HERBIE BARNES is best known for his role of Joseph in the film Dance Me Outside and the CBC series The Rez, but he has played many roles throughout his career both on stage and on film. Herbie has been teaching for over 30 years and spent his career developing a new way of storytelling for writers and performers. He has taught in inner city high schools, private schools, universities and theatre companies across Canada.

JANET VAN DE GRAAFF received her MFA from York University before travelling across Canada with the Second City Touring Company, then wrote and performed in five Second City MainStage shows in Toronto. She starred in Go Girl (created & directed by Linda Kash) on the W Network, and five seasons of History Bites on the History Channel. She does extensive work in television commercials and films and has appeared on The Royal Canadian Air Farce, The Rick Mercer Report, The Baroness Von Sketch Show, and Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays. She has a 15-year old son and a large dog named Zoë.

She has won three Canadian Comedy Awards, for Best Female Improviser (2002 & 2004) and Best Female TV Performance (for History Bites in 2002).

DANIEL SMITH is an actor, writer and improviser from Peterborough, Ontario. As a member of the sketch/improv comedy troupes The Shrimps and The LLAADS, Daniel has written and performed an abundance of original monologues and sketches in both Peterborough and Toronto. As an improviser he has been fortunate to share stages with improv greats like Lisa Merchant, Patrick McKenna, Paul O’Sullivan, Aurora Browne, Dave Pearce, Janet Van De Graff, Colin Mochrie and Linda Kash. Over a number of years Daniel has led numerous improv workshops for all ages and is currently an improv and theatre instructor at PAPA (Peterborough Academy of Performing Arts) under the tutelage of Linda Kash.

After an enjoyable and mildly successful music career in the 1900s, IAN BURNS now plays for fun and shares his experience with those wishing to discover and develop their playing relationship with the guitar. His background in classical, folk, jazz, and blues brings a unique perspective to learning the instrument.

JAN CARUANA has taught improv classes across the country and has coached numerous improv teams. She is an award winning performer and writer with credits including Baroness Von Sketch, Kim’s Convenience, Mean Girls and the young adult juggernaut The Next Step.  Last year, Jan directed the critically acclaimed sketch troupe Not Oasis in their Fringe Hit We’ve Come From Away.

 

PAUL CONSTABLE is an alumnus of Toronto’s Second City. While there, he helped co-create six Mainstage shows, including the Canadian Comedy Award Winning Psychedelicatessen. He has appeared in various films and TV shows, including Downsizing, The Twelve Men of Xmas, and Murdoch Mysteries. On stage, he has been in musicals such as A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Buddy:The Buddy Holly Story, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat and They’re Playing Our Song. As a teacher, he taught improvisation with the Second City for close to a decade. Most people know him best as Gary, the Canadian Tire Guy, a part he has been playing not quite as long as a certain angel with a cream cheese fascination, but close …darn close.

 

ANTHONY Q. FARRELL has served as showrunner for THE PARKER ANDERSONS, AMELIA PARKER, and the BAFTA-winning CBBC series SECRET LIFE OF BOYS, which he also created. Currently Anthony is the Showrunner and Executive Producer of the sci-fi primetime comedy OVERLORD & THE UNDERWOODS. In the past, he has written for NBC’s THE OFFICE, Canada’s international hit LITTLE MOSQUE ON THE PRAIRIE, and Nickelodeon’s THE THUNDERMANS. He is in active development on several other shows that he hopes to share in the near future. He lives in Toronto with his amazing family.

 

STEPHANIE GORIN is an award-winning casting agent with over 25 years casting Canadian television, film, and musical theatre productions. Recent musical theatre casting credits include Dear Evan Hansen, Come From Away, Kinky Boots, Les Miserables, War Horse, Bombay Dreams, The Lion King. She’s a five-time Emmy award nominee and one-time Emmy winner (Best Casting of a Mini-Series, Fargo) and won a Canadian Comedy Award for her comedic documentary, The Casting Room. She is a recipient of the Ontario’s Premier Award for Excellence in Creative Arts.

