The builders, teachers, and performers behind the form.

Alan Myerson (born 1936) is a theatre and television director who co-founded The Committee, the politically satirical improvisational troupe that operated in San Francisco's North Beach from 1963 to 1972. A Second City alumnus who directed the company's second ensemble in Chicago, Myerson brought the improv-revue model to San Francisco and shaped it toward explicitly political and activist content, creating one of the most historically distinct improvisational companies in American comedy history. He subsequently directed more than two hundred television episodes for major network series and made his feature film debut with Steelyard Blues, starring Donald Sutherland and Jane Fonda.

Ali Farahnakian is a New York-based improv performer, teacher, and founder of The People's Improv Theater (The PIT), which he established in New York City on December 6, 2002, as a tribute to his mentor Del Close. A founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade ensemble in Chicago, a writer on Saturday Night Live's 25th anniversary season, and a graduate of ImprovOlympic under Del Close, Farahnakian built The PIT into one of New York's significant independent improv training institutions, with notable alumni including Ellie Kemper, Kristen Schaal, and Hannibal Buress.

Amy Poehler (born 1971) is a performer, writer, producer, and co-founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre whose career runs from training under Del Close in Chicago through SNL, Parks and Recreation, and decades of sustained creative leadership in American comedy. She trained at iO and The Second City in the early 1990s, helped found the UCB ensemble in 1996, and built a long-form improv institution in New York that became one of the defining training pipelines of the following generation. Her importance to improv history begins well before her television career and extends through the institutional infrastructure she helped create.

Armando Diaz is a Harvey, Illinois-born improviser, director, and teacher who trained at ImprovOlympic under Del Close, at the Annoyance Theatre under Mick Napier, and through the Second City Conservatory before becoming a central figure in the development of long-form improvisation in both Chicago and New York. He is the namesake of The Armando Diaz Experience, Theatrical Movement and Hootenanny, a monologue-driven long-form show that premiered at iO Chicago in 1995 with a founding cast including Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Rachel Dratch, Neil Flynn, Adam McKay, and David Koechner. The show ran every Monday night at iO Chicago for decades and is cited as the longest-running improv show in history. The Armando format it established directly influenced ASSSSCAT at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Diaz co-founded the Magnet Theater in New York in 2005 and remains its co-owner and primary director.

Cale Bain is a Canadian-born improviser, director, educator, and academic based in Sydney, Australia, who has been performing and teaching improvisational comedy since 1988. He trained through the Second City Theatre Company in Toronto before relocating to Australia, where he became Director of Training at Impro Australia and co-founded Improv Theatre Sydney. He served as improv director for Foxtel's Australian adaptation of Whose Line Is It Anyway? and launched Sydney's first longform improv show, Full Body Contact No Love Tennis, which ran for nearly a decade. He holds a PhD in humour, journalism and discourse from the University of Technology Sydney, where he has conducted grant-funded applied improv research with refugee communities and university students.

Colin Andrew Mochrie is a Scottish-born Canadian actor and improvisational comedian, born November 30, 1957, in Kilmarnock, Scotland, who is the most continuously visible performer in the history of televised improv. He trained at Studio 58 at Langara College in Vancouver and was among the founding members of the Vancouver TheatreSports League before spending three years with The Second City Toronto. He subsequently appeared in every episode of the American Whose Line Is It Anyway?, hosted by Drew Carey on ABC and later the CW, and had already established himself as a regular on the British edition hosted by Clive Anderson on Channel 4. His improv partnership with Ryan Stiles is among the most celebrated in the history of performance improv. He tours with Hyprov: Improv Under Hypnosis, a hybrid show co-created with hypnotist Asad Mecci.

Dan O'Connor is a Los Angeles-based improviser, director, teacher, and author who co-founded BATS Improv (Bay Area Theatresports) in San Francisco, co-founded LA Theatresports in Los Angeles, and founded Impro Theatre, a critically acclaimed company specializing in fully improvised, genre-specific long-form narrative productions under the format titles Shakespeare UnScripted, Jane Austen UnScripted, Chekhov UnScripted, and Sondheim UnScripted, among others. He trained with Keith Johnstone, Phelim McDermott, and Lee Simpson, and has been performing and teaching improvisation professionally since 1986. He co-authored Life UnScripted and Ensemble!, both published by North Atlantic Books.

David Pasquesi is a Chicago actor and improviser who trained with Del Close at iO Theater for fifteen years, performed four revues at The Second City Mainstage, and co-created the long-form improvisational duo TJ and Dave with T.J. Jagodowski beginning in 2002. His sustained commitment to the Harold form and his unscripted long-form practice with Jagodowski have established him as one of the most respected improvisers in the Chicago tradition. The New York Times described TJ and Dave as 'Second City-seasoned masters of long form improv,' and their monthly residency at Barrow Street Theatre in New York placed the Chicago-developed long form before Off-Broadway audiences for more than a decade.

