Cast and Crew Bios

A Pacific Northwest native, Alaina Hoffman grew tired of mild weather, strapped on her crazy hat, and moved to the Midwest for college. After receiving her BA in Theatre Arts from Bethel University and performing with MILETE Women’s Art Collective, The Minnesota Fringe Festival, and Comedy Sportz Minneapolis, Alaina left the angry winters of Minnesota for the angry winters of Chicago. A conservatory graduate of the Second City Training Center, Alaina has had the honor of performing improvisational comedy with pH Productions, Comedy Sportz Battleprov, and independent teams Makeshift Robot and The Thunder Thieves. In addition, she has numerous sketch comedy credits and played the role of Catherine in Red Ink Productions’ Proof. Alaina is excited to be a part of the talented and fun cast at Laugh Out Loud Theater. She also likes shiny things.

Becky Eldridge is thrilled to be performing at Laugh Out Loud theatre. Becky has been performing improv since college, and has performed as part of the Second City at Sea on two cruise ships, with IO, The Playground and Improv Acadia (in Maine!). Becky has also co-written and performed in two original comedy musicals, Little House on the Parody and Band Geeks: A Halftime Musical, both of which appeared at the NYFringe. She grew up in Ohio, loves Chicago, and is grateful to Lillie for opening such a terrific theatre. Enjoy the show!

Chris Day has spent much of the past two decades performing around Chicago at theatres such as iO, The Playground, and The Annoyance with such illustrious ensembles as Bad Touch, Georgia Pacific, Inside Vladimir, and The Pat Shay Dancers. During the day he is a librarian helping art students become better people, but please don’t ask him questions about the Dewey Decimal System (he is also an Eagle Scout but please don’t ask him to tie any knots).

Chris McConnell is far too busy to write his bio, but he’s from PA and has two lovely parents.

Colleen Breen is proud and enthralled to be apart of the Laugh Out Loud ensemble. She currently performs with Fire Cup at the IO theater, Kayfabe at the Comedy Sportz Theater, Improvised Jane Austen at various venues, and as an artistic associate for GayCo. Previous productions have included Our Feature Presentation at the IO Theater, Chicago Comedy Sportz ensemble, and Marry Me, You Idiot!, Bing Faithful's Very Merry Non-denominational Holiday Special, Bucket of Blood, and a smattering of performances for Triple Feature at the Annoyance Theater. Past festivals include The Del Close Marathon, DSI Comedy Festival, and Second City's Letters to Santa.

Corey Rittmaster began performing improv and sketch comedy a long time ago in Kansas City with groups like ComedySportz and Der Monkenpickle before packing up and moving to Chicago in January 2004. Yeah, January. He knows. Since moving to Chicago, Corey has performed at such places as iO, The Playground, Act One, and the backrooms of bars too numerous to list. Corey is thrilled to be part of the cast of Laugh Out Loud, mostly due to its proximity to a Chipotle. You no-doubtedly recognize Corey from his numerous appearances in Missouri Lottery commercials during the late 1990’s.

Eddie Mujica is thrilled to be a part of Laugh Out Loud. Hailing from Hialeah, Florida (Miami, basically), he began performing in high school as part of a weekly improv comedy show and has not looked back. He was a Director and Mainstage member of Just The Funny, Miami's "home for improv and sketch comedy," before relocating to Chicago on a scholarship through The Second City. He has trained at Second City and iO, and can be seen creating improvised musicals with Fiber Octaves. Recent credits include The Second City's Six Degrees of Desperation with BenchCo. Eddie thanks Dionna Griffin-Irons for making his dream come true as well as his family and friends for their relentless support.

Greg Guiliano is a California transplant unused to the arctic North of the Midwest. Currently a student of Columbia College, he has also taken several classes at Second City in various programs. He’s stage managed around town and performed here and there. His bios, unlike his underwear, he prefers to keep brief.

Guy F. Wicke is a Chicago native who discovered improv comedy around the turn of the century and has been routinely making an ass of himself ever since. One of the few graduates of the prestigious Low Sodium Entertainment Improv Comedy and Performance Conservatory, Guy began his storied career as a member of that troupe before moving on to become a founding member of pH Productions. Over the next 6 years of late night anarchy with pH, he performed in a variety of sketch and improv shows across Chicago and appeared in a handful of comedy festivals across the continent. He has also dabbled in stand-up, and once or twice it was really good. Now approaching 50, Guy has slowed down but still finds improv to be the most enjoyable thing he does in life. He has been performing with Laugh Out Loud since 2007 and is proud to be counted among such an excellent group of people.

