The Groundlings is an American improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school based in Los Angeles, California. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin, whose improv techniques were taught by Del Close and other members of the Second City, located in Chicago and later St. Louis. They used these techniques to produce sketches and improvised scenes. Its name is taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act III, Scene II: "...to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumbshows and noise." In 1975 the troupe purchased and moved into its location on Melrose Avenue.
Lauren Lee Smith is a Canadian actress. She is known for her television roles, including Emma DeLauro in the syndicated science fiction drama Mutant X, Riley Adams in the CBS forensics drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, police Sergeant Michelle McCluskey in the CTV fantasy drama The Listener and Frankie Drake in the CBC detective series Frankie Drake Mysteries.
Christa Miller is an American actress known for her roles in television comedies. Her foremost roles include Kate O'Brien in the ABC sitcom The Drew Carey Show, Jordan Sullivan in the NBC/ABC comedy series Scrubs, Liz in the Apple TV+ comedy drama Shrinking, and voicing Cleopatra "Cleo" Smith and Candide Sampson in Clone High. She has also appeared in Seinfeld, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and CSI: Miami. From 2009 to 2015, she starred in the ABC/TBS sitcom Cougar Town.
John Phillip Law was an American film actor.
Mary Jo Catlett is an American actress. She is a main cast member on the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants, providing the voice of Mrs. Puff. She is also known for originating the role of Ernestina in the 1964 Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! and for playing Pearl Gallagher, the third housekeeper on Diff'rent Strokes.
Robert Wightman is an American actor.
Daniel Joseph Lauria is an American actor, who played the role of Jack Arnold in The Wonder Years (1988–1993), Jack Sullivan on Sullivan and Son (2012–2014), and Al Luongo on Pitch (2016–2017).
Breaker! Breaker! is a 1977 American action film directed by Don Hulette and starring Chuck Norris in his first lead role. The co-stars include George Murdock, Don Gentry and Michael Augenstein.
Laurie Zimmer is an American former actress best known for her role as Leigh, the courageous secretary of the besieged police station, in John Carpenter's 1976 action film Assault on Precinct 13.
Barry O'Brien is an American television writer and producer best known as the co-creator of Disney Channel Original Series Hannah Montana. His credits include Happy Days, Perfect Strangers, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Judging Amy, and CSI: Miami.
The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute is an acting school founded in 1969 by actor, director, and acting teacher Lee Strasberg. The Institute is located in Union Square on East 15th Street, also known as Lee Strasberg Way, in New York City, New York. The school has a secondary campus located in Los Angeles, California.
Marcus Frank Harelik is an American television, film, and stage actor, and playwright.
Michael Kearns is an American actor, writer, director, teacher, producer, and activist. He is noted for being one of the first openly gay actors, and after an announcement on Entertainment Tonight in 1991, the first openly HIV-positive actor in Hollywood. Kearns attended the Goodman School of Drama in Chicago before moving to Los Angeles in 1972, where he has maintained a successful mainstream film and television career alongside an extensive theatrical involvement for over 25 years. He has been actively engaged in the Los Angeles art and political communities, incorporating activism into his theater works. Kearns co-founded Artists Confronting AIDS in 1984 and is a current commissioner of Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG).
Eden is a 1976 play by American playwright Steve Carter. Set in the 1920s, it is the first of Carter's Caribbean trilogy. Eden explores intra-racial conflicts between recent immigrants from the Caribbean and the African-American population. The West Coast premiere of this critically acclaimed play received five Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards.
Ron Thompson was an American actor, singer-songwriter and dancer.
The ACME Comedy Theatre is an American sketch comedy and improvisational theater located near Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, on La Brea near Wilshire's "Miracle Mile".
Angela Paton was an American stage, film, and television actress and theatre director. She co-founded the Berkeley, California-based Berkeley Stage Company. She appeared in stage performances, and in comedy, drama, and thriller films, in roles including Mrs. Lancaster, the innkeeper, in Groundhog Day (1993) and Grandma in American Wedding (2003).
Caroline Kava is an American actress and playwright of the 1986 Off-Broadway play, The Early Girl.
Dan Sullivan was an American theater critic with columns in the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Minneapolis Tribune, and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. He was the director of the Eugene O'Neill National Critics Institute, and co-founded the American Theater Critics Association. He was a founding member of Brave New Workshop, which for more than half a century continues to be a theater venue for satiric comedy in Minneapolis.
Natsuko Ohama is a Canadian vocal coach, actress, and director. She is a founding member of Shakespeare & Company, Company of Women, and Los Angeles Women's Shakespeare Company (LAWSC).
