Mark Amato
Mark Amato’s credits include writing for “Saturday Night Live,” “Son of the Beach,” and “Suite Life on Deck with Zack & Cody”, “Baby Daddy”, as well as a spec comedy feature turned ABC/Family hit “Revenge of the Bridesmaids”. Mark began his career working as an assistant at ICM, then at management powerhouse Brillstein-Grey where he quickly ascended to the ranks of executive before heading to Sony Television as Director of Comedy Development. Quickly making the segue to full-time writer, Mark has written in almost all fields of television including sketch, half-hour, Sci-Fi, animation and movie-of-the-week. Having pitched and sold three network pilots before even becoming Story Editor, Mark knows a thing or two about getting executives to turn their heads and take notice. Mark has written television abroad as well, working in Toronto, Montreal and the U.K. Beyond earning shekels for the written word, Mark consistently finds new ways to tickle audiences like co-creating the hilarious showbiz skewering website DAILYANXIETY.com (which Entertainment Weekly dubbed, “wickedly mischievous”), wrote and starred as Jerry Lewis in “The Last Telethon” at the Comedy Central Theater last December, as well as winning the dubious title of “Best Christopher Walken impression” after his YouTube video “Christopher Walken as a Nursery School Teacher” went viral. When not writing, Mark works tirelessly at finding fresh ways to get his kids to roll their eyes at him.
Craig Cackowski
Craig Cackowski has been involved with the iO and iO West Theaters as a performer, coach, teacher and director since 1992. As a teacher, he is the three-time winner of the Del Close Award as Teacher of the Year. As a performer, he can be seen weekly at iO West in Quartet and The Armando Show, and monthly in My First Time With Cacky, with a different celebrity guest each show. In Chicago, Craig performed with the Second City Mainstage and ETC, as well as with Baby Wants Candy, Carl and the Passions and the original cast of Close Quarters. Film and television appearances include Community, How I Met Your Mother, Workaholics, and Year of The Dog.
Shows: Quartet, First Time With Cacky, The Better Half
George Caleodis
George Pete Caleodis was born and raised in Steubenville, Ohio, and attended The Ohio State University, earning a Master of Science degree in Mathematics. This document now hangs neatly on his wall, requiring dusting only once per month.
George is a main-stage alum of The (short-lived) Second City, Cleveland, where he also served as Conservatory instructor. He currently writes and performs with Big News, The Main Stage Sketch Show, and directs iO West’s “POP” company.
In addition to teaching, coaching, and performing improv and sketch comedy, George has spent much of the last 15 years as a radio DJ and stand-up comic – opening for the likes of Kathleen Madigan, Frank Caliendo, and The Righteous Brothers. His past corporate improv workshop clients include Nationwide Insurance, Victoria’s Secret, and Columbus State Community College.
Currently teaching Musical Improv – Level 1
Shows: George's Garage
Joe Canale
Joe Canale has been writing and performing and teaching comedy in it’s many forms for 20 years. He was a member of the cast of Boom Chicago Theater in Amsterdam as well as writing and performing four revues on The Second City Main Stage in Chicago. He somehow got paid to write comedy bits for ESPN radio for a year. He’s performed stand up off and on during that time, with it being “ON” since he moved to LA in 2009. He has done his material at the Improv and The Comedy Store, as well as numerous venues in Chicago.
Teams: Spirit Cat
Shows: BoomTang, Joe Canale's Joking Alley with Gareth Reynolds
Mike Coen
Teams: Trophy Wife
Shows: The Armando Show
Shulie Cowen
SHULIE COWEN has taught improv to kids, senior citizens, and everyone in between. She is a graduate of Northwestern University, a former member of The Second City National Touring Company, and a member of the original cast of the long running musical Schoolhouse Rock Live!. Shulie studied improv in Chicago at The Second City Training Center, The Annoyance Theatre and at Improv Olympic with Del Close. Shulie currently directs and performs in Opening Night: The Improvised Musical! every Friday at IO West. Movie and television credits include Curb Your Enthusiasm, Factory, You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, How I Met Your Mother, and Reno 911!.