KERRY GRIFFIN trained at the famed Second City then went on to be cofounder of improv troupe Slap Happy and Bad Dog Theatre company. In 2008 Kerry returned to Second City, joining it’s Main Stage cast where he wrote and performed in two award-winning revues, Barack to the Future and 0% Down,100% Screwed. Kerry has won 10 Canadian Comedy Awards over the years, twice being named Best Male Improviser, and winning for Best Improv Troupe four times with both Slap Happy and Monkey Toast, as well as winning for Best Comedic Play and Best Sketch Troupe with the Second City.

 

BRENT HAYNES joined Shout! Factory in 2018 as the Head of TV Development for Shout! Studios. As the title suggests, he is responsible for the development and production of premium content for both traditional broadcast as well as digital streaming services.

With a 20-year history as a Broadcast Executive and Producer across many genres, Brent’s main focus has been comedy, his first true love. Previously he was SVP of Comedy and Animation at MTV in New York and also oversaw programming for The Comedy Network in Canada where he worked for more than 10 years. Before joining Shout! Studios Brent ran his own production company under the NBCU International banner. He’s developed and/or produced over a 100 scripted and unscripted series including The Tom Green Show, Corner Gas, Puppets Who Kill, Silent Library, Warren The Ape, Nikki & Sarah Live, World of Jenks and Crash Gallery.

Writer/director WENDY HOPKINS has created and produced 6 original TV pilots including the Canadian Comedy Award nominated FANCY for the CBC, American Freak and Nature Boy (with Harland Wiliams) for Comedy Central, and she co-created the Gemini award winning series,The Tournamentserving as both a writer and director during its run.

Wendy has directed award winning television including Corner Gas, G-SPOT, Lovingspoonfuls and co-direced the feature film Wetonkawa, nominated for the SlamDance Grand Jury Prize.

A Toronto Second City alumni, she spent years performing in television, film and stage roles including her Melbourne Comedy Festival hit, The Wendy Show. She produced 3 seasons of Turn Ben Stein Onfor Comedy Central, continues to consult on web series such as Life Of Mom and is a script and pitch consultant to everyone from new writers to Emmy winners in Los Angeles.

DON HORSBURGH is a musical director and composer with a 40-year career with major theatre companies in Canada as well as national touring companies in Canada and the US. Through 18 seasons at Canada’s Stratford Festival, his musical direction and compositions provided soundtracks to numerous Shakespearean and contemporary productions. He has won numerous awards for Musical Direction, Outstanding Score and New Work and is a highly sought-after vocal instructor and private coach.

LINDA KASH is a familiar face to Canadians as the Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese angel and has an extensive career of credits in television and film including Seinfeld, Everybody Loves Raymond, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and the Fargo series opposite Ewan McGregor.  She runs the Peterborough Academy of Performing Arts (PAPA), founded in 2007 with her late husband Paul O’Sullivan, teaching improv and acting skills to children, teens & adults.

ROBERT MARKUS is a Stratford-based actor and singer, most recently known to audiences for performing the titular role in Mirvish Productions’ Dear Evan Hansen. Selected other credits include Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Show, Tommy in The Who’s Tommy, as well as roles in The Music Man and Fiddler on the Roof (Stratford Festival of Canada), Joseph in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat (Theatre Aquarius), Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar (Mayfield Theatre), Gabe in Next to Normal (Theatre Calgary and Citadel Theatre), Pinnochio in Shrek and Denny in Dream a Little Dream (Grand Theatre), Mary Sunshine in Chicago (Drayton Entertainment). Robert has appeared in productions at The Shaw Festival, The Vancouver Playhouse, Young People’s Theatre, Ross Petty Productions, and The Musical Stage Company.

ANDY MASSINGHAM has been an actor, teacher, director and playwright for over thirty years. His Dora award-winning wordless play Rough House toured Canada and the US. Andy conducts physical theatre workshops at Second City, Tarragon, Toronto Film School, University of Ottawa and Humber College. He has appeared at the Stratford Festival, N.A.C., Theatre New Brunswick, Banff Centre, Soulpepper and many others.