Del Close (1934-1999) was the improviser, director, and teacher most closely associated with the development of long-form improvisation in America. Beginning at the Compass Players in St. Louis in 1957, he passed through multiple tenures at The Second City in Chicago, co-founded The Committee in San Francisco where he developed the earliest versions of the Harold around 1967, and ultimately partnered with Charna Halpern at ImprovOlympic in Chicago from 1982 until his death. His students included John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and the founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade. He co-authored Truth in Comedy in 1994, codifying the Harold for a generation of long-form practitioners worldwide.

Ian Roberts is a Queens-born comedian, actor, writer, and television producer who trained under Del Close in Chicago, performed with the Second City National Touring Company, and became a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade alongside Matt Besser in the early 1990s. He co-authored The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual (2013) with Matt Besser and Matt Walsh, providing the most comprehensive written account of the UCB's Harold-based long-form methodology. He has also worked as an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning television showrunner.

Co-founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade and one of the UCB Four alongside Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh. Besser co-created and starred in the UCB television show on Comedy Central. He hosts the podcast improv4humans and co-authored The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual.

Co-founder of the Upright Citizens Brigade and one of the UCB Four. Born in Chicago, Walsh studied at Northern Illinois University before training at iO and The Second City. He is best known as an actor for his role as Mike McLintock in Veep.

Mike Myers (born 1963) is a Canadian performer and writer whose career began in the Second City Toronto ensemble and ran through Saturday Night Live, Wayne's World, Austin Powers, and the Shrek franchise. He is one of the most commercially successful performers to emerge from the North American improv and sketch tradition, and his trajectory from Second City Toronto to global franchise stardom documents how the Canadian improv pipeline, parallel to but distinct from the Chicago lineage, produced performers capable of sustaining characters across multiple formats and decades. His foundation in ensemble improvisation shaped his character-building methods and his instinct for sustained comic personas.

A Canadian improviser who trained under Keith Johnstone at Loose Moose Theatre beginning in 1983. Stiles served as Artistic Director of Rapid Fire Theatre in Edmonton from 1991 to 1996 and was a founding member of Die-Nasty. She later became Artistic Director of Impro Melbourne in Australia and is the author of Improvise Freely. She is widely recognized as one of the foremost international improv teachers.

An improviser, teacher, and director known for his work in long-form improvisation. Vaillancourt was a member of the long-running iO house team Beer Shark Mice, performing in both Chicago and Los Angeles. He has taught and performed at theatres across North America and runs a widely followed improv education YouTube channel.

An American-born Canadian improviser who grew up in Vancouver and performed with the Vancouver TheatreSports League. Stiles joined The Second City at Expo 86 in Vancouver and later performed in Toronto and Los Angeles. He became internationally known through both the UK and US versions of Whose Line Is It Anyway.

A director, teacher, and improviser who studied at The Second City and performed with the Annoyance Theatre in Chicago. Piven is the sister of actor Jeremy Piven and daughter of acting teacher Joyce Piven. She has directed for stage and screen and teaches improvisation.

A founding member of the Annoyance Theatre and a performer and teacher at iO Theater. Messing has been called the funniest woman in Chicago by Chicago Magazine and has received the Improviser of the Year award from the Chicago Improv Festival. She has taught improvisation at DePaul University, the University of Chicago, and Loyola University.

One of the most acclaimed long-form improvisers in the history of the art form. Jagodowski is best known as one half of TJ and Dave, a two-person improvised show with David Pasquesi that has been running since 2002 at iO Theater. He performed with The Second City touring company and has taught at iO.

A Canadian improviser and actor who performed at The Second City Toronto and on The Red Green Show. Sims died on February 2, 1995. The Tim Sims Encouragement Fund Award was established in his memory, and the Tim Sims Playhouse at Second City Toronto was named in his honor.

Tina Fey (born 1970) is a writer, performer, showrunner, and producer whose career runs from the Chicago improv and sketch pipeline through Saturday Night Live to 30 Rock, Bossypants, Mean Girls, and more than two decades of American comedy leadership. She trained at iO and The Second City in Chicago in the early 1990s, became the first female head writer in SNL history, and built an ensemble-based creative practice rooted directly in the disciplines she developed in Chicago. Her improv formation is not incidental biography. It shaped how she constructs characters, builds writers' rooms, and produces collaborative comedy at scale.

An actor and improviser who performed with The Second City touring company and Second City Detroit. Stashwick formed the experimental NYC improv troupe Burn Manhattan with fellow performers including Kate Walsh and Jeremy Piven. He later co-founded The Hothouse improv theatre in North Hollywood.