Ali Reza Farahnakian (born October 26, 1967) is an American actor, writer, and improvisational comedian. He is the founder of The Peoples Improv Theater (The PIT) in NYC and co-starred in the Adult Swim comedy series Delocated .
Farahnakian was born in Iran but grew up in North Carolina and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1990. After college he moved to Chicago in 1990. While in Chicago he became involved in improvisational comedy and was a performer at Chicago's Second City, ImprovOlympic and was one of the original founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) along with other original UCB members such as Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Rick Roman, Horatio Sanz, and Adam McKay. In 2002 he founded The Peoples Improv Theater (The PIT) in New York City in honor of his mentor Del Close. [1] In 2001, his one-man show "Word of Mouth" was featured at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.
Farahnakian wrote for Saturday Night Live in the 1999–2000 season and appeared for many years as a sketch performer on Late Night with Conan O'Brien , his memorable characters on the show included playing Conan's agent Ari Palone.
Farahnakian has appeared in films such as Edge of Darkness and Arthur . He has made guest appearances on television programs such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit , 30 Rock , and Louie . In 2012, Farahnakian joined the cast for the third season of the Adult Swim show Delocated starring Jon Glaser. Farahnakian played the role of "TB the Federal Agent", Jon's bodyguard.
Farahnakian has also written for the MTV sketch series Human Giant and produced segments for the Channel 101 website.
The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Adam McKay, Rick Roman, Horatio Sanz and Drew Franklin. Other early members included Neil Flynn, Armando Diaz, Ali Farahnakian and Rich Fulcher.
Del P. Close was an American actor, writer, and teacher who coached many of the best-known comedians and comic actors of the late twentieth century. In addition to an acting career in television and film, he was a preeminent influence on modern improvisational theater. Close co-authored the 1994 book Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation, which outlines techniques now common in longform improvisation and describes the overall structure of "Harold", which remains a common frame for longer improvisational scenes.
Matthew Gregory Besser is an American actor, comedian, director, producer, and writer, best known as one of the four founding members of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, who had their own show on Comedy Central from 1998 to 2000. He currently hosts the improvisation-based podcast Improv4humans on the Earwolf podcasting network.
Matthew Paul Walsh is an American comedian and actor, best known for his role as Mike McLintock in Veep for which he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He is a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch comedy troupe, with which he co-starred in the original television series and the 2015 reboot. He also previously starred in short-lived comedy programs such as Dog Bites Man and Players, and was a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He has also appeared in films such as Road Trip (2000), Bad Santa (2003), School for Scoundrels (2006), Role Models (2008), The Hangover (2009) and The Do-Over (2016).
Ian Michael Roberts is an American actor, comedian and writer. Roberts is a founding member of the famed Upright Citizens Brigade improv and sketch comedy troupe.
Robert Anderson Huebel is an American actor, comedian and writer best known for his sketch comedy work on the MTV series Human Giant and for his role of Dr. Owen Maestro on the Adult Swim series Childrens Hospital. He also appeared as Russell on the FX/FXX series The League and as Len Novak on the Amazon series Transparent.
Paul Christian Scheer is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, director, and podcaster.
Jerry Charles Minor Jr. is an American actor, comedian and writer known for his comedic roles in numerous television programs such as Mr. Show, Saturday Night Live, Trigger Happy TV, Delocated, Brickleberry, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Crossballs, The Hotwives of Orlando, Carpoolers, Community, Lucky Louie, and Dr. Ken.
Brian Stack is an American actor, comedian, and writer best known for his sketch comedy work. He worked on all three late-night talk shows hosted by Conan O'Brien including Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien on NBC, and Conan on TBS. Stack left Conan in April 2015 to join the writing staff of the CBS series The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Jonathan Daniel Glaser is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and director. He is best known for his work as a writer and sketch performer for many years on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, creating and starring in the Adult Swim series Delocated and Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter as well as the truTV series Jon Glaser Loves Gear.
Lawrence Murphy Jr. is an American actor and comedian, known for his work on the TV series Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Ugly Americans, Delocated and Bob's Burgers.
Heather Anne Campbell is an American writer, comedian, improv comedy performer, voice actress, and actress.
Saad Haroon is a Pakistani comedian, actor, and writer. He is the creator of the first ever Pakistani improvisational comedy troupe "BlackFish", and was the first Pakistani stand-up comedian to perform in English in cities across Pakistan in his tour "Saad Haroon: Very Live". Haroon created and hosted the first ever English language comedy television show in Pakistan, called The Real News. In October 2014, he was voted the second funniest person in the world, securing 59,213 votes in the Laugh Factory competition.
Philly Improv Theater, or PHIT, is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania comedy theater which produces and presents shows at The Adrienne Theatre in Center City Philadelphia. The theater also operates a training center with programs in improv comedy, sketch comedy and stand-up comedy. PHIT's most notable alumnus is stand-up comedian Kent Haines, who was the 2008 winner of the Philly's Phunniest contest at Helium Comedy Club and has appeared on public radio show The Sound of Young America and Season 4 of Comedy Central's program Live at Gotham. In addition to Haines, other comedians from Philadelphia who appeared on stage at PHIT have gone on to perform at major comedy venues in cities like New York and Los Angeles, founded their own theatre companies, and appeared in touring productions for The Second City.
Kevin Dorff is an American actor and comedian known for his work as a writer and sketch performer on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, the former of which he won a Primetime Emmy for in 2007. Dorff co-starred as "Mike the Federal Agent" on the first season of the Adult Swim series Delocated with his former Late Night colleague Jon Glaser. His character was written off the show at the start of season two, as Dorff was in Los Angeles writing for The Tonight Show at the time, while Delocated is filmed in New York City. Dorff returned to work on Delocated as a writer in season three. He has recently been a writer for Review and has made one appearance on the show.
The Peoples Improv Theater (PIT), also known as the PIT, is a comedy theater and training center in New York City, founded by comedian Ali Farahnakian in 2002. Shows combine improvisational comedy, sketch comedy, stand-up, theater, and variety. Each show is hosted by a combination of "house teams" of comedians hired by PIT and by outside comedians.
Charles Henry Sanders is an American actor, comedian, and Writers Guild Award–winning writer best known for starring as Officer Joe Stubeck in the MTV comedy-action series Death Valley, writing on all five seasons of Key & Peele and creating the YouTube Premium series Weird City. He is currently hosting the hit podcast 'Bald Talk' on iHeartMedia with comedian and actor Brian Huskey.
Brian Huskey is an American character actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known for his roles in comedy programs such as People of Earth, Childrens Hospital, Veep, and Another Period. He also provides the voice of Regular Sized Rudy on the animated comedy Bob's Burgers.
Jon Daly, sometimes credited as Jonathan C. Daly, Jon C. Daly or Jonathan Barney Daly, is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer best known for his sketch comedy work on the Comedy Central series Kroll Show. In 2013 he starred as Hobbes in the Amazon Studios original series Betas, and also played Agent Filippo in Zoolander 2 (2016).
Colton Dunn is an American comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He portrayed Garrett on the NBC workplace comedy Superstore (2015–2021) and worked on Comedy Central sketch comedy series Key & Peele (2013–2015), where he served as writer, producer, and an occasional performer throughout its five-season run. Dunn also played Herman in Lazer Team (2015) and its sequel Lazer Team 2 (2017).