Teachers

Achilles Stamatelaky

Achilles Stamatelaky is a writer/performer/director who was born in The Philippines, moved to New York City with his family when he was 8, and loves writing bios in the third person.

He was a staff writer on Broad City and has developed multiple projects for internet, film, and TV, including an animated show for Ludacris on MTV, if you can believe it.

He has also been in national commercials for ESPN, Rocket Mortgage, and Ally Bank, among others.

He has been performing comedy since 2005 mainly at The UCB Theatre NY, where he was formerly the Associate Artistic Director and a veteran house team improviser and writer. He has taught improv and sketch at the UCB Training Center, as well as sitcom writing at NYU.

Most he has written and directed various Audible Original series through Broadway Video. Titles include HIT JOB (starring Keke Palmer and Pete Davidson), CHRISTMAS DELIVERY (Gillian Jacobs and Sam Richardson), and MOTIVATED (Nia Vardalos, Rob Riggle, Janelle James).

He is also a member of the Writer’s Guild East and SAG-AFTRA.

Alex Fernie

Alex Fernie has been performing improv since moving to Los Angeles after graduating from Vassar College in 2004. He has performed for decades with Convoy (which has been named "Best Improv Show" several times by LA Weekly) as well as shows like Sentimental Lady, Puzzles, J.A.H. and more. He works as a writer and/or director on shows like Childrens Hospital, Bajillion Dollar Properties, NTSF:SD:SUV::, Last Week Tonight & Hotwives of Orlando, and in front of the camera, he's appeared on Reno 911!, Key & Peele, Terriers, Conan, and a bunch of other stuff. He is also afraid of boats

Ali Ghandour

Ali Ghandour is an actor and writer from Azusa, CA who can be seen performing every weekend with 'ASSSSCAT', 'Bangarang!', & 'The Dragons' and monthly with 'Benetton.' TV credits include The Unicorn, Ghosted, Drunk History, The Goldbergs, The Guest Book, and The Truth About Christmas.

After graduating from UCLA, Ali and some buds founded the film/improv team The Wait List where they produced sketches and short films, including their original series 'Teenage Mountain Lion,' which premiered on Hulu. Ali was also selected as a performer for the ABC Discovers Talent Showcase but his mother is most proud of a commercial where he eats a big sandwich.

Allyn Pintal

Allyn Pintal is a writer and performer living in Los Angeles. She was born in the Philippines and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. She co-hosts/co-produces the comedy variety show, Filipino AF, that has performed at UCB, San Francisco Sketchfest, and the Hawaii Comedy Festival. Currently, she can be found performing on Harold Night with Bitchin'! Previously, she was a writer for Maude Night and hosted an improv/storytelling show with her indie team k3wlAZN420. You can watch her sketch collaboration with Wong Fu Productions on YouTube. She has been teaching improv at UCB since 2020.

Aman Adumer

Ari Voukydis

Ari Voukydis has been performing with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre since before you were born, and has been teaching there for over 15 years. An award-winning writer of funny things, Ari has performed thousands of hours of comedy, some of it good, from LA to London. He has written for Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, BuzzFeed, GQ, Esquire, SPY, and Entertainment Weekly and has appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, The Tonight Show, and about a thousand VH-1 pop culture shows like The Best Week Ever and All Access. Ari is one half of the comedy duo Mark & Ari, whose last sketch show, Loft, ran at UCB NY for a year and was a Time Out New York Critic's Pick. Their comedy short "Small World" was directed by John Landis and featured on The Tonight Show. They have produced several comedy shorts and pilots, and have won an award or two for screenwriting. Ari spent 11 years on Harold Night house teams, and has been part of countless shows, including ASSSCAT, Let's Have a Ball, and Wicked F***in' Queeyah, an annual salute to his home town of Boston that he co-created with Amy Poehler and Rob Corddry. Ari lives in Los Angeles with his wife and comedy partner Betsy Stover. When plague stalketh not the land, they co-host "Teacher’s Lounge: The UCB Faculty Show" at UCB Sunset. They have three very loud sons.

Arik Cohen

Arik Cohen is a founding member of the long-running UCB sketch team Bombardier, and served as Artistic Manager of the Los Angeles UCB theaters. Along with writing a plethora of UCB shows, he has written jokes for MTV, BBC America, and various online outlets. He has a love for spreadsheets, trying to be “hip” and “cool” but failing hard, and is widely considered to be the world’s worst Black Belt.

Betsy Stover

Betsy Stover has been with the UCBT in NYC since 1997, serving as an improviser, actor, writer, director, and teacher. She's been on numerous UCB teams including COWBOT, ICE-NINE, and DECOSTER; and in a million UCBT shows, including ASSSSCAT 3000, LET'S HAVE A BALL, HOT FOR TEACHER, DIAMOND LION, TUESDAY CLUB, MAGIC TO DO, and the two NYC SOUNDTRACKS LIVE shows directed by, respectively, Amy Poehler and David Wain. She wrote and performed two long-running UCBT sketch shows with her comedy partner, Katty Biscone. BETSY & KATTY's eponymous debut was directed by Rob Corddry. Betsy toured nationally with the one-woman off-Broadway show, MOTHER LOAD. Betsy starred in countless late night television sketches, radio and television commercials, including many national network spots. Betsy is in the upcoming Lifetime show, AMERICAN PRINCESS. She also stars in the webseries DRINK AND BE MOMMY. Most recently, Betsy provided the voice of a sassy, melodramatic monkey in MONKEY UP, and the voice of an elderly poodle in PUP STAR 3: WORLD TOUR, both feature films. Betsy studied acting, directing, and production design at NYU Tisch. Betsy studied improv with Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Amy Poehler, Matt Besser, Armando Diaz, Mick Napier, Joe Bill, and Mark Sutton, as well as comedy writing with Emily Spivey, Matt Besser, Ali Farrahnakian, and Joe Toplyn. Betsy can currently be seen at UCB Sunset in the show she co-hosts with Ari Voukydis and Jessica Eason, TEACHER'S LOUNGE. Listen to her weekly podcast, WHY MOMMY DRINKS, an Apple Podcast New & Notable show!

Billy Merritt

Billy Merritt has been a performer, teacher, and director with the UCB Theatre since it first opened in New York. He's a founding member of improv groups The Swarm, and The Stepfathers in New York, and The Smokes in Los Angeles. Billy teaches all levels of improv at UCB as well as developing several improvised long forms such as The Documentary and The Improvised One Act Play. Billy appeared on the Upright Citizens Brigade TV show, MTV's Boiling Points, Best Week Ever, and Reno 911. Billy also voices Fryman on the Cartoon Network show Steven Universe. He currently can be seen on Rob Riggle's Ski Master Academy as the legendary Dirk Hamsteak, and as Dad on The Divorced Dad Cooking Show. Thing are going well. Also Billy and Will Hines wrote a book on Improvisation called Pirate Robot Ninja: An Improv Fable

Brandon Bassham

Brandon has been at UCB since October 2006. He has studied under Chris Kula, Matt Besser, and Michael Delaney. He has been a member of the UCB house teams Choking Victim, 27 Kidneys, mixtape '98 and Gramp's. He was a member of the sketch groups Black Habanero and Bobby Chicago. He has also written for UCBcomedy, College Humor, and Above Average and written and directed the feature films Fear Town, USA and The Slashening as well as the upcoming Slashening 2 and Troma's The Tempest.

Brandon is an Inny Award winner, a 3 time ECNY Award loser, and also won some sort of award at Seattle SketchFest.