An Nichols

She/Her

An Nichols is a ren faire performer turned improviser. She has performed in the NJ Ren Faire, PA Ren Faire, NJ Kingdom, and Wrightstown Ren Faire. She has taught workshops in improvised sci fi at Black and Funny Fest, Happy Valley XS Fest and directed Improvised Space Trek for ImprovFest Ireland. She has performed for the Improvised Shakespeare Conservatory at Philly Improv, Improvised Fairytale Conservatory at Philly Improv and improvised narrative fairytale genre at Comedy Sportz Philly. She currently teaches improv in the Philly Suburbs and performs improvised drama with Yes And Playback theater throughout Pennsylvania.

Diana Brown

She/Her

Diana Brown is an improv artist, teaching artist, actor, producer, director and voiceover talent. She was voted Most Valuable Mentor and Teacher at the San Francisco Improv Festival. She leads the improv program at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s School of Theatre. Diana is an instructor, producer and a member of the leadership team with Leela Improv Theatre in San Francisco. She presents the improvised Shakespeare program at All Out Comedy Theatre and is a guest teacher with BATS.

Diana enjoys helping improv artists find and amplify their unique gifts! She genuinely believes everyone is infinitely fascinating and endeavors to instill that belief in her students. She believes the truth is the most compelling thing we can offer up on the stage and encourages her students to bring their truth to their characters whether they’re naturalistic or fantastical.

She’s presented Improv workshops, intensives and “workshop to show” experiences at SAVI Fest, Northwest Improv Fest, Improv Fest Ireland, Belfast Improv Fest, Queen City and Comedy Experience, Uptown Improv Festival, Vancouver Improv Festival, Tucson Comedy Arts Festival, Ocean State Improv Festival, Gather Spring Improv Retreat, Cornerstone Improv, O-Town Improv festival, Countdown Improv Festival, Camp Improv Utopia West, Experience, IMPRIDE, Unscrewed Theatre, 2nd Best Comedy Fest, Denver Improv Festival, Unscrewed Theater in Tucson, AZ, All Out Comedy Theater in Oakland, CA, Sealevel, San Francisco, CA, Phoenix Theater, San Francisco, CA.

Diana plays in the Shakespeare inspired, Gamesome Frolic. She’s half of the duo Bingewatch, plays in the Tennessee Williams inspired duo Fleeting Reminiscence, the trios POPTOP, The Witches, the duos Horrible People, DJ, Secret Lives of Villains, Salt and Pepper, Davenport & Brown, and the Twilight Zone inspired ensemble But of Mind.

Diana appeared as a guest artist with BATS Improv in San Francisco and is a member of the acting pool with the San Francisco sketch comedy company Killing My Lobster. She has appeared at Impro Amsterdam, the Liverpool Improv Festival in Mark Smith’s Taxi Tales, the Vancouver Improv Festival, Uptown Improv Festival, Improv Fest Ireland, Gather Spring Improv Retreat, Rise Comedy Fest, SF Sketchfest, The Queen City Comedy Experience, San Francisco Improv Fest, Improvaganza Hawaii Festival of Improv, San Diego Improv Fest, O-Town Improv Fest, New York Improv Festival. Vintage Improv Fest, 2nd Best Comedy Fest, New Orleans Improv Fest, Twin Cities Improv Fest, Alaska State Improv Fest, Tucson Comedy Arts Fest and others. Diana also performs in scripted theater productions including Playground Solo Fest 2025 and at theaters and theatre festivals around the country.

Sam Kamenetz

He/him

Sam Kamenetz Is the director and lead producer of Improvised Dungeons and Dragons, an NYC based improv troupe with a nerdy, fantasy flair. He has trained at Sea Tea Improv, The Magnet, and Brooklyn Comedy Collective over his 8 years of experience. When not improvising he can be found playing tabletop role playing games (and reading about them), hosting murder mysteries, and occasionally writing software, his actual job! He lives in Brooklyn NY with his partner, two cats, and golden retriever.

Ania Upstill

They/Them

Ania is a queer and trans performer, educator, theatre maker and clown. A graduate of the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, Ania has devised and performed long form clown pieces at Lincoln Center, The Cell Theater and The Tank, and their solo clown show, Transhumance, was a part of the Kennedy Center's 2024 Pride Month programming. They have also performed short clown pieces at venues in New York City including House of Yes, The Duplex, and Brooklyn Art Haus. As a clown teacher, they have taught internationally and co-facilitated the inaugural Clown Cohort of teachers with Clown Gym, and have done two techering and performance tours with Clowns Without Borders to Palestine. 

Ania is also a giant Shakespeare nerd, and they have performed in or directed most of the plays in the canon. They recently wrote the book a punk pirate musical, Antonio!, that reimagines Shakespeare’s Antonios as one gay pirate who inspired The Bard, for which they did an Artistic Fellowship at the Folger Shakespeare Library (they would love to talk to you about queerness and pirates in early modern England). Ania currently teaches in the Shakespeare program for Lincoln Center Theatre, and they like to joke that they have a minor in Shakespeare after studying in the Shakespeare at Winedale program at UT Austin. As a professional teaching artist they also work for New Victory Theater, Theater of the Oppressed NYC, New York Theatre Workshop and Opening Act. They are a current PLAYA Arts and Science Resident Artist; a New Georges Affiliated Artist; a regular contributor to The Nature of Cities; and a 2024 - 2025 Folger Shakespeare Library Artistic Fellow. They were a part of The Orchard Project’s Greenhouse Lab 2023-24; and were an Artistic Fellow with The Urban Field Station Collaborative Arts Residency 2022-23.

