield, Dr. Shotts and Big Rig. At the 2011 Del Awards, he received the Del for “Excellence in Teaching”. He knows that awards mean next to nothing and you should never take them seriously, but he still thinks that one is pretty cool. Meow, meow
Teams: Henrietta Pussycat
Shows: Dummy
Craig Uhlir
Craig Uhlir has been learning/playing at iO since 1996. He was on teams with names like Varmit and Spank until becoming an early member of the house team Deep Schwa and later a member of the house team Valhalla. Craig still plays on Deep Schwa and also in a two man show called Middle Age Comeback on Sundays. Craig toured with the Second City for over two years culminating with a tour of Kuwait and Iraq for the USO. Craig spent the last two years in Las Vegas performing for The Second City at the Flamingo, as well as teaching there too. Craig also played with ComedySportz Chicago in the 2000’s, and has hosted iO’s Jam on at least three separate stints starting all the way back in ‘97. Jam.
Teams: Deep Schwa
Shows: The Armando Diaz Experience, Middle Age Comeback
Farrell Walsh
Farrell Walsh is honored to be an instructor at iO. Farrell has studied at both iO and The Annoyance Theater. He is a founding member of the iO house team Revolver, and is very lucky to be part of the cast of Close Quarters. Outside of iO, Farrell is the Artistic Director at CIC Theater, and is part of CIC’s house ensemble Rainbow Deli. He also makes up one half of the sketch group White Fudge.
Teams: Revolver
Shows: Dinner Bell, The Armando Diaz Experience, The Scene
Steve Waltien
Steve Waltien began improvising and acting at Middlebury College in Vermont where he majored in Philosophy and Theatre. He is a graduate of the iO Training Center and the Second City Conservatory Program and has taught many classes and workshops for both institutions as well as independently. He can be seen performing at iO with the house team Bullet Lounge, Whirled News Tonight and The Armando Diaz Experience. Steve also performs at The Second City and has appeared in plays such as Amnesia and Other Means of Escape as part of the Potomac Theatre Project in Washington, DC. He is proud to be teaching at iO.
Teams: Chaos Theory
Shows: The Armando Diaz Experience, Whirled News Tonight, Improvised Shakespeare
Matt Young
Matt Young has been acting and improvising professionally in Chicago for the past several years. He is a founding cast member of the long-running, hit show Whirled News Tonight at the iO Theater now its seventh smash year. He has also appeared at the iO Theater and ComedySportz Chicago in shows such as The Improvised Star Trek, True Confessions of a Teenage A**hole, Concept Album, and The People in Your Neighborhood. Matt has performed with many teams at iO, including James Jackson and The Diplomat Motel. He has appeared in numerous radio and television commercials for companies such as Honda, Old Style, Comcast, Faultless Starch, and the Indianapolis Star Newspaper. Soon you will be able to see him in the independent feature, Fast-Love, Car-Explosion and an upcoming concert film for the singer/songwriter Andrew Bird.
Shows: Whirled News Tonight