Shows: Opening Night: The Improvised Musical!®
Sean Cowhig
Sean Cowhig is from Boston, MA and is a graduate of Emerson College. While at Emerson Sean joined the all improv comedy troupe This is Pathetic. He remained with the troupe for three years including his senior year when he was president of the troupe. Sean is a graduate of iO West’s improv program. He has been a member of several Mainstage Harold teams (Saucebox, Maddox Furley, Hey Swayze). Sean can be seen performing both improv and sketch at iO West with Dr. God, Pilot, and Top Story Weekly. He has guested in some of the greatest improv shows around, Opening Night the Musical, Dasariski, and The Armando Show.
Shows: Top Story! Weekly, Dr. God, Spin-Off Cinema, Glory Stories, Dr. God Revival
Matt Craig
Matt Craig began his career at Washington University with the troupe Mama’s Pot Roast. Previous theater credits include The Annoyance, iO, iOWest, Disney Cruise Lines, Brave New Workshop, The Second City Touring Company, UCB New York, The Second City Hollywood, and The Second City Chicago. Recent television credits include According To Jim, The Office, Mobbed and Key & Peele. He has taught for the Second City Conservatory in Chicago, the Brave New Institute in Minneapolis, and at both iO and iO West in addition to teaching workshops all over the United States. He works for Norwegian Cruise Lines writing and directing sketch comedy that is performed all over the world, and recently returned from New York City where he was a writer for Saturday Night Live.
Molly Erdman
Molly Erdman is an alum of iO Chicago where she studied with Del Close and performed with Genealogy, Valhalla, The Armando Diaz Experience and The Lindbergh Babies (directed by Del Close). She was a member of Second City’s National Touring Company and wrote and performed in three Mainstage shows at the Second City in Chicago. She created the website Catalog Living, one of Time Magazine’s Best Blogs of 2011, and is the author of the book Catalog Living at its Most Absurd which was published by Plume in 2012. At iO West, she currently directs the Harold team Tatanka and the sketch team Taste Test, and performs with Spirit Cat and The Armando Show.
Teams: Spirit Cat
Kevin Fleming
Kevin Fleming has been teaching and coaching improv for over ten years. He comes to LA from Chicago, where he trained and performed at several great theaters, including iO Chicago,The Second City and Annoyance. Kevin studied under Del Close and was a founding member of Deep Schwa – the longest running ensemble at iO Chicago. Also at iO Chicago, Kevin performed in The Armando Diaz Experience, the critically acclaimed Shotgun and with the group Baby Wants Candy. Kevin was a co-creator and co-stared in the semi scripted sitcom, Sports Action Team, which ran for two seasons on NBC affiliates all over the country and HDNet. Currently, Kevin teaches and performs at several theaters around town and can be see improvising at iO West with the group Spirit Cat. He has a TV show in development at Comedy Central and a feature he wrote, The Sugar Shack, is in pre-production with the Matthua Company.
Teams: Spirit Cat
Mike Fontaine
Michael Taylor Fontaine is one of L.A.’s top commercial casting session directors. Working with Ross Lacy Casting for nearly fourteen years, he has overseen casting sessions for more than 1,000 ads, and estimates that he directs 20,000 auditions each year. Sessions directors get input from directors and casting directors every day, and they also determine what auditions the client and director will see. For that reason it is powerful to understand the audition process from the perspective of the session director.
Mike Funt
Mike Funt is an actor and teacher in Los Angeles with a BFA in theatre performance and has worked in theatres across the country. Physical Theatre training includes The Dell’Arte School, Ringling Bros., and Lecoq training. Improv training includes SAK Comedy Lab, iO, and ComedySportz. Additionally, Mike has performed and taught workshops at countless improv and comedy festivals across the country. He also is a former instructor at the San Francisco Comedy College and is the current head of the Theatre Department for the Georgia Governor’s Honors Program.
