MEET THE CAST:
Allison Summers, Ensemble
Allison was born and raised in Mount Juliet, TN. She graduated from the University of Maryland and studied improv at The Second City, UCB, and iO West. She has performed at numerous improv festivals across the country with her one woman show, “Collections”. You can watch her on Netflix in Hollywood Sex Wars where she plays the adorable, fun loving, and homeless crack head, Ash. She also performed with LOL Nashville. Allison fears Raw Head Bones.
Bill Hillsman, Ensemble
Bill wears a lot of hats, but his biggest and best hat represents performing at Third Coast Comedy Club. Other hats include: producer (Third Coast Short Film Showcase), writer (Late Night with Johnny Carsick), director (Infinity Etc. Improv), bartender (The Bar at Third Coast), media lead / show manager (The Far Booth), and crash test dummy (Redbull Flugtag). Bill loves the concept of hats, but hates to physically wear one.
Brooks Alford, Ensemble
Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Brooks moved to Nashville to avoid going to the University of Alabama (it’s like the 13th grade when you grow up there!). He cut his teeth on improv with the Vanderbilt group Tongue ‘N’ Cheek and has since studied improv at UCB NYC and Third Coast. He can be manipulated easily with compliments and food.
Cammie York, Ensemble
Cammie originally found her love of comedy when she first watched The Muppet Show as a child. She’ll tell you that Carol Burnett is her truest inspiration but really it’s Statler & Waldorf. She thinks that Statler & Waldorf pioneered meta-humor, not Deadpool. So suck it, Marvel! All of this aside, she is very happy to be a part of Third Coast’s Mainstage cast along with all these goons. Cammie has trained in Improv and Sketch comedy at UCB in Los Angeles, which cost a lot of money. Her voice is featured in The Sims 4 singing a song in the Simlish language and no she’s not making that up. It was really hard to do. Her favorite movie is Beverly Hills Cop and she has not seen the sequels, so as to call herself an “Axel Foley purist”.
Catherine Schwartz, Ensemble
Catherine is from Austin, Texas but now lives in Nashville, a different bachelorette-party-littered, live-music-infused, hipster populated Mecca. She has performed with LOL Nashville, Infinity Etc., Crash!, or Freak Pony. Or standing by the bar eating other people’s popcorn.
Dillon Davis, Ensemble
After a stellar little league career of being scared of a thrown baseball, Dillon found themselves in search of extra curricular activities. One fateful day, their friends invited them to try theatre and that was all she wrote. Dillon has been on stage performing and behind the scenes producing live entertainment for 14 years. They dabble in writing, producing, designing, acting, improvising, doing standup, and helping their friends realize their dreams. When they’re not doing that, they love to read comic books, high fantasy novels, play ttrpgs, or watch anime. They’ve also been known to dabble in woodworking. If Dillon had any advice to give comedians it would be this: “Support your friends and lean into the personality traits that you think make you weird. Those traits are what make you unique and we need more uniqueness on stage and in the arts.”
Ethan Krupp, Ensemble
Ethan followed a girl to Nashville, which sounds like the beginning of a country song, but joke’s on you—she’s a doctor and his mom is thrilled. He came from Chicago where he performed at Second City, iO, Annoyance, MCL, LOL, The Crowd, and maybe others but who knows. Ethan and his writing partner have written 3 full-length musicals which have been featured at Feinstein’s/54 Below (NYC), Chicago Musical Theatre Festival, The Den Theatre (Chicago), and in residency at Princeton University.
reddykandkrupp.com
Isaac Kirk, Ensemble
Isaac was born and raised in Nashville, TN, and upon turning 18 left and never returned. He once did a sports thing at a liberal arts college and they gave him a degree. Isaac then chose to continue his studies in Santa Barbara, California.
In addition to creating people (he has done so successfully 3 times), he has created movies, TV, & improv, less successfully, all over the country. In May of 2017, he and his family returned to the Nashville, where he immediately began studying and performing at third coast comedy club! His skin has never been shinier.
James Kyson, Ensemble
A native of NYC, James graduated from Bronx H.S. of Science, then went on to study communications & broadcasting at New England Institute of the Arts. After a stint in a hip-hop group in college, James moved to LA on a one-way ticket & a suitcase, where he began his training in music, dance, and acting. James is beloved to many for his 5-year run on NBC’s Heroes as ‘Ando’ and is next appearing in the feature Year 2, and was recently seen in Netflix movie Yes Day, and the HBO show Lovecraft County. His favorite hobbies include scuba diving and ultimate frisbee, and he loves playing guitar and the piano. His passion is to create media that promotes wellness, fitness, and consciousness.
Katie McDonald, Ensemble
In the summer of 2002 a young Katie McDonald was enrolled in theater camp. She quickly fell in love with everything the theater had to offer: drama, comedy, and most importantly the uninterrupted attention that concluded in a family member giving you flowers. To this day Katie humbly accepts floral arrangements after each show to honor her inner theater child. She started her improvisational comedy career in 2016 and has loved every second of it. Katie has the absolute pleasure of joining Third Coast with the Main Stage and Improv Decathalon groups. She can also be found performing around town with Madam Improv.
