Thomas Marks aka “Blanket Jackson” is a Standup Comedian and Improviser from Upland, California. Thomas is currently on the Westside Comedy Alley team Pucker, and also on a indie team named Giant Squad. Thomas has also performed standup at The Comedy Store, The Ice House, Ontario Improv, Sal’s Comedy Hole, Lyric Theater, Mad House Comedy Club, The Comedy Store La Jolla, Comedy Underground (Seattle), Uncle D’s Comedy Underground (Spokane, WA), and headlined his first show in a men’s sauna at the Glendale YMCA in 2013.
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Carrie Long
Carrie Long is an American SAG actress and comedian known for her physical comedy style. Long began her career as an improviser and stand up comedian. She has trained and performed with The Second City Conservatory Chicago, The Annoyance Theatre, ComedySportz Chicago, Westside Comedy, and the Upright Citizens Brigade. Long has appeared in AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, in ad campaigns for Kmart, Gordmans, Gillette, ASICS, and a bunch of random short films and industrials. She hosted a series of online financial, lifestyle, and entertainment news shows. Long toured with Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas cruise ship as an improviser, comedic host, and as the role of Velma Von Tussel in the musical Hairspray. She is a co-host on the political satire show Conservatively Unplugged! and tours nationally with M.i. Productions. She is also a cast member of the Mainstage Sketch Company and performs regularly with Mission IMPROVable at the Westside Comedy Theater in Santa Monica, California.
Leah Knauer
Leah Knauer is an LA-based actor, writer, improviser, and stand-up comedian, originally from Philadelphia, PA. You can see her co-starring on Comedy Central’s upcoming series CORPORATE and on NOT SAFE WITH NIKKI GLASER. Leah is also featured regularly in videos for Buzzfeed and ClevverTV. She was a writer for Fullscreen’s late-night talk show LIVE FROM HELL WITH ADOLF HITLER, and before that, was a writer for DirecTV’s comedy sports late night talk show FAIR GAME WITH BROCK EVERETT, and was named one of “The Funniest Women on Twitter” by SMOSH. Leah is the head writer of the sexual assault prevention show THE C-WORD: CONSENT, which is set to tour colleges across the country Summer 2017. Most recently, she was a cast member and writer for Wayne Brady’s musical improv comedy show MAKING HITS UP. Leah has performed at San Francisco SketchFest, Del Close Marathon in NYC, Red Rocks Comedy Festival in Utah, and Las Vegas Comedy Festival. She’s trained extensively in improv at UCB, iO West, Second City Chicago, and Westside Comedy Theatre.
Leah Knauer is on stage performing improv or stand-up almost every night. Check her website for live show dates (www.leahknauer.com) and follow her on Twitter & Instagram @LeahKnauer!
Chris Gorbos
Chris Gorbos is the General Manager and co-owner of M.i.’s Westside Comedy Theater. He produces and hosts his weekly show, The Saturday Show, every Saturday at 8PM.
Along with his fellow co-owners, he performs regularly in The Grind.
Chris is a national touring member of Mission: IMPROVable.
Chris is a co-founder of the improv team Nice Chris with his close personal friend Chris Alvarado.
When not at The Westside, which is rare, Chris can be seen performing at standup venues across the city.
Chris is originally from Bethlehem, PA and he went to the same high school as The Rock. They have the same birthday as well and there are lots of other similarities.
Chris can be reached at chris@westsidecomedy.com
Greg Santos
Greg’s been on TV! You can see Greg guest star in Episode 3 of Brian Regan’s Stand Up & Away on Netflix! He’s also co-starred on NBC’s Great News, YouTube Red’s Good Game, CBS’s Angel from Hell, & ABC’s The Muppets! He’s also been in many National Commercials!
Born and raised in Las Vegas, NV, to immigrant parents from Cuba, (Hollywood likes Diversity) Greg made his way out to San Diego, CA where he started doing Stand Up Comedy in 2009. Now in Los Angeles, Greg has performed at Big Sky Comedy Festival (2018), SF Sketchfest (2019
-2016), RIOT LA (LA’s Alt Comedy Festival) in 2015 & 2014 & the Bridgetown Comedy Festival (2014) & opens for many comedians he does not feel like name dropping to further boost his image (it’s mainly Michael Kosta from the Daily Show, there you happy?).
He also does Sketch Comedy! What!? You can see Greg monthly at Westside Comedy Theatre on their Main Stage Sketch Team: The Westside Sketch Company. Each month they produce a brand new hour of live sketch comedy.