Currently teaches Physical Improv Workshop
James Grace
James Grace is the Artistic Director of the iO West Theater. He has performed, written, produced and directed comedy for the stage, web, television and film. Credits include SUPER TROOPERS, BEER FEST, REAL WORLD HOLLYWOOD, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, RENO 911, MR WRONG and many more.
He has performed and taught improvisational comedy for over two decades.
Shows: Graceful Hog, Grace 'n Grano, I Protest Live Podcast
Dave Hill
Dave Hill is a Chicago native and veteran improvisational performer, writer and actor who has been performing at IO (Chicago and West) for several years. Trained at ImprovOlympic, the Annoyance Theater and the Second City, he was a member of the celebrated house team People of Earth at IO Chicago in addition to performing with numerous other wonderful ensembles including Atlantis and Jimmy Jimmy Do. Here at IO West he performs with King Ten and Cog as well as regularly appearing in the Armando show and the occasional sketch affair. He has done several commercials and TV and film work, but he does not think it germane to this biography.
Teams: King Ten
Shows: Elevator and Hill Jones present: Double Standard, The Cherry Pick
Eric Hunicutt
Eric Hunicutt has been performing scripted and improvised theatre continuously since he was 15 years old: everything from Shakespeare at Lincoln Center to sketch comedy in dive bars (with a lot of improv shows throughout). Eric has studied and performed with Improv Olympic (iO) Chicago, The Second City Chicago, Comedy Sportz, Steppenwolf, and is a proud alumnus of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a working actor and director in film, TV, live theatre, and performs weekly at iO West, as well as touring nationally with the acclaimed Chicago-based ensemble The Reckoning. Directing credits include shows at The Comedy Central Stage, iO West, Piccolo Spoleto Festival, The Second City (L.A. & Chicago),The Upright Citizens’ Brigade Theateres (NYC & L.A.), and the University of California San Diego. In addition to iO West, Eric teaches at Steppenwolf Classes West, Warner Loughlin Studios, The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Cal State University’s Summer Arts, and recently served as a Guest Faculty/Director at UC San Diego.
Shows: The Reckoning, The Armando Show, Milieu
Andrea Kittelson
Andrea Kittelson is an award-winning playwright, a Los Angeles theater critic and co-founder of Hyde and Turk Performance Works, a San Francisco-based theater company which produced, during its tenure, diverse works of theater and performance art. She holds an MFA in Theater Performance (writing, acting and directing) from SFSU. With six solo shows and hundreds of other works of theater under her belt, Andrea has come to understand what makes solo performances either flop or soar.
Her book “How to Put On Your Own One Person Show” is used as the textbook in university programs and is a comprehensive and practical guide that addresses every aspect of solo performance from creation to production.
Shows: The Audition
Bridget Kloss
Bridget began performing with IO in Chicago in 1997, when she was asked to join the house team Missing Fersons. She later performed with Prefontaine for several years, and was in the shows Two Slow, Epic Prattle, and Ask Charna. In 2000 she joined the cast of The Second City National touring company, and in 2004, became a member of The Second City Mainstage cast in Las Vegas. She has taught and coached improv for over 5 years, with IO, Second city and independently around the country.
Shows: Sweeterhouse
Aaron Krebs
Aaron Krebs, from Texas by way of Chicago, has been involved with improv for over twelve years. He is part of the National Improv Touring Company, Mission IMPROVable, where he performed in such noted comedy festivals as: Chicago Improv Festival, Memphis Comedy Fest, Orlando Fool s Festival, Great Lakes Comedy Fest, Big Stinkin Improv Festival, as well as others. After three seasons of touring the US, he is proud to find his home here with the Improv Olympic West.
Shows: The Cherry Pick, Elevator and Hill Jones present: Double Standard
Ed Lee
Ed Lee is an alumnus of the iO West Improv Training Center. He has been on the writing staff of almost 100 episodes of television comedy (including “Are You There, Chelsea?” and “The Drew Carey Show”), written numerous freelance episodes, and worked in punch-up rooms of several television pilots. He has also lectured and taught seminars in film and screenwriting at Wesleyan University and Gettysburg College.