Hal Munger

They/He

Hal Munger has been improvising for over a decade. They discovered Shakespearean improv as member of the Stanford Improvisors. Hal is the founding member of Thorn and Petal Stick, the Artistic Director of the UnScripted Shakespeare Festival and the co-host of the podcast Muprov Musings.

Sam Miller

He/him

Sam Miller was a Shakespeare nerd before he became an improv geek so putting the two together was inevitable. His credits include writing sitcoms for CBS, Disney and YouTube Red, happily nodding when a showrunner likened an episode to Taming of the Shrew. In 2024 he produced and performed in Nothing but Roaring, an improvised Shakespeare show in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. He and his wife can sometimes be spotted in random Instagram posts walking their two beautiful fluffy dogs.

Brandon Salerno

He/Him

Brandon Salerno is a NYC-based Theatre / TV / Voice-Over actor with a passion for Clown, Commedia dell’Arte and Farce. He just wrapped a national tour with Spymonkey: Theatre of the Funny and is back in NYC to resume performing and teaching. Brandon is known for his Recurring Co-star role as Truman in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – Seasons 1, 2 & 3. Recently, Brandon has completed performance and teacher training of Clown, Commedia, and physical comedy with Christopher Bayes (Yale MFA), Giovanni Fusetti (Helikos), and David Bridel (The Clown School LA). These studies have contributed to his work over the last decade with Matthew A.J. Gregory (The New School) as founding members of the Commedia dell'Arte troupe: The Department of Fools. Brandon is represented by Stewart Talent, Trillion Management, and BMG NY. www.brandonsalerno.com

Kristin Elliot

She/Her

Kristin was introduced to improv at the tender age of 12 and has barely stopped since. She has been fortunate enough to train and perform on stages across the United States and Europe. Currently, Kristin is part of The Second City Conservatory program and she has also learned from such improv luminaries as Shaun Landry, Diana Brown, Susan Messing, Rachel Mason, and Brian James O'Connell. 

Tracy Gordon

She/Her

Tracey Gordon started her improv career in college with the short form and sketch comedy team The Pappy Parker Players. She has performed on the now regrettably named UCB Lloyd team Huxtable and the Magnet Musical Megawatt team's Gem and Speakeasy. 

Recently, she's been performing a new musical improv form with her comedy partner Adam Payne and teaching intermediate level classes at FoHi Improv in Forest Hills, Queens.

Chris Bouknight

She/Her

Chris Bouknight is an improviser, coach, teacher and higher education professional who originally hails from South Carolina but has spent the past decade in NYC. She has spent the majority of that time as a Magnet Theater Megawatt and The Armory (at The Tank NYC) Friday night house team member. She holds a Master's in Applied Theatre and has taught theatre for over a decade. A true improv nerd, she loves playing with genre and more organic improv forms - anything that stresses ensemble dynamics and keeps the audience leaning forward in their seats.

Luis Feliciano

He/him/any

Luis Feliciano is an actor-director who focuses on Clown, Bouffon, and Commedia dell’Arte. He has recently completed a Clown Teaching apprenticeship with Christopher Bayes (Head of Physical Acting @ Yale) and worked as Studio Manager for Clown Gym’s 10th season. He devised and performed in FLOCK THE VOTE at the ATL Fringe alongside master bouffon Eric Davis. In the Fall of 2024, he performed as David in FAMILY by Oscar-nominated Celine Song, directed by OBIE-winning Alec Duffy.

Training: Philippe Gaulier (Le Jeu/Clown), Christopher Bayes (Clown/Commedia), Giovanni Fusetti (Bouffon/Red Nose Clown), Benjamin Moore (Linklater/Stanislavski/Meisner), Emmanuelle Delpech (Lecoq Pedagogy).

Directing Credits include: Coyote Oughta Eat That Salesman! by Padraig Bond, Eurydice by Sarah Ruhl, The Sex Myth: A Devised Play, Unhinged by Chris Gacinski, Leprechauns! by Padraig Bond, POD by Georgina Woo

Valerie Ward

She/Her

Valerie Ward has been teaching, performing, and directing improv for over 20 years. With her world-renowned group Parallelogramophonograph (PGraph for short) she has traveled to over 65 cities in The US, Canada, Spain, France, The Netherlands, The UK, and Australia. Valerie recently moved to NYC from Austin, TX where she was an instructor, performer, and director at The Hideout Theatre, teaching all levels and styles of improv.

Shows produced include: 

-A Bedtime Gorey inspired by the work of Edward Gorey featuring full body shadow puppetry

-A Dahl House inspired by the work of Roald Dahl

-Home for the Holidays in the style of holiday travel classics such as Home Alone and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

-A Deed So Dark, an improvised folk musical inspired by American Murder Ballads

Valerie has also been involved in creating shows drawing on sources including Chekov, Dickens, Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Film Noir, Screwball Comedy, French Farce, and Existential Science Fiction.

In addition to her 1000+ and counting shows with PGraph,Valerieperforms with Echo Lake, an all-female group focused on organic improv. In teaching and coaching, she focuses on bringing truth and vulnerability to scenes while simultaneously discovering delight and mischief.