Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is used widely in variety shows, comedy talk shows, and some sitcoms and children's television series. The sketches may be improvised live by the performers, developed through improvisation before public performance, or scripted and rehearsed in advance like a play. Sketch comedians routinely differentiate their work from a "skit", maintaining that a skit is a (single) dramatized joke while a sketch is a comedic exploration of a concept, character, or situation. Sketch comedy is a genre within American television that includes a multitude of schemes and identities.
Richard William Wheaton III is an American actor and writer. He portrayed Wesley Crusher on the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gordie Lachance in the film Stand by Me, Joey Trotta in Toy Soldiers, and Bennett Hoenicker in Flubber. Wheaton has also appeared in recurring voice acting roles as Aqualad in Teen Titans, Cosmic Boy in Legion of Super Heroes, and Mike Morningstar/Darkstar in the Ben 10 franchise's original continuity. He appeared regularly as a fictionalized version of himself on the sitcom The Big Bang Theory and in the roles of Fawkes on The Guild, Colin Mason on Leverage, and Dr. Isaac Parrish on Eureka. Wheaton was the host and co-creator of the YouTube board game show TableTop. He has narrated numerous audio books, including Ready Player One and The Martian.
Jonathan Harshman Winters III was an American comedian, actor, author, television host, and artist. He started performing as a stand up comedian before transitioning his career to acting in film and television. Winters received numerous accolades including two Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, the American Academy of Achievement in 1973, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1999.
Kevin Elliot Pollak is an American actor, comedian, impressionist and podcast host. He has appeared in over 80 films; his roles include Sam Weinberg in Rob Reiner's legal film A Few Good Men, Jacob Goldman in Grumpy Old Men and its sequel Grumpier Old Men; Todd Hockney in The Usual Suspects, Phillip Green in Martin Scorsese's Casino, and Bobby Chicago in End of Days.
Jonathan Joseph Heder is an American actor. He is best known for his role as the title character of the 2004 comedy film Napoleon Dynamite. He has also appeared in the films Just Like Heaven, The Benchwarmers, School for Scoundrels, Blades of Glory, Mama's Boy, When in Rome, and as Roy Disney in Walt Before Mickey. He also provided voice work for the animated films Monster House, Surf's Up, and Pinocchio, as well as the Napoleon Dynamite animated series.
Steven John Carell is an American actor and comedian. He played Michael Scott in the sitcom The Office, in which he also worked at several points as a producer, executive producer, writer, and director. Carell has received numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award for The Office. He was recognized as "America's Funniest Man" by Life.
Diora Lynn Baird is an American television and movie actress and former model for clothing brand Guess?.
John Russell Dilworth is an American animator, actor, writer, director, storyboard artist, producer and the creator of the animated television series Courage the Cowardly Dog. His work has mainly appeared on PBS, CBS, Showtime, HBO, Fox, ABC, NBC, Arte, CBC Television, YTV, Teletoon, BBC Two, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and MTV, among others.
Douglas Steven Benson is an American comedian, marijuana rights advocate, television and podcast host, and actor, best known for hosting the podcasts and TV series Doug Loves Movies (2006–present), The Benson Interruption (2010-2013), Getting Doug with High (2013-2019) and The High Court with Doug Benson (2017). As a comedian, he has released 10 comedy albums, starting with Professional Humoredian in 2008, and has regularly appeared on TV shows including Comedy Central Presents, Best Week Ever and @midnight. In 2007, he was a contestant on the 5th season of the reality competition show Last Comic Standing.
Bobb'e Jacques Thompson is an American actor, rapper and comedian.
Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show is an internet comedy talk show parody starring a Japanese character called Kiko. The video series debuted on YouTube in 2007 and was created by husband-and-wife team Greg Benson and Kim Evey's production company, Mediocre Films. In spring 2008, a distribution deal with Sony Pictures resulted in 10 new episodes to premiere weekly on the company's C-Spot YouTube channel and its Crackle web video site. A second season premiered on C-Spot's channel on September 19, 2008.
Ryan Smith is an American screenwriter and actor. He wrote 19 episodes of television's MADtv in the 2006-2007 season. As an actor, he made guest appearances on the program "Yes, Dear" and in the Mediocre Films shorts "Mating Season" (2005) and "Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show" (2007). In June 2008, Smith appeared in the web series Comedy Gumbo on Crackle.
John Edmund Mulaney is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, Mulaney first rose to prominence for his work as a writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2008 to 2013, where he contributed to numerous sketches and characters, including Stefon, a recurring character that he and Bill Hader co-created. Since his departure from SNL, Mulaney has hosted it several times, becoming a member of the SNL Five Timers Club in 2022.
Foghorn Leghorn is a cartoon rooster who appears in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and films from Warner Bros. Animation. He was created by Robert McKimson, and starred in 29 cartoons from 1946 to 1964 in the golden age of American animation. All 29 of these cartoons were directed by McKimson.
Arnab Chanda is an English born actor, writer, and director.
Biswa Kalyan Rath is an Indian stand-up comedian, writer and YouTuber. He came into prominence through the YouTube comedy series, Pretentious Movie Reviews with fellow comedian Kanan Gill. He played a supporting role in the 2016 Netflix sex comedy film Brahman Naman. He created the 2017 Amazon Prime Video's series Laakhon Mein Ek. On 9 December 2020, Rath married actress Sulagna Panigrahi.
Kanan Singh Gill is an Indian stand-up comedian, actor and YouTuber. He won the Punch Line Bangalore Competition. He is known for hosting the YouTube series Pretentious Movie Reviews where he reviews campy Bollywood films along with fellow stand-up comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath. He was one of the main personalities behind the YouTube Comedy Hunt and also co-hosted the YouTube FanFest India. In 2017, he released his own one-hour comedy special, Keep It Real on Amazon Prime Video. He made his debut on the big screen with the movie Noor, alongside Sonakshi Sinha. In 2018, he was also a judge on Comicstaan, a comedic reality TV show, on Amazon Prime Video.
Gregory Scott Shapiro is a Dutch American comedian, best known as a member of the comedy group Boom Chicago, host of the Dutch satirical news program Comedy Central News(nl) and the author of How to Be Orange: An Alternative Dutch Assimilation Course and How to Be Dutch: the Quiz.
Scott Gairdner is an American comedy writer, director, and podcaster, known for having created the viral YouTube video "Sex Offender Shuffle", the animated parody Tiny Fuppets, and the Comedy Central animated series Moonbeam City. He also co-created and has co-hosted the theme park podcast Podcast: The Ride since 2017.
Zakir Khan is an Indian comedian, poet and actor. In 2012, he rose to popularity by winning Comedy Central. Khan has also been a part of a news comedy show, On Air with AIB. He has released four hour-length standup specials: Haq Se Single (2017), Kaksha Gyarvi (2018), Tathastu (2022) and Mannpasand (2023) on Amazon Prime Video.
