bang. studio

Aliza Murrieta has taught improvisation for a good decade and a half in Los Angeles and at Chicago’s The Second City, where she wrote and performed as a company member. Since founding bang with her husband Peter in 1995, she has also been the executive producer of bang’s critically acclaimed comedy theatre. Aliza works in L.A. as both a writer and actor. A member of numerous L.A. improv groups and stage shows, she appears frequently in sitcoms and indie film, and has optioned several of her solo shows to Paramount for television development. Currently at bang she hosts the new works variety show Millie Warnburton’s Cavalcade of Endless Talent Industry Showcase, and directs long-form improv groups R.P.S. (Religion. Politics. Sex.) and Goes Around, Comes Around.

Peter Murrieta is currently executive producer and writer for hit series Wizards of Waverly Place. He was creator and executive producer of the 2002 WB Series Greetings from Tucson, based on his experiences growing up in Tucson, Arizona. He has written for many other television shows, including such almost hits as All About the Andersons and Hope and Faith. He’s also written pilots for networks about bounty hunters, kids working at Starbucks, military recruiters, and ESPN’s Linda Cohn.

Peter began his career as a writer/performer at The Second City in Chicago. Upon moving to Los Angeles, he began writing on series television beginning as a writing fellow at Walt Disney Television, and subsequently on series including NBC’s Jesse and Three Sisters.

Peter has written feature films for Revolution Studios and Paramount and has taught improvisation at The Improv in Hollywood and at The Second City. The co-founder and owner of bang, he can sometimes be seen here performing in his cult hit Peter’s Always Correct.

Ezra Weisz, hailed as “the master of improvisation” by the L.A. WEEKLY, has been the director of the bang Improv Conservatory since 2003. Before going through the bang program himself, he taught improvisation at Cal Arts, The Company of Angels, California Migrant Education, and SCRT. He joined bang’s teaching staff in 1999. He has performed improv with many groups in numerous venues around LA, including The Doubtful Guests (which headlined the 2009 Chicago Improv Festival) and bang’s house group iProv. He works as an actor in television, directs voice-overs, and does audience warm-up for several network television shows. Ezra has dedicated his life to improv and finding new and creative ways to present and teach it.

Mitchell Roché was born and raised in Hollywood and Burbank, California, respectively, and became involved in acting and theater arts at an early age. In college, at California State University, Northridge, he earned a bachelor’s degree in visual art, and produced his first short film, The E! True Hollywood Story of Mighty Mouse. Professionally, Mitchell has worked under the direction of Richard Donner and Anthony Perkins, and co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in a commercial for Brazilian TV. He is most proud, however, of his role in the HBO movie, Lansky, which put him only two degrees from Kevin Bacon. At bang, he has appeared in The Doubtful Guests, Peter’s Always Correct, and Trent Whitestone: Embrace the Unimaginable. In his free time, Mitchell enjoys improvising, absorbing pop culture, and referring to himself in the third person.

Gretchen Enders was raised in the suburbs of Denver, and then moved to Seattle where she attended the University of Washington, receiving her BA in Art History. Gretchen has been a part of the bang family since her graduation in 2001, performing with house groups R.P.S., ¡Slice! and Kablam: Improv Samurai. Gretchen is also a graduate of The Second City Conservatory program where she was one twelfth of the writing/performance ensemble Not So Much With The Looks. Currently, Gretchen performs weekly at bang with the group iProv, with whom she was cast in the pilot Comedy Colosseum for NBC.

Karen Baughn hails from Boise, Idaho where she got her first taste of improv at Idaho Theater For Youth. This inspired her studies at Occidental College where she graduated with a BA in Theater and spurred her to further studies at Improv Olympic Chicago, The London Dramatic Academy, and here at bang. She returned briefly for a teaching stint in Idaho at the very school that introduced her to improv, completing a Simba-like circle of life. But now she is back in Los Angeles where she teaches for ULCA Beyond the Bell, City HeArts, Occidental Children’s Theater and, her favorite, bang. When not teaching improv, Karen occasionally likes to perform it herself. She has performed with improv groups, Fantastiprov, Lawyer$, Obusters, and can currently be seen on the bang stage in Fructose.

Wayne Robbins was born and raised in Pinehurst, North Carolina, and received his Masters of Accounting from the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School.

He currently owns and runs an industrial production company, Prosody Entertainment, through which he has produced, written and directed approximately twenty industrial projects for clients including PricewaterhouseCoopers, the YMCA, Columbia University, Planitax, Inc. and outdoor outfitter Northwest Voyageurs. He also served as TV pilots programmer for the Vail Film Festival for several years.
He was recently a cinematographer for the upcoming documentary Convention directed by AJ Schnack (Kurt Cobain: About a Son) and is producing documentary The Death of Reasonable Doubt for director Terry Benedict. As an actor he most recently appeared in Mystery ER on Discovery Health Channel and makes his feature debut in a lead role in the upcoming Office of the Dead (2009). He trains theatrically with Lesly Kahn & Company and improvises at bang Improv Studio, where he has appeared in many shows, including The Short Bus, The Truth, Millie’s Calvacade of Endless Talent and Jews vs. Christians. As a writer, his first feature screenplay, Playing Through, was optioned to an affiliate producer of Warner Brothers and he has been nominated for the Showtime Tony Cox Screenwriting award, the IFP Market Pipe Dream Screenwriting Award and the International Family Film Festival Screenwriting Award.