He also does Digital Sketch! What!? His character, The Cop Who LOVES being Filmed has been seen over 3.7 Million times! His former sketch group, Tunguska Yacht Club (now The Yacht Club because you idiots can’t spell), has been featured by Mas Mejor, Comedy Central, Playboy.com, Funny or Die, Huffington Post Comedy, Men’s Humor, You Tube What’s Popular.
Tushar Singh
Tushar Singh is a stand up comedian based out of New York City. Since starting in New York in 2005, he has performed at various clubs, colleges, festivals and private shows across the country. With a honest storytelling style, his comedy deals with cultural identity issues as they relate to growing up in the American deep south while being raised by conservative first generation Indian parents. He co-created “Unnecessary Evil”, a show that has been hailed one of LA’s best stand-up comedy shows at the Westside Comedy Theatre. In early 2018 he will release a feature length documentary film entitled “American Hasi” that explores the burgeoning Indian stand up comedy scene with interviews from Russell Peters, Vir Das and Bill Burr.
Emily Russell
Emily Russell hails from Boston Massachusetts. She holds a degree in Visual Poetry and Film Studies from UMass Amherst. Emily studied improv in New York at Upright Citizens Brigade, worked with people at The Pit, performed with indie team Pro Thunder, and worked for The New York Comedy Club. After relocating to LA in late 2014 she didn’t have any friends to start an improv team so she started doing standup. She has studied at Westside Comedy Theater, IO West, and The Groundlings. Having made Westside her comedy home she is now a member of indie team the N’TRNZ, comprised of people who work at Westside, and alley team Roadies. Notable credits include Inside Amy Schumer, Nate Silver Orders Breakfast, Hot & Funny, Black Dossier, and Overly Sex Positive Mom. Emily is a member of SAG-AFTRA. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @theEmilyRussell.
Ted Evans
The son of a tuba player in the Marine Band and a singer in the Air Force Choir, Ted was born on Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and raised in Woodbridge, Virginia. After graduating with a performing arts degree from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Georgia, having performed in favorite roles such as Alferd Packer in “Cannibal! The Musical” and Frederick Treves in “The Elephant Man”, Ted also discovered his desire to pursue a career in voiceover.
After 6 years in Chicago honing his comedic skills on stage and behind a microphone, and shooting viral shorts like webseries Funemployed with his company Action Couch Productions, Ted decided to make the leap to sunny California. There, he creates and stars in Bighead Parodies with Zoran Gvojic of Low Carb Comedy, continues to develop his improv and standup skills at the Westside Comedy Theater where performs improv with house herald team Consenting Adults. A member of SAG-AFTRA, Ted is represented by DPN Talent (LA) and NV Talent (Chicago) for commercial and animation voiceover, and continues to pursue his career in comedy, VO, and whatever else may come his way.
Channing Apodaca
Channing was born and raised in Southern California in the former crystal meth capitol of the world where he learned that before Chipotle, there was Chronic Tacos.
After moving to Los Angeles in 2011, for a sweet desk job, Channing began taking improv classes at The Groundlings, where he contiues to train and perform as a member of the improv/sketch troupe Percy Harden as well as others. Training in improv led to playing the role of Chief of Sea Police at Budlights second instalment of Whatever USA. He can be seen doing improv in LA at iO West, The Cupcake Theater, The Groundlings and more. He is a member of Percy Harden, DeathEater and performs regularly with the all female troupe Radcliffe.
After training and performing improv for 2 years Channing began stand up. Taking his first gig at El Cid on the coveted variety show “The Mary Dolan Show”. He has gone on to perform at Flappers Comedy Club, iO West, The Comedy Store, The Hollywood Improv and more. He continues to perform around Los Angeles all while making silly little videos with his dumb friends.
Nicole Blaine
As a stand-up comic, Nicole Blaine has been seen on NBC’s Today Show, E’s That Morning Show, San Francisco Sketchfest, Laughing Skull Comedy Festival, The International FringeNYC Festival and Boston’s Women in Comedy Festival. Nicole and her producing and life partner, Mickey Blaine, executive produced the HBO comedy special, Quincy Jones: Burning the Light. Since 2013, Nicole and Mickey have produced the monthly hit show, Virgin Sacrifice, at the Westside Comedy Theater. Nicole is the head comedy writer for the online magazine RealMomDaily.com. Nicole lives in Santa Monica with her husband and two kids. They all suck so she has great material.
To see her stand-up go to: www.NicoleBlaine.com @NicoleBlaine @VirginSacShow www.VirginSacrificeShow.com