Richard Philip Lewis is an American stand-up comedian and actor.
Friedman, Friedmann, and Freedman are surnames of German origin, and from the 17th century were also adopted by Ashkenazi Jews. It is the 9th most common surname in Israel and most common exclusively Ashkenazi name. They may refer to:
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.
The Comedy Store is an American comedy club opened in April 1972. It is located in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. An associated club is located in La Jolla, San Diego, California.
Gerson Merton Friedman, known professionally as Budd Friedman, was an American actor and comedian, as well as the founder and original proprietor and MC of the Improvisation Comedy Club, which opened in 1963, on West 44th Street near the SE corner of 9th Avenue, in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. He was instrumental in launching the comedy careers of Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Lewis, Robert Klein, Jay Leno, Andy Kaufman, Freddie Prinze, Steve Landesberg, Jimmie Walker, and for a brief time, managed Bette Midler at the early stages of her career. It was with Friedman's help and guidance that Ms. Midler first appeared on The Tonight Show.
The Improv is a comedy club franchise. It was founded as a single venue in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City in 1963, and expanded into a chain of venues in the late 1970s.
Del 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 one of the influences on modern improvisational theater. Close is co-founder of the iO, or iO Chicago,.
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.
Robert "Bob" Wiltfong is an American actor and comedian best known for his work as a correspondent on The Daily Show on Comedy Central, as well as appearances on Chappelle's Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Wiltfong was a true-life newscaster for 10 years, making him the first correspondent in Daily Show history to have worked as a traditional news reporter. In an interview, Wiltfong revealed that he decided to exit the world of non-satirical journalism after the September 11, 2001 attacks, during which he lost a close friend, cameraman Glen Pettit.
Michael David Rapaport is an American actor and comedian. Beginning his career in the early 1990s, he has made over 100 appearances in film and television. His film roles include True Romance (1993), Higher Learning (1995), Metro (1997), Cop Land (1997), Deep Blue Sea (1999), The 6th Day (2000), Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), Big Fan (2009), and The Heat (2013). On television, he headlined the Fox sitcom The War at Home (2005–2007) and was a series regular on the Fox drama Boston Public (2001–2004), the fourth season of the Fox serial drama Prison Break (2008–2009), and the Netflix comedy drama Atypical (2017–2021). Rapaport also held recurring roles on the NBC sitcoms Friends (1999) and My Name Is Earl (2007–2008) and the FX Western Justified (2014).
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).
Josephine Forsberg was an American comedian, teacher and author.
The ECNY Awards were created by Derrick Gordon to honor rising stars in the New York Comedy world in various genres, including sketch, stand up, improv, musical comedy acts, and video. The awards ran from 2003 to 2011, with the exception of a hiatus in 2006. Nominees are selected by New York audiences and an Industry Committee, and the general public votes online to determine the winners, who are announced at an awards show gala each year.
Rick Moses is an American actor and singer-songwriter.
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.
Adam Saul Pally is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for starring as Max Blum in the ABC comedy series Happy Endings and as Dr. Peter Prentice in The Mindy Project. He also starred in the FOX comedy Making History and was the executive producer of The President Show.
Sean Masterson is a comedy actor, writer, director and producer known for his work with Drew Carey, writing on The Drew Carey Show, and as an improvisational performer on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Drew Carey's Green Screen Show, and Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza. He has a wife and two children and he is currently living in Los Angeles, California.
Jason Mantzoukas is an American actor, comedian, writer and podcaster. He is best known for his recurring role as Rafi in the FX comedy series The League, and as one of the three co-hosts of the podcast How Did This Get Made? alongside Paul Scheer and June Diane Raphael.
Sasheer Zamata Moore is an American actress, stand-up comedian, and singer. Zamata is best known for her tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2014 to 2017, as well as her leading roles in the TV series Woke (2020–2022) and Home Economics (2021–present). She has served as a celebrity ambassador for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Traffic School by Improv is an American company that provides behavior-based driver education, traffic school, defensive driving programs, and workplace safety courses. The company employs the educational entertainment "edutainment" approach to teaching, which combines education with entertainment. The company claims that some of their courses "have shown a statistical improvement in reducing crashes and moving violations."
