Brad Sherwood

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Brad Sherwood is an improv performer, comedian, and actor who trained with Theater Sports Los Angeles and Second City Los Angeles before becoming a series regular on the American version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which aired on ABC from 1998 to 2007. Born Bradley Sherwood on November 24, 1964, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, he earned a BFA in Acting from Wright State University in 1986. He first appeared on the British Whose Line Is It Anyway? in 1992 and has since 2003 co-headlined a two-person touring show with Colin Mochrie, originally titled An Evening with Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood and subsequently called Scared Scriptless and Asking for Trouble, which has toured the United States, Canada, India, Australia, and New Zealand. His additional television credits include a recurring role on L.A. Law, The Newz, Drew Carey's Green Screen Show, and Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza.

Career

Brad Sherwood grew up in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he began acting at age eight. He attended Wright State University in the Dayton, Ohio area, earning a BFA in Acting in 1986. After relocating to Los Angeles, he discovered improv through a class called Go for Broke and described the first class as transformative. He subsequently performed with and taught for Theater Sports Los Angeles and then joined Second City Los Angeles.

His first professional acting credit was a recurring role as Ned Barron on L.A. Law, in which he appeared in six episodes from 1991 to 1992. In 1994 he joined the cast of The Newz, a syndicated sketch-comedy series. He also appeared on The Tonight Show, Talk Soup, VH-1's I Love the 80s and 90s, and The Dating Game.

Sherwood first appeared on the British version of Whose Line Is It Anyway? in 1992, in two episodes of Season 4. He returned to the program in 1997 as a regular performer during its final two seasons, appearing in approximately seventeen episodes across three seasons through 1999. He then joined the American adaptation of the show, produced by Drew Carey and airing on ABC, as a series regular. The American Whose Line Is It Anyway? ran from 1998 to 2007, with Sherwood appearing in 66 episodes during the original ABC run from 1998 to 2002. His regular castmates included Colin Mochrie, Wayne Brady, and Ryan Stiles, with Drew Carey as host.

He appeared as a performer on Drew Carey's Green Screen Show and in three guest episodes of The Drew Carey Show. In 2011 he appeared on Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza on GSN. From 2010 to 2011 he served as one of a rotating group of guest announcers on The Price Is Right.

In 2003, Sherwood and Colin Mochrie began co-headlining a two-person improvised touring show. The production, originally titled An Evening with Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood, subsequently toured as Scared Scriptless and, as of 2026, as Asking for Trouble. The duo performs scenes, songs, and improvised games generated entirely from audience suggestions, without script or preparation. They have toured across the United States and Canada and performed internationally in India, Australia, and New Zealand.

Sherwood is represented as a keynote speaker through Chartwell Speakers, offering improv-based programs for corporate and organizational audiences. His Wright State University alma mater has recognized his career through campus visits and profiles by the university's communications office.

Historical Context

Sherwood's entry into Whose Line Is It Anyway? through the British original in 1992 and his subsequent regular presence in the American adaptation placed him within the small group of performers who constituted the public face of long-form and short-form improv on American network television during the late 1990s and early 2000s. The American Whose Line, which ABC aired from 1998 to 2007, was at its peak the most widely watched improv-adjacent television production in American history, and its cast, including Sherwood, Mochrie, Brady, and Stiles, became the primary reference point for American general audiences encountering improv as a performance category.

The format of Whose Line, which used short-form improv games rather than long-form Harold structures, distinguished the show from the iO and UCB traditions that dominated American improv training culture. Sherwood's training path through Theater Sports Los Angeles and Second City Los Angeles, rather than iO or UCB, aligned with the short-form game tradition that Whose Line extended to national audiences.

The Colin and Brad touring partnership, which has operated continuously since 2003 and has visited multiple international markets, represents one of the more sustained two-person improv touring productions in American comedy. The format's reliance entirely on audience-generated material has made it a distinctive production model: a professional improv show without theatrical venue infrastructure, sustaining itself through performing arts center bookings in cities without dedicated improv theaters.

Legacy

Sherwood's appearances on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, both the British original and the American ABC adaptation, placed him among the most publicly visible improv performers of the late 1990s and early 2000s, during the period when the American ABC adaptation reached its peak viewership. For a generation of American audiences, the Whose Line cast, including Sherwood, constituted the primary popular reference for what improvised comedy looked like as a televised form.

The Colin and Brad touring partnership, which has operated for more than two decades and included international touring, has extended the reach of short-form improv performance to performing arts center audiences in markets without dedicated improv theaters, making accessible an improv-adjacent performance form to audiences who would not otherwise encounter it. The show's longevity has made it a notable example of improv-based touring production sustaining itself primarily through audience-voted content rather than scripted material.

Early Life and Training

Bradley Sherwood was born on November 24, 1964, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He began acting at age eight and attended Wright State University in the Dayton, Ohio area, earning a BFA in Acting in 1986. He relocated to Los Angeles after graduation, where he discovered improvisational comedy through a class called Go for Broke.