Ross Bryant

Bryant built his improv career in Chicago, where he trained and performed in the long-form tradition centered on The Second City. He joined the Second City Touring Company and later advanced to the resident cast of The Second City Mainstage, one of the most competitive performance positions in North American comedy. At the Mainstage he wrote and performed in the critically acclaimed revue Let Them Eat Chaos and earlier co-wrote revues for UP! Comedy Club, including One Nation Under 1% and American Mixtape. He also appeared in Second City's Guide to the Opera in collaboration with the Lyric Opera.

After relocating to Los Angeles, Bryant became a regular performer with The Improvised Shakespeare Company, the ensemble specializing in fully improvised Shakespearean-style comedy. The company performs regularly at the Largo in Los Angeles and tours nationally, including performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He is also a regular member of Baby Wants Candy, the long-running musical improv ensemble based at UCB. Both companies represent sustained commitments to specialized forms of long-form improvisation beyond the Harold framework.

Bryant's screen work includes appearances in The Good Place on NBC, Crashing on HBO, and I Think You Should Leave on Netflix. He served as a writer on Mystery Science Theater 3000 and has co-written original television pilots sold to Pop TV, Warner Bros, and Showtime. His stand-up and improv work has taken him to Just For Laughs, Bonnaroo, SF Sketchfest, Outside Lands, the Ford Amphitheater, and the 92Y. He teaches improvisation, performance, and writing at the World's Greatest Improv School in Los Angeles and has taught at the Second City Training Center. He is also a cartoonist whose animations have appeared on Comedy Central Digital, and he hosts the horror-comedy improv podcast Push the Roll. After completing his run on the Second City Mainstage in Chicago, Bryant relocated to Los Angeles and continued building his performance and writing career in the West Coast comedy ecosystem. His Second City background gave him credibility in both performance and writing contexts: the Mainstage's revue format requires performers to contribute to the writing process, giving alumni a facility in sketch structure and comedic construction that purely theatrical improvisers sometimes lack. In Los Angeles, Bryant applied his long-form improv skills and Second City writing experience to the broader range of opportunities available in the industry's headquarters, including television writing, digital content, and continuing stage performance. His work as a writer and performer across multiple media contexts reflects the career flexibility that Second City training is known for developing, producing performers who can move between stage, screen, and writing work with the comedic sensibility consistent across all three.