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.
Mad TV is an American sketch comedy television series created by David Salzman, Fax Bahr, and Adam Small. Loosely based on the humor magazine Mad, Mad TV's pre-taped satirical sketches were primarily parodies of popular culture and occasionally politics. Many of its sketches featured the show's cast members playing recurring original characters and doing celebrity impressions. The series premiered on Fox on October 14, 1995, and ran for 14 seasons. Its final episode aired on May 16, 2009.
Matthew Gregory Besser is an American actor, comedian, director, producer, writer, and 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 hosts the improvisation-based podcast Improv4humans, previously on the Earwolf network, but now solely operated by himself and Brett Morris.
Orlando Jones is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is known for being one of the original cast members of the sketch comedy series MADtv, for his role as the 7 Up spokesman from 1999 to 2002, and for his role as the African god Anansi on Starz's American Gods.
Aries Spears is an American stand-up comedian, impressionist, and actor from New Jersey. Spears was a regular on Fox's sketch comedy series MADtv, appearing in 198 episodes, making him the second longest-serving cast member on the show behind Michael McDonald. In 2011, he released a special called Aries Spears: Hollywood, Look I'm Smiling. He co-hosted for the AVN Awards twice in 2018 and 2020.
Gary Austin was an American improvisational theatre teacher, writer, and director who founded The Groundlings theatre company in 1974.
Jeffrey Hanson Richards is an American actor and stand-up comedian. He was the first person to be a cast member on both FOX's MADtv and its rival sketch show, NBC's Saturday Night Live, appearing on the former in 2000, and the latter from 2001 to 2004. He is perhaps best known for his frequent SNL character "Drunk Girl".
Patrick F. Kilbane is an American actor, comedian, and screenwriter best known for his three seasons as a cast member on MADtv (1997–2000), as well his memorable appearance in the 1996 "The Bizarro Jerry" episode of Seinfeld, in which he played Bizarro Kramer. Kilbane's first book, The Brain Eater's Bible: Sound Advice for the Newly Reanimated Zombie, was released on March 18, 2011.
Nicole Randall Johnson is an American actress, writer and producer. Johnson is best known for her work on the sketch comedy series MADtv.
Nelson Ascencio is a Cuban-American actor and comedian. Ascencio is most notable for his membership in the recurring cast of comedians on sketch comedy series MADtv and for playing Flavius in The Hunger Games film series.
Christian Duguay is an American actor and comedian. Duguay is most notable as one of the recurring cast of sketch comedy series MADtv. Creator of the Valley Heat podcast.
Taran Hourie Killam is an American actor and comedian. He first garnered attention for his brief stint on the Fox comedy series MADtv during its seventh season between 2001 and 2002, followed by his wider success as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 2010 to 2016. He has also appeared in other television series such as Wild 'n Out, The Amanda Show, How I Met Your Mother, New Girl, and in the main cast of Single Parents. Killam is also known for his portrayal of a teen pop star in the 2004 Disney Channel Original Movie Stuck in the Suburbs. He voiced the title character on the PBS children's cartoon series Nature Cat.
Jordan Black is an American actor and comedy writer.
Michael Hitchcock is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and television producer.
Daniel Wheatley Oster is an American actor and comedian. He is most famous for being a member of Boom Chicago and a member of the MADtv cast.
John Rene Crane is an American writer and actor, best known as the head writer, executive producer and occasional performer on Fox's Saturday late night sketch comedy program, MADtv, and as the Dad from Nickelodeon’s Roundhouse.
The twenty-first season of Saturday Night Live, an American sketch comedy series, originally aired in the United States on NBC between September 30, 1995, and May 18, 1996.
The Fracas! Improv Festival is a three-day annual improvisational theatre festival held at The University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. The festival is hosted by Second Nature Improv, one of USC's improv troupes. In addition to performances, the festival hosts discussion panels with professional improvisers currently working in television, film, and/or theatre, as well as improv workshops. While the performances and panels are open to the public, workshops are available only to registered festival participants.
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".
Jon Rudnitsky is an American comedian and actor. First breaking through as a performer with the Los Angeles comedy troupe The Groundlings, Rudnitsky garnered widespread attention for his brief stint as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live during the show's 41st season between 2015 and 2016. Since his departure from SNL, he has also played McWatt in the 2019 miniseries Catch-22.