ROBERT MCQUEEN is an Associate Artist with The Musical Stage Company in Toronto and on faculty at HB Theatre Studio in New York City and Arte Studio in Mexico City. Recent directing projects include 42nd Street for Theatre Under The Stars (Vancouver), the New York premiere of Forest Boy, The Magic Flute for Vancouver Opera, Capriccio for Pacific Opera, La Bohème for The Canadian Opera Company; Where Elephants Weep at the Chelna Theatre in Phnom Penh, Carousel for the Galaxy Theatre in Tokyo; The Immigrant for the Harold Green Theatre and Man Of La Mancha for the Stratford Festival of Canada. Robert was the Associate Director for the Broadway, Toronto and all Latin American productions of Mamma Mia. In February 2020, he directed Caroline, or Change at Toronto’s Winter Garden theatre for which he received a Dora nomination for Outstanding Direction of a Musical. He currently calls Stratford home.

LISA MERCHANT has been studying, performing and teaching the art of improvisation for 26 years. She is a Professor of Improv at Humber College, a senior faculty member and corporate facilitator with Second City Training Centre and has been guest faculty with Osgood Hall Law School. She coached Canada’s Olympic teams for the London 2012 Summer Games and Sochi 2014 Winter Games. She has earned countless nomination and awards from The Canadian Comedy Awards including three times for Canada’s Best Improviser.

JEFF MICHALSKI has taught all forms of improvisation for over twenty years, as well as developed his own long-form techniques. He has performed across the United States, Canada, and Ireland in theatres and nightclubs and has directed Second City companies in Chicago, Los Angeles, Kilkenny, and Toronto. Founder of the Second City ETC, he also helped create the Second City Training Program in Chicago and Los Angeles. As a producer, director and performer, he has worked with Dan Castellaneta, Chris Farley, Amy Sedaris, Mike Meyer, Steven Colbert, Ryan Stiles, and many more.

JANE MORRIS  is the Johnny Appleseed of comedy clubs, having opened the Chicago Comedy Showcase, the Second City ETC, Second City Los Angeles, Upfront Comedy, the Comedy Underground and currently managing the fanaticSalon in Culver City. She has most recently been seen in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Shameless, AP Bio and in 2019, Steven Soderburgh’s The Laudromat. A founding member of the Second City ETC in Chicago, Jane was the first woman director and changed the cast dynamic from the traditional 4 man 2 woman troupe to 4 women and 3 men. She teaches a writing-for-performance workshop at the fanaticSalon every Wednesday evening and performs live at the venue on a regular basis.

JACK MOSSHAMMER is a 30-year veteran actor and improv performer. Writing, acting and teaching credits include Second City (Toronto and Los Angeles), Bad Dog Theatre, TheatreSports, Humber College and The Toronto Film School. He was in the improvised movie Man of the Year and can be seen playing Seymour in the vintage improvised soap opera Train 48 (available on Prime).

RENÉE PERCY is an award-winning actor, writer and comedian, having appeared on, and written for, numerous TV shows, toured the country doing standup comedy, received a Canadian Comedy Award, the Phil Hartman Award. She has opened for Jeff Garlin, Preacher Lawson, Jamie Kennedy, Orny Adams, Michael Rapaport, Bill Burr, Yakov Smirnoff and Jay Leno and can be seen performing sketches on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Renée is now living the dream in Los Angeles performing live at The Comedy Store, The Improv, and Flappers Comedy Club.

STEVE ROSS has been an actor for almost 30 years and has been a company member with The Stratford Festival of Canada for 16 seasons.  He has performed at many of the regional theatres across the country, with credits including: The Producers, A Christmas Carol, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, London Road, Assassins, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Full Monty. Some Stratford credits include The Rocky Horror Show, Billy Elliot, Little Shop of Horrors, Guys and Dolls, Fiddler on the Roof, Hamlet, The Comedy of Errors, The Grapes of Wrath and To Kill a Mockingbird. Steve is a proud graduate of The National Theatre School.

ED SAHELY has been teaching Group Improv for Actors to the first-year theatre students at George Brown College for the last twenty years. He spent seven years performing and writing with The Second City and received a Dora Mavor Moore Award for work on the Toronto Mainstage. Ed is co-creator of the improv troupe Not To Be Repeated, which developed into a television series aired on CTV and the Comedy Channel. He has countless television and film credits in Canada and the US.