Harz Sondericker is very happy to be performing with Laugh out Loud. He moved to Chicago in 2005 from Milwaukee, WI. He has been performing around Chicago at theaters such as iO, The Playground, Donny's Skybox and The Apollo Theater. Harz is graduate of the Second City Conservatory program and the iO training center, and an ensemble member of Theater Momentum and one fifth of the comedy group, The Shelter. So come on Schaumburg, let's have some fun.

Ilana Plen is pleased as punch to join the cast at Laugh Out Loud. She hails from the great state of Connecticut, but moved to Chicago by way of Boston, where she graduated from Emerson College. Ilana currently performs with Sam Hill at the Playground, 1941 at Chemically Imbalanced Comedy, Hogwash!, Who Cares? and Shoelace Academy. Sometimes she acts in plays or performs in sketch shows. Her current life goal is to remember how to play the violin.

Israel Pederson is honored to be performing with Laugh Out Loud. Israel graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Agribusiness Management in 2007 and decided to use it to pursue comedy in Chicago – it’s very applicable. He has trained at Comedysportz Chicago and the Second City Music Conservatory and can be seen around town performing with the Second City music house ensemble Infinite Sundaes, the Cupid Players, and his improvised rock band – Reset List. Lots of love to his number one fan, Sarah.

J. Ben Parker is originally from Louisville, KY. After touring the country performing children’s theatre, he moved to Chicago in 2002 to study improv. He has trained at The Annoyance and iO theatres. He performs at iO with The Confessional and at The Playground with International Stinger. Ben is very excited to play at Laugh Out Loud and help bring the funny to the people. He would like to thank his wife Carrie for her love and support.

Jamie Buell is excited to be playing with the super-funny folks at Laugh Out Loud Theater. He’s been seen at some other places around town, some of which can be mentioned in polite company. Among them are: The Lakeshore Theater with Blewt! productions’ “Impress These Apes”; The Playground Theater Chicago with The Fling; IO Chicago; at the Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival with Booper; and in Wildwood, NJ opening for B-Mo’ Honey. TimeOut Chicago has called his past performances fearless and “the funniest thing we’ve ever witnessed” (that’s true – google it!); The Chicago Tribune has called his writing silly, satirical and acerbic (once he looked that word up, he realized it’s a compliment); and the Chicago Reader has called him mediocre and misguided (meh, what do you expect from a paper that just lays around in coffee shops all the time).

Jay Gish writes and produces animation for the website, Bindledog.com, and created the web series, Improv City. He hosts "The Mixer" at The Playground theater with the improv group, Damascus Steel. Jay is a Resident Artist with C.I.C. in Chicago, where he improvises regularly, and where he wrote/produced the score for the musical production, Cartoon. Past credits include the team Mammal 79 at IO, Improvanov: Anton Chekhov Unscripted with the Free Associates, and the undead Elvis in the rock horror musical, Elvicula. None of this is relevant to his college degree in journalism.

Jeremy Schaefer started doing improv comedy as a child because he couldn’t read or write. After becoming literate he continued to improvise with pH Productions, Storybox, the Improv Playhouse and several other companies. He’s performed at both the Chicago Improv Festival as well as The Out of Bounds Festival in Austin. He’s also an ensemble member with Imagination Theater and he’s performed stand up in various venues around Chicago and London. In his spare time he’s become an avid reader who occasionally struggles with cursive.

Jin Kim once played a virtuous young woodcutter in a school play and has never looked back. The UNC graduate has performed with several companies over the years, including iO (formerly ImprovOlympic), the Chicago Neutrino Project, Second City, the Playground, ComedySportz, WNEP, the Chicago Comedy Company, and the Cornservatory. Most recently, you may have caught Jin as the show-stealing foreign exchange student, FEUNG SCHWEY, in The Awesome 80s Prom. Jin’s voice has also been featured in video games such as Mortal Kombat, John Woo’s Stranglehold, and NFL Blitz. Many thanks to Lillie for keeping the popcorn machine, and for the opportunity to make others laugh at Laugh Out Loud Theater.

Joe Burton has been improvising for the better part of 16 years. The lesser parts of those years were spent thinking about improvising. Since moving to Chicago, Joe has worked with various sketch and improv groups at various theaters. The current list includes the The Improvised Shakespeare Company, The Fowler Family Radio Hour, Hogwash and Bughouse Theater. Joe is especially pleased to be able to add Laugh Out Loud to that list. He would like to thank his friends and family including but not limited to, Kevin C. Frankenstein and Shelby J. Burton.

John Loos is thrilled to be a part of Laugh Out Loud. He has studied improv at the iO Chicago, iO West, and in the Second City music improv conservatory. He currently performs at the Playground with All Skate and is an original cast member of Skinprov at The Annoyance. He’s also an artistic associate with GayCo Productions, appearing in several of their recent sketch shows, and has written and directed two one-act plays, LadyWrath and Arrangements. John began his improv career at the University of Illinois in 2001, and secretly considered it his unofficial major. He got his real degree in something much more bland and office-y.