Currently teaches Comedy Writers Room
Margot Leitman
Margot Leitman is a four time winner of The Moth Storyslam, and was the Moth Grandslam winner in New York City. Her first book “Gawky…Tales of an Extra Long Awkward Phase,” comes out this May from Seal Press. She is the co-host of the storytelling shows “Stripped Stories” and “Small and Tall Tales” and has written online for the Lifetime Network, College Humor.com, EHow.com, the Frisky.com and in print for Playgirl Magazine and the NY Press. She is the co-writer of the made for TV movie “Cupid’s Bed and Breakfast,” starring Haylie Duff, airing soon on the Hallmark Channel. www.margotleitman.com
James Mastraieni
James Mastraieni has been improvising all over the place for awhile now. After moving to Los Angeles in 2005 he decided to take on the daunting task of taking classes at Second City, iO West, and Upright Citizen’s Brigade at the same time. After all that hard work, dedication, and confusion he was one of the first people hired out of LA to tour for the Second City cruise ships. He spent two years at sea, returned to LA and picked up where he left off, spending three years on iO West Harold team, The Cartel, followed by a year with the Harold team, Sweeterhouse. Now, he regularly performs at iOWest every Friday night at 10pm with Orpheus Roy on the mainstage and over at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade on the Harold team The Ruckus. He’s been teaching at iOWest for over a year now and coaches many teams including DCT Harold team Hooligan and he coached two Time Best DCT Harold Team Del Close Award winner Popular Science. He also has written two web series “Unemployed: The Show” and “2Bed/1Bath.” He’s a master at plugging a show.
Shows: Orpheus Roy, Sweeterhouse
George McAuliffe
George McAuliffe performed, coached and taught at iO in Chicago for the past 7 years. He performed with The Armando Diaz Experience and is a founding member of the house team Revolver. In 2010, George was voted one of iO Chicago’s top ten performers. He also performed and taught at the Annoyance Theatre where he wrote and performed in dozens of critically acclaimed shows. George is a member of the sketch group Sad On Vacation who performed at Just For Laughs festival, Comedy Central Stage in LA and with Bob Odenkirk’s Not Innapproriate Show. You can bring their videos to you at www.sadonvacation.com. He can currently be seen performing at iO West with Spirit Cat and Chalet.
Teams: Spirit Cat
Shows: Chalet, McAuliffe and Ehart
Tiffani Ann Mills
Tiffani has over 8 years of improv experience and is alumni of iO West. In addition to assisting in last year’s Youth Program, Tiffani has taught several classes at The Utah Shakespearean Festival, Kingsman Shakespeare Festival, Tumbleweed Day Camp, Camarillo Youth Program and has taught improv workshops in several high schools.
Shows: Danger Snack, Danger Snack Does..., Glory Stories
Katie Nahnsen
Katie Nahnsen is an LA based actor, writer, improviser and teacher. She was a series regular and story contributor on the syndicated comedy Sports Action Team, which was distributed by MGM and aired on HDNet and NBC affiliates across the country for two years. Katie’s written and performed in plays, improv and sketch comedy revues throughout the nation and is a Moth StorySLAM winner. Notable groups include the award winning Baby Wants Candy, CatNip, Virgin Daiquiri, Spirit Cat and the Late Night Late Show. In Los Angeles, Katie’s performed at iO West, The Second City LA, UCB LA and The Groundlings. In Chicago, she has performed at iO Theatre, The Second City, The Annoyance, and The Neo-Futurists. Katie loves teaching improv and acting classes not only to comedians and actors, but also to corporations and children in foster care as a way to improve confidence and communication.
