Instructors

Originally (and back) in Chicago, Shaun Landry is a known actor, producer, writer and improviser nationally and internationally. She is currently the curator of The Robinhood International Improv Festival 2025 in Nottingham England.

Other noted credit includes founder of The Ledge Theatre in Los Angeles, which did improvisation, sketch, poetry, and storytelling and was more geared specifically to diversity in theater. She was a member of The Second City Chicago, Geese Theatre Company (drama therapy in prisons and penitentiaries), and Co-Founded The San Francisco Improv Festival.

She performs with improv and life partner Hans Summers as Landry & Summers. As a SAG Actor, she can be seen in the movies Milk, Read You Like A Book, and various independent movies. She can be read in the book Whose Improv Is It Anyway? Beyond The Second City about diversity in improvisational theater.

Tony Rielage is DIF’s Festival Director and the Artistic Director/Head Instructor at Theatre Momentum. He has been performing, directing, and producing improv theatre since 1992, with the past 15 years focused entirely on dramatic/grounded improv. He has trained at iO Theater, the Annoyance Theatre, and the Playground Theater, and founded TM’s predecessor workshop, Workshop-in-Progress. His training style centers around an outside-in approach focused on neurology and psychology, leading to improv about vulnerable human beings acting naturally, bravely, and honestly.

Diana Brown is an improv artist, teaching artist, actor, producer, director and voiceover talent. She was voted Most Valuable Mentor and Teacher at the San Francisco Improv Festival. She leads the improv program at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s School of Theatre. Diana is an instructor, producer and a member of the leadership team with Leela Improv Theatre in San Francisco. She uses applied improvisation in medical settings to improve patient/provider communication.

She’s presented Improv workshops, intensives and “workshop to show” experiences at the Improv Fest Ireland 2024, 2024 Queen City Comedy Experience, 2024 Uptown Improv Festival, 2024 Vancouver Improv Festival, the 2024 Tucson Comedy Arts Festival, 2024 Ocean State Improv Festival, inaugural SAVI Fest, 2024 Gather Spring Improv Retreat 2024, Cornerstone Improv, O-Town Improv festival, Countdown Improv Festival, Camp Improv Utopia West, 2023 Queen City Comedy Experience, IMPRIDE, Unscrewed Theatre, 2nd Best Comedy Fest, Denver Improv Festival, Vintage Improv Fest, Unscrewed Theater in Tucson, AZ, All Out Comedy Theater in Oakland, CA, Sealevel, San Francisco, CA, and Phoenix Theater, San Francisco, CA. Diana enjoys helping improv artists to find and amplify their unique gifts. She genuinely believes everyone is infinitely fascinating and endeavors to instill that belief in her students.

Diana is half of the duo Bingewatch, she plays in the Tennessee Williams inspired duo Fleeting Reminiscence, Diana plays in the Shakespeare inspired trio Gamesome Frolic, the trios POPTOP, The Witches, the duos Horrible People, DJ, Secret Lives of Villains, Salt and Pepper, and Davenport & Brown, and appears with the Twilight Zone inspired ensemble But of Mind.

Diana is a guest artist with BATS Improv in San Francisco and a member of the acting pool with the San Francisco sketch comedy company Killing My Lobster. She has appeared at the Vancouver Improv Festival, Uptown Improv Festival, Improv Fest Ireland, Gather Spring Improv Retreat, Rise Comedy Fest, SF Sketchfest, The Queen City Comedy Experience, San Francisco Improv Fest, Improvaganza Hawaii Festival of Improv, San Diego Improv Fest, O-Town Improv Fest, New York Improv Festival, Vintage Improv Fest, 2nd Best Comedy Fest, New Orleans Improv Fest, Twin Cities Improv Fest, Alaska State Improv Fest, Tucson Comedy Arts Fest and others. Diana appears in scripted theater productions including Playground Solo Fest 2025, Spoleto Festival, and at theaters and theatre festivals around the country.

Heather Marie Vitale (she/they) is a Chicago-based improviser, actor, writer, and teaching artist. She has studied at the Washington Improv Theater (where she was a faculty member for seven years), Second City Conservatory, the Annoyance, Magnet Theater, WGIS, Acting Studio Chicago, and the Vagabond School. She has performed improv and sketch across the country, and can be seen on stage most weeks in Chicago. As a performer, Heather Marie embraces the joy of collaboration and connection, and as a teacher endeavors to share that joy with her students.

Matt Elwell has spent the last 25 years gallivanting across the Chicago and U.S. improv scenes. He has spent most of his artistic career with ComedySportz where he played, taught, directed, and did all sorts of leaderly things. He taught at Second City and performed with Second City Theatricals and GayCo. He also performed at places like iO, the Playground, WNEP, and in Theatre Momentum’s own Porch Play.

Jimmy Carrane has been teaching improv in Chicago for over 30 years. He has hosted the critically acclaimed podcast Improv Nerd and has written three books on the subject. He has taught everyone from beginners to experienced improvisers to employees of Fortune 500 companies. He has worked at The Second City, iO-Chicago and The Annoyance Theater. You might have see him pop up on TV shows or in movies, such as in “Shinning Girls” (Apple+), “Chicago PD,” Public Enemies, “The Playboy Club,” Natural Born Killers, The Untouchables, “ER,” and “Early Edition.”

Kenn Adams is the Artistic Director of Synergy Theater and the author of the book How to Improvise a Full-Length Play; The Art of Spontaneous Theater. He is the creator of the classic short form improv games Sit, Stand and Kneel and The Family Dinner (a.k.a. Ding/Buzz or Biography) as well as The Story Spine, a simple exercise for understanding story structure that has been embraced by improvisers, writers, and teachers the world over. Kenn began his career in New York City with Freestyle Repertory Theater, the New York Home for TheatreSports, and has been performing, directing, and teaching improvisation for . . . wow . . . almost 36 years.

