Explore our Class Instructors!
Amy Albert is a comedian writer lady person who lives in LA with her husband, dog baby and human baby. She’s a sketch and musical comic who’s a member of sketch team The Mutiny, the longest running headliner mainstage team at iO West. They were the recipients of The Del Close Awards for Best Scripted Show, have been featured on Tosh.O, Comedy Central Stages, and are all around just a bunch of cuties. Amy wrote and starred in her award winning one woman musical character show... [read more]
Anatasha Blakely hails from Orem, Utah. She graduated from Southern Utah University with a B.F.A. in Classical Acting. She studied comedy at iO West and studied clowning at The School for Theatre Creators. She has taught and performed improv around the country at festivals and universities. Anatasha is a part of an L.A. based improv ensemble called Stormchaser which can be seen at iO West and a duo Buddy Puzzle which hosts a show at the Pack called the Jigsaw. Ask her anything... [read more]
Anna Cecilia is a sketch comedy writer, performer, and director from Houston, Texas. A graduate of Harvard University, Anna was head writer for the 2017 CBS Diversity Showcase and a staff writer for AwesomenessTV's Hacking High School. She currently writes for UCB’s Maude team Bombardier. Other writing credits include Revolver with head writer Andy Richter (UCB), Lady Bits with Mo Collins (iO West), main stage sketch teams Jet Jaguar and Taste Test (iO West), Maude team Sugar... [read more]
Ben has been formally improvising since 2008, beginning at IO West, and studying under Scott Robinson, Irene White, Dave Hill, Craig Cackowski and Derek Miller. He stumbled upon The Improv Space shortly after that time to participate in the wildest competitive improv show happening at the time - J.D. Walsh's Xecution - where he was humbled with a runner up award. Shortly after, Ben auditioned for an Improv Space mainstage team, studied with Danny Lampson and Dan Oster - and... [read more]
Born and raised in Santa Cruz, CA, John Davies first discovered his love for performance when he decided to take an improv comedy class at Cabrillo Community College. From there he never looked back. John attended UCLA where he began studying Theater while working toward his B.A. in Psychology. While enrolled he continued to study and perform improv weekly at The Improv Space and in other venues all over LA which is when he met the other co-founding members of The Wait List. [read more]
Nikhil Deshpande is an actor/writer/director from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Having trained in improv/sketch at The Improv Space and The Upright Citizens Brigade, and acting at The American Academy of the Dramatic Arts and The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Nikhil can now be found throughout LA performing improv, sketch and stand-up. You can see him every Friday night at The Improv Space with his team Bankroll, and around town with his various other improv teams. In addition to live... [read more]
Samir Forghani is an experienced improviser and long-time member of The Improv Space community. He is the co-host of Occupy Monday, a free stand-up open mic. [read more]
Ali graduated from UCLA with a degree in Anthropology and minor in Human Complex Systems, and immediately traded his diploma for some magic beans. Under the tutelage of JD Walsh, Ali fell deep into the world of improvisation and quickly carved out a spot on the Ultimate Improv mainstage, performing weekly with The Board, The Basketball Team, and in the iO West X-Ecution. At The Improv Space, Ali is a founding member of the film/improv team The Wait List where he's written... [read more]
Ben Goldsmith has been improvising with the Improv Space for over 7 years. Attending UCLA school of Theater, Film, and Television Ben found his home in the UCLA Spring Sing sketch group 'COMPANY' for three consecutive years. Now, he operates two small production companies; "BackHaüs Productions" and is the co-founder of "Dumb Owl Productions". He's a happy kind of a guy. You know he's quirky. [read more]
Ashleigh Crystal Hairston is an actor, writer and improvisor from Seattle, WA! She received a BA in Theatre Arts from Howard University in Washington DC and now resides in Los Angeles, CA. Ashleigh got her start at the Improv Olympic Theatre (iO West) in Hollywood, where she co-founded the award winning two-person improv group Two Piece Chicken and performed on the improv based sketch team DUKE for over 2 years. She is currently a regular performer at the renowned Upright Citizens... [read more]
Skander Halim is a screenwriter from balmy Ottawa, Canada who also loves live sketch comedy because of the quick turnaround time and lack of studio notes. At the Upright Citizens Brigade theater, he writes for the long-running house sketch team Bonafide. His screen and TV credits include the cult comedy feature Pretty Persuasion, the extremely short-lived CW sitcom 18 to Life, the Nickelodeon series Make It Pop and The Other Kingdom, and a bunch of obscure Canadian stuff — but no... [read more]
Megan hails from the Denver improv scene where she was awarded “Best New Improviser” in the 2015 Colorado Improv Awards. She’s received training at the Bovine Metropolis Theater in Denver, and in LA at UCB, iOWest, and The Improv Space. You can see her perform Fridays at The Improv Space Main Stage with 400 Cat and at various venues around town. As a teacher, her goals are to help individuals hone their natural comedic talents and instincts, and provide them with the tools to... [read more]
Gina is a comedy writer, performer, director, and producer who has written for such shows as the Emmy-award winning Cartoon Network series, Regular Show, the 2016 reboot of Cartoon Network's The Powerpuff Girls, Yahoo's TV In No Time and Superfan TV, ABC Digital's female driven sketch series, Paper Dolls, and the Hulu original series, The Morning After. Gina has also written for College Humor, Rooster Teeth ES, Break.com, New Media Rockstars, Petcentric, and Babelgum. In 2013, she... [read more]