Kate Cohen has been improvising in Chicago for 4 years, and is delighted to be a new addition to Laugh Out Loud! Kate is from beautiful Bethesda, Maryland and has a very useful BA in Theatre from the University of Arizona. She is a graduate of The Second City Conservatory, and has studied improv at iO, The Annoyance, and ComedySportz. Kate has performed with The Second City Educational Touring Company, pH productions, ComedySportz Battleprov, and in many other great and almost-great improv and sketch shows all over the city. Kate thanks, loves, and would be a total wreck without all 4 of her parents, Alexis, Grams, The Piece, and Drew.

Kelly Reilly is a writer, performer, and a world-class sci-fi nerd. This Texan has studied Shakespeare at Winedale and improv and sketch comedy at Annoyance, iO, and Second City Conservatory -- performing in showcases at all three of them. When not re-watching Battlestar Galactica, she reads celebrity autobiographies and thinks about kitties.

Lillian Frances began acting, improvising, and directing at Northwestern University where she received a Bachelor of Science in Theater. She has performed with improv ensembles at iO (formerly Improvolympic) and other venues in Chicago, and assistant directed and performed at Boom Chicago in Amsterdam. Directing credits also include a Second City National Touring Company, the all women’s improv groups Jane and Sirens, the critically acclaimed sketch groups GayCo and Stir Friday Night, and various ensembles at iO and The Playground. She worked for several years as a lead facilitator for Second City Business Communications where she designed and facilitated training programs for Fortune 500 companies and worked as a Core Faculty Member for the Second City Training Center. She currently teaches at Columbia College, owns and runs Laugh Out Loud, and gets very little sleep. She is thankful every day that she gets to say “I love what I do,” and for her husband Scott who helps her do it.

Mary Lorenz is proud to be a part of Laugh Out Loud theater. Mary started doing improv four years ago in New Orleans, where she was a cast member of the National Comedy Company. Locally, she has performed improv, sketch and stand-up at venues such as Donny's Skybox, Cornservatory, The Playground Theater, The Annoyance, and Second City. Today, she can be seen performing regularly at Chemically Imbalanced Comedy with the house team A Dozen Red Roses. By day, Mary is a copywriter in the sexy, exciting and sometimes dangerous world of B2B marketing.

Matthew Mages came all the way out here from Colorado just to be a part of Laugh Out Loud Theater. A graduate of Second City’s Conservatory, iO Chicago’s training center, and Colorado State University’s Zoology program, Matthew also performs at The Playground Theater with The Senate and at Stage Left Theater with pH Productions. He is an instructor with pH’s training center, and coaches Droppin’ Science at Columbia College. He can be also seen in some really great short films, a couple bad commercials, and really cheesy online advertisements.

Michael Girts is thrilled to play with the fine folks at Laugh Out Loud. Michael has performed for The Second City in Rod Blagojevich Superstar, Rush Limbaugh! The Musical and Fair and Unbalanced. He has also performed for The Second City aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines, during which time he traveled to Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Central America and Mexico. Other credits include the Chicago Improv Festival, Chicago Sketchfest and ImprovAcadia (Bar Harbor, ME). Michael is half of the award-winning improvised musical Kate & Mike: The Musical and a proud member of Mansical. He earned his BFA in acting from Syracuse University and his MBA from the University of Notre Dame. Michael teaches improvisation and runs workshops for various universities and professional organizations. When he's not on stage, Michael enjoys watching Pittsburgh sports and taking naps on his Big Red Couch.

Monique Madrid loves being a part of Laugh Out Loud as a performer and teacher. She’s also performed with The Second City, iO Chicago, The Annoyance and Comedy Sportz. She is one half of the comedy duo “The Union” where she writes and performs sketch comedy with her husband Corey (that guy in the picture a couple slots above). Together, they have appeared in two original revues as well as in multiple festivals and short videos. Monique is a contributing writer for the websites Schadenfreude and Best Church of God and will be appearing in an original children’s puppet show (name still to be determined) at The Annoyance Theater this spring. She loves long walks on the beach, deep conversations and kitties.

Nick Wagner is super stoked to be performing at Laugh Out Loud. He started improvising as a way to avoid his Theatre and Anthropology homework at Grinnell College, and has been improvising instead of doing other things ever since. He can be seen periodically as part of the Improvised Shakespeare Company and the Improvised Star Trek. He brews his own beer and makes his own soy milk. He would like to thank his girlfriend's cat Napoleon for waking him up this morning.

As if woven from a fine silk, this delicate flower blossoms under the bright lights of legitimate theatre. To define a Patrick Kent is to hold a rainbow in the palm of your hand. A large rainbow.