Lisa Lynn is an award-winning actor, singer and improviser, who tours the world performing, teaching and directing.

Since graduating with a First Class BA Honours degree in Musical Theatre in 2009; and Performing Arts PGCE in 2013; Lisa has continued to both perform and teach. Lisa believes that every person can and should benefit from studying (and taking part in) Improv and the Performing Arts, as part of the National Curriculum; and is working to make that happen in the UK. Lisa teaches for Acaprov and Hoopla in the UK, and Esponteneo in Colombia, and has taught at over 50 UK schools, colleges and Universities to date; as well as many UK and International improv schools and theatres both in person and online. Lisa coaches several teams and has directed several improvised shows - she continues to direct 5* Acaprov: The Improvised A Cappella Musical which she founded in 2018. Lisa performs almost weekly.

Megan Sherrod is an improviser and coach based in New York City, where she performs regularly with Armory house team True Facts, as well as indie teams Improv Dot Gov and Night Shift. Before moving to New York, Megan was an active performer, teacher, and director in Austin's improv scene, particularly at the Hideout Theatre. She was also a founding member of the award-winning musical improv team Rook, which performed at festivals such as Out of Bounds, the West Coast Musical Improv Festival, and the Dallas Comedy Festival. Megan has taught workshops across the U.S. and internationally, from Oklahoma to New Zealand. Whether she’s leaning into the silly or diving into grounded genre work, Megan brings heart, humor, and a deep love of collaborative storytelling to every project.

Ben is a teacher and performer from Chicago, now based out of New Zealand, where he founded and runs Improv Connection theatre, which as trained hundreds of students in his unique hybrid method. He started his training at The Second City in 1994, trained and performed at Improv Olympic (now iO) and The Playground in the early 2000s, and at UCB in NYC shortly thereafter.

He now performs with long form improv duo Doom & Bloom which was a finalist in the World Wide Comedy awards, short form group The Improvisors, and online duo show Gen V. He's hosted workshops throughout Australia and New Zealand.  Ben's passion lies in discovering the hidden genius of each player, and watching their magic journeys unfold, for both players and audiences alike.

David Razowsky is the author of the best-seller "A Subversive’s Guide to Improvisation: Moving Beyond 'Yes, And.'” With ten revues at Chicago's Second City alongside stars like Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert and a decade as Artistic Director of The Second City Hollywood, he has led numerous workshops globally and delivered a TEDx Talk titled “Life: The Product is the Process.”

David emphasizes that present awareness is all you need to create compelling and innovative scenes, requiring no games, preconceived ideas, or ego. You don’t need prior improvisation experience—just bring your current presence to his workshops, and you'll leave with joy, excitement, and confidence. What more could you want?

Michael J Gellman teaches Master Workshops all over the world.  He is an alumnus of the Second City mainstage and was a resident director for Second City in Canada and the USA for 25 years. He was Artistic Director of the Second City Toronto where his shows were nominated for 7 Dora Mavor Moore Awards including twice for Outstanding Direction, nominated for Best Director for Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award, and won a Chalmers Award for Best Director. He was a senior faculty and founding member of the Second City Training Center where he was Program Head and also Director of the NY training Center. Michael was an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago teaching Acting For Directors in the Film Directing department and designed and taught Improvisation and Acting III for the Comedy Studies department. In addition to Second City and Columbia College he has taught and designed classes and workshops in directing, acting and improvisation since 1976 at such notable institutions as: Actors Centre London, The Audition Centre, Victory Gardens Training Centre, Act One Conservatory and Loyola Law School as well as master workshops for hundreds of Universities, festivals, theatre companies and Improv groups around the world. He is credited with originating “Long Form” Improvisation and his book “Process: An Improvisers Journey” (Northwestern University Press) co-authored with Mary Scruggs is a summary of his workshops on improvisational training.

An actor and improviser trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Rhiannon Griswold-Jenkins has performed everywhere from Edinburgh Fringe to international tours with Acaprov. She specializes in emotional honesty, theatrical presence, and vocal technique—helping performers connect deeply and play with courage.

Asaf Ronen is the author of Directing Improv: Show the Way By Getting Out of the Way. He regularly performs, teaches and produces in Austin, was Education Director at The Institution Theater for eight years and is currently the Conservatory Director at ColdTowne Theater. He is also a Producer and Education Director of Austin’s annual Out of Bounds Comedy Festival. He has taught and performed improvisation in Canada, Great Britain, Norway and in 30 of these United States with such groups as the B. Iden Payne Award winning Confidence Men (improvised plays in the style of David Mamet) and imp (mostly silent improv). He was also producer on TRUST US, THIS IS ALL MADE UP, a documentary on legendary improvisers TJ & Dave that premiered at Austin’s South by Southwest Festival in 2009. In 1999, Asaf founded the improv website, YESand.com of which he is Editor-in-Chief.

Simone Ellul is a theatre practitioner from Malta with experience in acting, directing and scriptwriting. She has an MFA in Staging Shakespeare from the University of Exeter and a strong background in scripted theatre. She is a member of the improv troupes Playing Dead Theatre, Foolgoose and Sabir, the online troupe Close Distance and is one half of the duos Invisible Women and Pairentheses. She was a founding member of the Brussels-based troupe The Ghost Sheep. She has taught at the Dramatic Improv Festival in Chicago, at Agorapp in Italy, and at the ImproBrussels improv school. In 2022, she organized Improvizza!, Malta's first ever improv festival. She is also a certified intimacy director and coordinator, working on various projects for stage and screen. Exploring ways of making intimacy safe for improvisers has led her to develop workshops that allow improvisers to dig deeper in their scenes and express intimacy naturally and safely.