AVERY SALTZMAN is the Co-Artistic Director of Toronto’s Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, the largest not-for-profit professional theatre company in Canada that devotes itself to telling the Jewish story. As a performer for over 40 years, Avery has graced stages on Broadway and in London’s West End, in countless regional theatres across the US, and most theatres across Canada.

KATE SUHR studied Opera at The University of Western Ontario and holds a Bachelor of Applied Music from Humber College. Recent theatre: Good Ol’ Country Gospel (Drayton Entertainment); Tess Wilson in Bloom: A Rock n Roll Fable (4th Line Theatre); Nancy in A New Brain (Ryan DeSouza/Randy Read); Harper in Angels In America (New Stages); Our Lady Of The Spa in Nine (Podium Concert Productions); Glinda in The Wizard of Oz (Diversified Theatre); Rose/Mrs Winthrope/Claire in Secret Garden (Podium Concert Productions); Ariel in The Little Mermaid (Randolph Theatre); Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins (LOT); Ensemble in Assassins (Steve Ross).

Kate is also a singer songwriter who has been featured at Boots and Hearts and many festivals all over Ontario. Her new single “Better off Together” will be released December 15th on all streaming platforms. Instagram: @katesuhr

Daytime Emmy Award nominee, MICHAEL WALTERS began casting over 25+ years ago and in 2003, established Dayton/Walters Casting with his business partner, Sherry Dayton. Selected animation credits: Paw Patrol The Movie (upcoming), Snoopy in Space, PJ Masks, Esme & Roy (2019 EMMY Award Nomination for Outstanding Casting). Selected theatre credits: Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, (upcoming), Matilda the Musical, Once, Hairspray, The Producers (all for Mirvish Productions), Jersey Boys (Dancap), The Phantom of the Opera, Ragtime, ShowBoat, Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat starring Donny Osmond (all for Livent).

DAWN WHITWELL produces and hosts Dawn Patrol, one of Toronto’s most popular weekly, live comedy shows. As a standup, Dawn has been featured at Just For Laughs in Montreal, JFL42, and as a writer for CBC’s Baroness von Sketch Show. Dawn is also the founder of Comedy Girl, a stand-up comedy class she created to amplify diverse voices through laughter. She has been teaching stand-up since 2002.

JONATHAN WILSON is an award-winning playwright and actor. He served as the playwright in residence at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre and worked as a writer/improviser with The Second City Toronto in seven productions.  Jonathan is also part of the long form improvisation group Not To Be Repeated that was the basis for a 12-episode comedy series on The Comedy Network. Jonathan’s plays include Kilt and My Own Private Oshawa, which was also filmed as a Comedy Special for the CTV network.

SHAWN WRIGHT, with no formal training in acting or singing, has played leading roles in musicals for over 30 years across North America (original Los Angeles cast MAMMA MIA / original Toronto cast, JERSEY BOYS / original Broadway workshop cast RAGTIME) including 15 seasons at Stratford and Shaw Festivals. Awards include Dora, Harold, Guthrie, Newton and My Entertainment Awards plus three nominations for Broadway World Awards. He teaches post-secondary musical theatre performance programs at Canadian colleges and provides audition coaching on Zoom.

JENNINE PROFETA is a performer, writer, teacher and MC/host. She has performed across Ontario with The Second City National Touring Company, and in the Mediterranean and Caribbean as part of The Second City @ Sea. As a writer, Jennine has penned scripts for television – Ollie The Boy Who Became What He Ate (CBC), Opie’s Home (TVO), Gemini and Genie Awards, and CBC Radio, and waxed poetic for Chatelaine, Today’s Parent and Best Health magazines. She’s appeared in numerous commercials and summer theatre productions, and was a principal player in Howie Mandel’s “Howie Do It” for NBC.

DAVE PEARCE is a 3-time winner of the Canadian Comedy Award as part of Slap Happy Improv, with whom he performed across North America (and a couple stops in Europe). He’s padded out his traveling improv resume aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines as part of The Second City @ Sea. As a writer, Dave’s credits include George Stromboulopoulos Tonight (CBC), and Opie’s Home (TVO), Ollie The Boy Who Became What He Ate (CBC) and The Irrelevant Show (CBC Radio).