Teachers

Oscar Montoya

Oscar Montoya has been teaching all levels of long form improv at the Uprights Citizens Brigade since 2017. A frequent performer at the UCB theater, he's appeared on various Dropout shows, Reno 911! and Minx.

Patrick Clair

Patrick Clair is a writer, performer, and teacher at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. He's been at the theater for over a decade and has improvised in and written sketches for countless shows. Patrick was a staff writer for the first two seasons of Live From Here with Chris Thile, a weekly variety show on public radio. You can see him on stage when he sits in with Teacher Feature at UCB Hells Kitchen.

Rachael Mason

Rachael Mason is a writer and performer at the UCB Theater in Los Angeles where she regularly performs with Teacher's Lounge. A New York native, she honed her skills on the UCB NY stage where she performed in and wrote many shows, and wrote on several house sketch teams including the long-running team Gramps. She wrote the web series "So This is the Place," co-wrote the web series "Shannon O'Neill is...." and has written on Beverly Hills Live and the CBS Diversity Showcase. She has studied writing with Chris Kula, Chad Carter, Peter Gwinn, Michael Delaney, Liz Cackowski, and Emily Spivey. As an improvisor, she has studied with Matt Walsh, Ian Roberts, Billy Merritt, Julie Brister, Amy Poehler, Chris Gethard, Anthony King, Shannon O'Neill and many other equally wonderful people. She is a graduate of the Atlantic Theater Company.

Raymond Cordova

Sarah Claspell

Sarah is an actor/comedian/writer living in Los Angeles. She has been teaching improv at UCB since 2016. She has been featured on tv shows such as Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and written for Drunk History, Gizmodo, Ask.com and many live shows at the UCB Theatre. She performs regularly with variety show Asian AF, improv teams Voltron and Cardinal Redbird and Elefante, and various shows doing improv, sketch, and characters. She has performed at SF Sketchfest, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and taught and performed improv all over the world.

Sarah Smallwood Parsons

Sarah is a host of Characters Welcome, a JFL New Face, and a teacher at UCB since 2017. Check out her viral video The Song In Every Musical That No One Likes, her all-female pilot Forgotten Animals, and her podcast Clown Parade: On The Surface. 

Sean Conroy

Acerbic comedian Sean Conroy is self-lacerating and constantly annoyed- at himself and everybody else- but always manages to sneak in a healthy dose of silliness and joyful charm. Splitsider.com describes him as “intimidatingly smart, intimidatingly funny, and just plain intimidating.”

 He’s a multi-disciplined comedy tour-de-force. As a stand-up, Sean’s performed on Conan and Comedy Central. As an improviser, he was a founding member of the first ever house team at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, legendary improv group The Swarm, and has been a regular in the UCB’s flagship show ASSSSCAT for almost twenty years (in fact they asked him to perform with them when they recorded their live show for Shout Factory, still available on DVD).  He’s been a television writer for over a decade (Key & Peele, Crossballs, Dog Bites Man, Gentlemen Lobsters, Players, Love Inc.), most recently finishing up his third season as head writer of Adult Swim’s cult favorite Mr. Pickles, about a dog who’s sort of like Lassie (except he worships Satan, and is a serial killer). He’s hosted over 325 episodes of his podcast, The Long Shot (which the AV Club calls “rollicking” and “a consistent delight”).  

He enjoys good coffee, mediocre whiskey, and ship novels. Check out his website at seanconroy.com, follow his 2017 tour at worldssmallestgiant.com, and follow him on IG and Twitter at @seanconroy.

Shannon O'Neill

Shannon O'Neill has been performing at UCB for over two decades. She performed with The Stepfathers the longest running house team, and hosted and produced Asssscat for close to a decade. She currently performs every Sunday in RaaaatScraps at Caveat NYC. You may recognize her from Broad City, High Maintenance, Difficult People, The Chris Gethard Show, Neon Joe Werewolf Hunter, Man Seeking Woman, or feature film Women Who Kill. Rolling Stone called her "effortlessly funny" and the Hollywood Reporter called her "A very good Shannon O'Neill." Follow her on the tweets and grams - @spotastic and check out RaaaatScraps.com

Skander Halim

Skander Halim has been teaching at UCB since 2020. He wrote for the UCBTLA Maude teams Goodman and Bonafide, and has since gone on to write for television, including CBS’ Murphy Brown revival and The Unicorn. He continues to write and perform with UCB’s first all-South Asian sketch team, The Get Brown.

Spencer Griffin

Spencer Griffin is currently the Head of TV Development for Just For Laughs. In his career, he has sold, developed, and/or Executive Produced projects for Amazon, Audible, Bell, CBC, Comedy Central, CW, E!, Freeform, HBO, Hulu, IFC, Meta, MTV, NBC, PopTV, Sony, Starz, TruTV, and more. Spencer has previously held Development and Executive positions at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, Big Breakfast, and CollegeHumor. He was recognized with a Webby and Telly Award for his co-direction and production of a rap video starring a rapping First Lady Michelle Obama.