Teams: Spirit Cat
Shows: Virgin Daiquiri West
Brian James O'Connell
Directing Sample Video
Brian James O’Connell Website
Dr. God Comedy
Brian James O’Connell is a working actor, writer, director, filmmaker and improviser in Los Angeles. Brian is a graduate of the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts (David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, Jody Hill,Ben Best, Peter Hedges, Mary-Louise Parker, Tom Hulce,Terrence Mann, Chris Parnell, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Jeff Nichols) and moved to Los Angeles to follow his dreams of a career in filmmaking. Read more about Brian here on his website
Shows: Top Story! Weekly, Dr. God, Tigerpants, Dr. God Revival, Barbie's Dream House, BillyHawk
Annie O'Connor
Annie grew up in NW Indiana has been performing improv since 1997. In 2001 she helped found the children’s improv touring group, Smarty Pants Theater Company in Cincinnati, OH before making her way west to Los Angeles where she trained at the iO West Theater.
Over the years of training and performing a strong philosophy of team over individual emerged. With this idea in place, Annie began coaching which eventually turned into teaching. She currently teaches at MI’s Westside Comedy Theater, AMDA and at iO West where she also runs the student performance program, The Lottery. She also teaches and tours with her two man show, NOW? w/Annie & Levin and has performed at festivals in cities including Chicago, Vancouver, Honolulu, Austin, LA & San Francisco. But you can see her with the Del Close Award winning Harold Team, Uss Rock n Roll, every Wednesday at iOwest.
During the day Annie is also a working commercial actor and has appeared in several national and local spots. But mostly she gets totally jazzed-off about improv, and yes, that is how she talks about it.
Teams: USS Rock n Roll
Shows: USS Rock N Roll
Levin O'Connor
Levin O’Connor – Levin began his improv career in Chicago studying at iO(Formerly ImprovOlympic) and The Second City. He has been fortunate enough to learn from some of the great minds in this craft and works hard to pass that along. Improv is more than a means to an end for Levin, it is a life philosophy. This Del Close Award winning “Coach of the Year” has lived in LA for the past four years and performs weekly at IoWest with USS Rock ‘N Roll and The iO Repertory Company.
Teams: USS Rock n Roll
Shows: USS Rock N Roll
Marion Austin Oberle
Marion Oberle has been writing and performing for many a moon. After years of doing “straight” theatre she stumbled upon ImprovOlympic and has never gone back. In Chicago, she was lucky enough to perform with the house team Carl and The Passions every Wednesday night for 4 years. She is one of the founders of the critically acclaimed sketch group Brick that has performed over 9 original shows as well as headlined in the San Francisco Sketch Festival, The Chicago sketch festival, and the Chicago Improv Festival. Marion has also written two novels, a self-help book entitled “How Did My Ass Get So Big?” and a variety of articles in magazines you’ve never heard off. You can catch Marion on Comedy Central with the “B & D Squad”.
Teams: USS Rock n Roll
David Razowsky
David Razowsky is the respected teacher and former artistic director of the Second City Los Angeles. As an actor, David has written and performed in ten Second City Chicago revues. He directed Second City Chicago Mainstage’s No, Seriously, We’re All Gonna Die, Second City LA’s, Encino Evil, The Second City Untitled Project, The Second City Detroit’s acclaimed 19th Nervous Breakdown, and The Second City National Touring Company. David also directed two of Amsterdam’s Boom Chicago productions, and is credited with creating Boom Chicago’s signature live on-stage video production. David has worked with animators at Dreamworks, and has taught for Steppenwolf Theatre. He regularly performs at iO with Carrie Clifford in Razowsky & Clifford.
Shows: Razowsky & Clifford, Razowsky and Messing, Date Night with Joe Bill & Dave Razowsky
Mitch Rouse
Mitch Rouse is a prolific writer, director and actor who has worked in theater, TV and film. A veteran in the world of improvisation, Rouse grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, home of the atomic bomb. After a short stint in college, almost two months, he dropped out and moved to Chicago, where he studied improvisation under the late, great Del Close, while performing with Blue Velveeta. It was during this time that he was asked to join the stage of Chicago’s famed, Second City Theatre, where he wrote and performed several shows.