Alex has been performing long and short form improv with various groups and theaters in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Los Angeles since 2003. After graduating from UNM in 2007 with a degree in theater, he joined Tricklock Theater Company, and performed original work and taught improv workshops in Canada, Serbia, Poland, Colombia, Uganda and Ukraine. A graduate from the UCB program and a member of the SAG since 2003, Alex has multiple film and television credits including Breaking... [read more]
Darren joined Ultimate Improv in 2001 while he was studying chemistry at UCLA. Bored with the lab work, he began pursuing his acting career after graduation. He is honored to be performing at TIS with such talented people. You can catch him Friday nights at 10:00 in My Favorite Customer. Also, Darren loves time travel and Raymond Chandler novels. [read more]
Ann Maddox has been writing and performing at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles since it opened in 2005. She improvised on the Harold team Lincoln's Bedroom and wrote for the Maude teams Nice Kitchen and Hot Mess. She has also written sketches for NPR's Marketplace and was a writer/performer for the CBS Diversity Showcase. She currently performs with her indie improv team 2012, and with the Japanese-language team Nihongo Dake. She has appeared in national... [read more]
Oscar Montoya is an actor, comedian, and hip hop dancer living in Los Angeles. He was born in a small town in Colombia and lived in New York for a spell, where he was a performer and a faculty member in both the Magnet Theater and The People's Improv Theater. Oscar has appeared in several national commercials (Lowe's, Pizza Hut, Cheerios) and various videos for College Humor, MTVOther and Buzzfeed. Oscar currently performs at UCB with Skyjammer, a freestyle rap improv team, on... [read more]
Eileen is an LA-based writer and improviser, originally from Chicago. She's been performing at the Space since 2012 and is a proud member of My Favorite Customer. Outside of the Space, she has trained with UCB, The Second City, iO West, The Miles Stroth Workshop, and more, but she can already feel your attention span wandering. Don't worry, you're almost done! Eileen is the Senior Staff Writer for Guff.com and a writer/performer/segment producer for Top Story! Weekly, iO West's... [read more]
Kirsten has been involved with The Improv Space since 2004, when she took classes and performed on Ultimate Improv's college team. When living in Boston, she founded and directed Ultimate Improv Boston, performed with the ImprovBoston Family Show, Improv Asylum's NXT Cast and Boston's Unscripted Musical Project before joining the Mainstage Cast at Improv Asylum. At the Asylum, she co-wrote and performed two-act sketch and improv revues, taught in the training center and performed... [read more]
Taylor Orci has performed at UCB, iO, and all over the internet and TV. Her sketch "Bitchy Resting Face" became "Immortal" on Funny or Die in 2 days and has over 7 million views on YouTube. She created, wrote and acted in her original series "Broken People" for Comedy Central digital. She's also written for FOX, Cosmo, Elle, McSweeney's, The Atlantic, New York Magazine and KPCC. Currently she has a TV half hour project in development and is directing for Funny or Die when they let... [read more]
Dan Oster appeared as a cast member on the hit Fox sketch series MADtv and performed in Amsterdam with famed improv comedy theater Boom Chicago where he also acted as assistant director. Dan currently stars on Rachel Dratch's Late Night Snack for truTV, and recently appeared on Bizaardvark for The Disney Channel. He's a member of WCT's Mission IMPROVable ensemble, as well as a writer and performer for the award-winning rock n' roll comedy show Lost Moon Radio. For clips of Dan... [read more]
Jared Popkin is an actor, writer and director who has been studying and performing Improv for 9 years. Jared moved to LA in August of 2015 after spending 6 years in Chicago, where he trained and performed at The Second City, iO and The Annoyance. Currently, Jared is a freelance actor, writer and director at Buzzfeed Motion Pictures. Jared is a founding member of the Improv and Sketch team BloodOath which has had multiple year runs in theatres across Chicago as well as... [read more]
Robin Reed has been working as a voiceover artist in New York and Los Angeles since 2004. She has voiced over 30 national commercials, including spots for Campbell's Soup, GE Appliances, Swanson, Wheat Thins, Discover Card, Neutrogena and more. Promo work includes Lifetime, HGTV, WE, and Oxygen. Animated roles include Xenon onTalking Tom (Google/Arx Anima), Monster on the Street (Seriously.tv), The Alien Guide to Earth (Mondo Media), Word Girl (Scholastic/PBS Kids), The Croods... [read more]
Chris Reinacher is a member of the main stage team The Wait List and a founding member of The Board at The Improv Space. He has performed at Second City in Chicago, UCB in Los Angeles and won first place in iO West’s The EX-Ecution—“the search for the best improviser in the city.” As an actor and writer, his short films have been screened at Cannes, Sundance, Out Of Bounds Comedy Festival and NYU's Next Reel in Singapore. He studied Theatre at UCLA; that’s why he spells it like... [read more]
Dhruv Uday Singh is an actor, writer, filmmaker, improviser, and other things you're allowed to declare yourself to be. He studied Creative Writing and Film at the University of Southern California, and performs regularly at various theaters around town. You can see him on TV in stuff like Children's Hospital, Comedy Bang Bang!, Bajillion Dollar Propertie$, and others. [read more]
Matt has been performing and teaching improvisation for over twenty-five years. He got his start at SAK Comedy Lab in Orlando, Florida, then went on to co-found the popular Atlanta-based improv company Dad's Garage Theatre. In 1996, Matt moved to LA to form the comedy group Houseful of Honkeys with some of his old SAK castmates, including Wayne Brady and Jonathan Mangum from WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? The group performed to rave reviews for several years, performed at numerous... [read more]