Patrick Walsh wants to thank everyone, his family, his friends, his girlfriend, and his two cats. Aw shucks, he wants to thank you too.

Pete Parsons recently graduated from The Theatre School at DePaul Univeristy with a degree in Theatre Studies and a Minor in Philosophy. He is excited to be a graduate, and looks forward to working with the talented actors at Laugh Out Loud. Along with performing, he enjoys writing and traveling for money.

Robert Reid hails from Jacksonville, Florida where he was an ensemble member of MadCowford Improv. Before joining MadCowford, Robert briefly trained with Theater Strike Force at the University of Florida. Robert moved to Chicago in the fall of November (bad timing right?). Since his arrival, Robert has performed with pH and trained with iO, Second City and The Annoyance. Robert is extremely excited to have the opportunity to perform with Laugh Out Loud and loves every stinkin’ minute of it.

Ross Foti has performed improv on the stages of ImprovOlympic, The Playground Theater (where he currently performs with Homey Loves Chachi), ComedySportz, and The Second City. He has appeared at the New York and Miami improv festivals, the New York Fringe Festival, and Chicago Sketchfest. Ross is particularly proud of his work with both Single Box Turn Productions (“Little House on the Parody” and “Band Geeks: A Halftime Musical”) and The Free Associates Theatre Co. (“Frodo-a-GoGo” and “Whose West Wing Is It Anyway?!”).

Rudy Voit is a native of these parts; hailing from LaGrange, Illinois. He is so flopping excited to be a part of Laugh Out Loud. He has been performing improv and sketch in and around Chicago for several years. Rudy is a graduate of The Second City Conservatory, The iO Training Center, and The University of Iowa. He has a subscription to US Weekly, an unbridled obsession with baked goods, and a brown leather recliner, that if he was ever separated from for an extended period of time, he would write it love letters.

Sayjal Joshi is wicked excited to be performing with Laugh Out Loud. Hailing from North Carolina she earned her BA in Theater from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 2001 she co-founded and performed for three years with Greensboro’s first and only improv club, The Idiot Box. Past Chicago credits include ComedySportz, The Beatbox, and improv competition Battlejam Amsterdam 2006 winners, The Chicago Bobs, at Boom Chicago. Current Chicago credits include iO Chicago’s Hot Pocket, the critically acclaimed Asian-American Sketch group Stir-Friday Night!, and understudying with The Second City National Touring Company. You might also see her on TV stuffing her face with a Cookie Dough Blast for Sonic Drive-In. Love, love, love to Mom, Dad, Jay, and Demian.

Shana Martin loves being a part of such a fantastic group of people. She is a graduate of Marquette University, where she studied Theatre and French. Outside of Laugh Out Loud, she can be seen both in the city and the suburbs working as a lighting designer and a stage manager, and especially enjoys working with high school theatre students. She has been working the performing arts scene for over ten years, and can now say “whew, I’m glad I decided to work on the play instead of trying out for the freshman volleyball team!”

Shelby Jennings graduated from Appalachian State University with a degree in Theatre Education. She is currently pursuing a graduate degree in Theatre, Media, and Communications from Northeastern Illinois University. During the day she teaches drama in Evanston public schools and in the evenings you can see her performing with Cowlick (The Playground Theater), AIRBOURNE (iO Theater), and The Fowler Family Radio Hour. She would like to thank her friends, family, and new hubby Joe for their love and support.

Tony Lentino is a graduate of Elmhurst College where he studied music business and theater with a focus on Improv comedy. Tony was a four year member of the college’s Wasteful Thinking Improv Troupe where he spent the last two years as student director. Tony has spent much time on stage in Schaumburg as well, where he has had lead roles in several musicals. Tony has studied with the Second City and Laugh Out Loud Training Centers and has led several workshops at the Illinois High School Theater Festival. Tony is thrilled to have the opportunity to bring Improv to his hometown of Schaumburg.

Alumni

Bryce Wissel

Chrissy Swinko

Colin J. Sweeney

Erin Carr

Freddie Sulit

Fuzzy Gerdes

Garin T. Jones

Gillian Bellinger

Jason Adams

Jason Ball

Jessica Joy

Joey Cranford

Jon Tabor

Josh Chamberlin

Katy Colloton

Keri Jo Thompson

Luciana Bonifazi

Mandy Price

Matt Devine

Michael Palascak

Maddy Wager

Mel Evans

Mikala Bierma

Natalie Kossar

Neal Dandade

Nicole C. Hastings

Patrick McIntyre

Rich Baker

Sarah Reule

Shaun Himmerick

Tami Torok

Tracy Meyer

Vincent Kracht

Vinnie Lacey