Rouse moved to New York, to perform in the David Sedaris play, “Stiches”, at La Mama Theatre. It was in while in New York, that Mitch teamed up with Second City alum,Stephen Colbert, to create and star in “Exit 57”, Comedy Central’s first original half-hour, sketch comedy series. “Exit 57” ran for two seasons and received five Cable Ace Award nominations, including Best Actor for Rouse and Best Writing for a comedy series.
Rouse is also well-known for creating and appearing in the cult-hit “Strangers with Candy” , the comedy network’s first half-hour, scripted series, which also went on to become a feature film. He has written, directed and starred in numerous shorts, including “You Told Her What?”, “The Ad Man”, Wheels of Fury and “End of the Date”.
Other television appearances “Reno 911!” , “Spin City” and “The Secret Lives of Men” . He has appeared in hit feature films, including Rudy , Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me , Friends with Money , Spy School and the Farrelly Brother’s The Heartbreak Kid.
Rouse wrote Employee of the Month (2004) (Bull’s Eye Entertainment) while starring in the ABC sitcom “Lost at Home” (2003). Rouse also directed Employee of the Month (2004), which stars Matt Dillon, Steve Zahn and Christina Applegate. “Employee” premiered at The Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews and it has since become a cult classic. He also wrote Paramount Pictures summer comedy Without a Paddle, starring Seth Green, Dax Shepard and Burt Reynolds.
In 2007, while appearing on ABC’s hit sitcom “According to Jim” , Mitch created, wrote and directed Spike TV’s first foray into the comedy world, with the critically acclaimed “Factory”, which Rouse starred in with longtime friend and fellow Second City member,David Pasquesi.
Most recently, SONY/Columbia Pictures purchased Rouse’s big summer, action film, Super Max.
Paul Vaillancourt
Paul Vaillancourt is the co-founder (with Charna Halpern) of the iO West and has been teaching and performing improv for over 20 years. In that time he has appeared all over the country including such notable venues as HBO’s Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Chicago’s iO (where he studied with the immortal Del Close), New York’s UCB Theater, and the iO West here in Los Angeles. As an actor Paul has appeared on such shows as “The Drew Carey Show”, the UPN sitcom “Half & Half”, and the Oxygen Network’s stand out “Girls Behaving Badly”. Paul has also had success as a writer and producer, co-creating and serving as supervising writer for the MTV hit “The Blame Game” as well as lending his writing and producing talents to a score of other shows for MTV, VH1, USA, Oxygen, Bravo and AMC. Paul currently lives in LA with his wife Lindsey and his two children.
Shows: BeerSharkMice
Mark Vannier
Mark Vannier is a writer and performer in Los Angeles after getting his start in Chicago. He has written and performed at several theaters and festivals across the country including the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, Capital Fringe Festival in DC, Chicago Sketchfest, TBS Just For Laughs festival and the New York Television Festival. He taught and directed at the Second City Training Center’s Writing Program as well as the Annoyance Theater in Chicago where he wrote, performed in and directed over a dozen original shows. He also performed in several shows and harold teams at iO Chicago and iO West. Mark is a member of the comedy group Sad On Vacation which does live shows as well as video content, and they are currently developing a web series for WITv. He completed his MFA in Fiction from Southern Illinois University where he taught Composition and Creative Writing courses. His writing has been published in several literary journals and has been read on Chicago Public Radio.
Holly Wortell
Holly Wortell, actress, producer, director and Emmy nominated writer. Ms. Wortell started her career at Chicago’s renowned Second City Theater, writing and performing for seven years. She served as a writer/producer on Warner Brothers/NBC talk show, “The Bonnie Hunt Show” for which she was Emmy nominated. Holly also served as producer and editor on the ABC/Worldwide Pants sit-com “Bonnie.” Holly has starred in three network primetime series, including ABC’s critically acclaimed “Life With Bonnie.” She can be seen in HBO’s, “Entourage,” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” in many films, and has been in numerous television and radio commercial campaigns. Ms. Wortell previously taught at The Second City in Chicago, and is currently on the faculty at The Second City, Los Angeles, and also serves as director.