Katy Hennen, Ensemble
Like most children, Katy started playing make-believe at a young age, specializing in such creative characters as “sister” and “dog.” However, unlike most of her peers, Katy never outgrew this pastime. She likes to think her younger self would be impressed that she has learned how to play more than two characters, and has somehow found a way to get people to pay for what she used to do at home for free.
Leigh Truemper, Ensemble
Leigh is from Little Rock, Arkansas and graduated from the University of Missouri. She got her start in improv at Third Coast Comedy Club after to moving to Nashville in September of 2017. It has since become a passion of hers, and she quite frankly can’t get enough of it. Third Coast Comedy Club is her favorite spot in town, and she can easily be wooed by a breakfast sandwich.
Luke Watson, Ensemble
Luke is the Founder of LOL Nashville and Co-Founder of the Third Coast Comedy Club. He got his start with improv in Atlanta, GA with an independent troupe made up of improvisers from troupes across the city. Luke is also the Founder and Executive Producer of Nashville’s Improv Festival, Third Coast Improv Fest.
Margaret French, Ensemble
Margaret has been a Mainstage cast member since the very beginning and has loved performing and learning on the Third Coast Stage. Her improv training started at The PIT (people’s improv theater) in New York City where she attended her first class to get out of her head and help with the grind of life as an actor…and because it’s real fun. Margaret has also performed around the country in various musicals, plays, and oratorio. If you’re not at Third Coast go visit another Nashville theater company! Support the arts! (And you may see her on another stage.)
Meg Harkin, Ensemble
Meg Harkins was born and raised in Georgia where she spent many years performing—usually playing witches and b*tches and one rapping chinchilla. After years of being terrified of the game Freeze, she forced herself to audition for her college improv troupe and her life was changed forever. Meg studied improv at Dad’s Garage Theater Company in Atlanta and is excited to be part of Third Coast Comedy Club performing with MainStage and Improv Decathlon. She works as a tour guide and is passionate about museum education. Meg doesn’t like to brag buuuut she does like to tell anyone who will listen that she has a special thanks in a Ken Burns documentary. When not performing she can be found in her apartment crocheting and snuggling her beautiful cat daughter, Minnie.
Mike Garvin, Ensemble
Hailing from myriad corners of the Great American South, Mike is equal parts improv fan and trained practitioner. Exploding onto the stage as the runaway sheep in a Murray, Kentucky Christmas pageant, his training spans graduate studies in comedy and performance at Southern Illinois University to improv courses at iO in Chicago and Nashville’s own Third Coast. He has coached and performed with the troupes Community Floss and Cult of the Stage Monkey, and his celebrated duo Date Night with Mike & Eric has appeared at the Twin Cities and Dirty South Improv Festivals and in venues across the Midwest. In Nashville he performs stand up and storytelling, and leads unwitting patrons through historical tours of the area.
Scott Elam is a Franklin, TN native and Chicago-trained improviser. He is a graduate of The Second City Conservatory and iO. With The Second City, he toured all over the world aboard Norwegian Cruise Line performing to sold out audiences every night of the week. At iO, he performed with long-running Harold team Sears Tower and many other shows. As a teacher, he’s taught every level in The Second City’s Improv Program, at improv festivals around the country, and a two week immersion in London, England at the Angel Comedy Club. Scott is thrilled to be back home and to be teaching the art form he loves at Third Coast.
Alex Dolezal, Music Director
Alex is a pianist, composer, and improviser from Cincinnati, Ohio (Who Dey!). He’s been in Nashville for just over a decade. “Nashville is great! I haven’t found a reason to live… I mean leave!”. An avid disco fan, Alex is all about movin’ and groovin’. His credit score is 381. You can see him Musical Directing the Mainstage and Cherry Bomb shows.
Mick Khoury, Music Director
Mick Khoury has been compared to a golden retriever. When Mick isn’t playing with Mainstage, he enjoys meditating, dancing, wearing breezy shirts, and maintaining the good vibes everywhere he goes. Mick does NOT like dirty dishes, toe stubbin’, sunburns, owning a television, or religious extremism. You can also catch Mick in Cherry Bomb or maybe in a Sonic commercial talking about bacon.
Ryan Citrino, Music Director
As a music director, he accompanies The Third Coast Comedy Show and Music City Improv. As a performer, you man have seen him competitively “doing them goofs” with former house team Infinity Etc. As a producer, he has co-hosted Triple Threat, an Improv Cagematch with Bill Hillsman. As a musician, he plays regularly with a variety of acts throughout the Southeast region while simultaneously yelling that his EP is going to come out soon. As a lover, he is gentle.
Erica Elam, Creator
Erica Elam currently lives in Nashville, TN, but has traveled the world with The Second City on Norwegian Cruise Lines and performed at Tony-Award winning theaters including The Goodman, Steppenwolf, and Chicago Shakespeare. Erica teaches improvisation and acting at The Second City, iO Chicago, and The School at Steppenwolf. She also teaches improv workshops at Notre Dame, Dartmouth, Stanford, UGA, and Princeton University. Erica is a company member with the critically-acclaimed musical improv group, Baby Wants Candy, as well as HOME: An Improvised Play and The Improvised Sondheim Project. Erica was named one of the “Top 5 Actors to Watch” by The Chicago Tribune and is a graduate of The University of Georgia, The Second City Conservatory, and The School at Steppenwolf.