Evan Gore has been teaching at bang since 1997 (yeow!). Previously, he taught at Chicago’s The Second City and The Improv Institute. A cast member of the group Stacy’s Not Here, he has been performing improv and sketch comedy since before many of you were born. His sit-com credits include Murphy Brown, Clueless, Two Guys and a Girl, and he regrets never having appeared on Law and Order. He’s on TV commercials, radio spots and his one-man show ‘Look At Me! Look At Me! Look At Me!’ was the hit of the Aspen Comedy Festival, back in ‘37. Along with his wife, he writes cartoons for all your favorites: Futurama, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Ozzy and Drix, The Weekenders. Currently, they’re writing for ‘Dave The Barbarian’ which will air on Toon Disney early in ‘04.

After graduating from Juilliard, Nicole Marcks acted regionally in productions including The Cherry Orchard, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf where she was abused in two separate productions as Honey. Read it if you don’t know what she’s talking about. Nicole found her birth mother (A.K.A improv) in 1997 studying with The Groundlings and joining the genre-specific LA based improv group, The Meddling Kids. TMK played throughout LA & abroad for over seven years. She wrote, produced & performed (Yentl anyone?) in Sex Life: My Journey Through Booty in 2003 at the LA Gay and Lesbian Center. She starred in the long running, 25th anniversary production of Last Summer At Bluefish Cove produced by Lily Tomlin & Jane Wagner (GLAAD nomination,) also at the LAGC. No, she’s not entirely gay. In Los Angeles she’s performed at The Ahmanson, The Actor’s Gang, ACME, and other theaters not starting with “A.” TV credits include American Dreams, and Crossing Jordan. She’s on the box cover of the recently released indie, 29th and Gay, a GLBT festival favorite. Her bang shows include Goes Around Comes Around, RPS, and Jews vs. Christians. She continues to write, dye her hair, perform and live in LA with her adorable lovah & cute as a button cat. Visit her on MySpace - search for Nicole Marcks or Famke Roumstead, Ms. Marcks’ life coach.

Tom Shannon is a 6th generation Californian who was born in Reno, Nevada. He has a BA in Philosophy and has studied improv at IO West, Second City Los Angeles, and bang.

Tom believes that improv is a way of life; i.e. the tools and skills that make a good improv scene can lead to a better life. He has appeared in 7 ate 9 (IOWest); Personal Demon Holiday (Second City); Goodbye Pluto, El Pollo Loki, 4 Hot Brunettes, Shannon & Brosnan, and Shannon & Sanchez (bang.) One day he hopes to perform in Shannon & [your name here].

Tom loves and lives with his lady, his kitteh, and his pup in LA.

Sabrina Hill has been acting professionally since the age of ten. She has been producing and directing theatre in the Los Angeles area since 1990, and taught improv for the Santa Clarita Repertory Theatre, and The Company of Angels, whose improv workshop program she co-founded. She has been a member of several improv groups including: ‘The Doubtful Guests,’ ‘R.P.S.,’ ‘Our Townies,’ ‘Catcher in the Raw,’ and ‘Cornfed.’ She performed with ‘The Doubtful Guests’ as part of the Chicago Improv Festival in the spring of 2002. Not only does she teach and perform regularly at bang., she also produces and directs several innovative shows there. Sabrina is a bang. graduate.

Darrin Butters is a product of the bang. system. After performing with the graduating group ‘Kids with Beards’ and several long-form groups after, he was eager to pass along the bang. philosophy. Darrin is a native Nebraskan who makes his living in acting, one frame at a time, as an animator.

Tom O’Connor is a proud bang graduate and all-around improv nerd. He has performed in major improv festivals in every U.S. time zone, and with bang’s help and support he has written & performed solo comedy shows including A Punk’s Tale and Saints-A-Go-Go. He has also written for videogames, television, anime, DC Comics and McSweeney’s. For all things Tom-related, visit: www.planetOCONNOR.com.

Jenna Jolovitz is an alumnus of Chicago’s The Second City, having performed on the Mainstage and in the ETC theater. Jenna studied and performed in the Windy City at The Annoyance and IO Theaters. In LA, she has written for many television shows, including Mad TV, Saturday Night Live, King of Queens, and Greetings From Tucson. Jenna has appeared at the Aspen Comedy Festival and acted in several sitcoms/pilots, as well as improv shows too numerous to count. Jenna has performed at bang often, and is now excited to be teaching there as well.