American Comedy Institute Student, Faculty, and Alumni News Michelle Buteau played Private Robinson in Fox’s Enlisted. She has performed on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend, Totally Biased with W.Kamau Bell, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Lopez Tonight and Last Comic Standing. She has appeared in Key and Peele and @Midnight. Michelle is a series regular on VH1’s Best Week Ever, MTV’s Walk of Shame, Oxygen Network’s Kiss and Tell, and was Jenny McCarthy’s sidekick on her late-night talk show Jenny. Craig Todaro (One Year Program alum) Craig performed in American Comedy Institute’s 25th Anniversary Show where he was selected by Gotham Comedy Club owner Chris Mazzilli to appear on Gotham Comedy Live. Craig is now a pro regular at Gotham Comedy Club where he recently appeared in Gotham Comedy All Stars. Yannis Pappas (One Year Program alum) Yannis recently appeared in his first Comedy Central Half Hour special. He has been featured on Gotham Comedy Live, VH1's Best Week Ever and CBS. He is currently the co-anchor of Fusion Live, a one-hour news magazine program on Fusion Network, which focuses on current events, pop culture and satire. He tours the world doing stand up comedy and is known for his immensely popular characters Mr. Panos and Maurica. Along with Director Jesse Scaturro, he is the co-founder of the comedy production company Ditch Films. Jessica Kirson is a touring national headliner. She recently made her film debut in Nick Cannon’s Cliques with Jim Breuer and George Lopez. Jessica has appeared on the Tonight Show, The View, and Last Comic Standing. The MAC association in New York City named her “Best Female Comic.” She recently launched her own podcast called The Jessica Kirson Podcast. Dana Eagle was a semi-finalist on NBC’s Last Comic Standing. She opens for Bill Maher and has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Comics Unleashed and Premium Blend. Her solo show Stones From Glass Houses was featured at the HBO US Comedy Arts Festival. Jim Gaffigan just completed his latest Comedy Central special Obsessed and will be embarking on a new national tour this summer. His comedy book Dad is Fat spent 17 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list and was named Hudson Book of the Year. Carmen Lynch and Esther Ku were both finalists on Last Comic Standing. Carmen Lynch made her stand-up debut on the Late Show with David Letterman and performed in Wanda Sykes’ show Herlarious on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network. She stars in the webseries Apartment C3. Esther Ku is a regular on MTV’s Girl Code 1 Michael Somerville recently made his late night debut on The Late Show with David Letterman. He has hosted shows for Nickelodeon, Encore, and Hallmark Channel and contributed to numerous publications from Time Magazine to Maxim. He appeared on NBC’s The Apprentice, Comedy Central, Bravo’s 100 Funniest Movies, History Channel and hosted Starz’s Stand Up or Shut Up, a miniseries about the ACI Stand Up Comedy Workshops. He headlines at Gotham Comedy Club and other major clubs across the country. Tom Shillue appeared in his own Comedy Central Special, made his stand-up debut on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, and has toured with fellow ACI alumni Jim Gaffigan. Tom sings bass with Jimmy Fallon's barbershop quartet "The Ragtime Gals" on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. As part of the Ragtime Gals he has sung with Justin Timberlake, Billy Joel, and Kevin Spacey. He has appeared on The Daily Show and hosts monthly storytelling series “Funny Story” at The Brooklyn Brewery. David Baker is an international headliner who performs across the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. David has performed with many of today’s top comedians, including Chris Rock, Louis CK, Dave Chappelle, Aziz Ansari, Garry Shandling, Dave Attell, Jim Gaffigan, Tom Papa, Colin Quinn, and Jeffrey Ross. Nick Cobb (One Year Program alum) Nick recently appeared on Inside Amy Schumer and had his late night debut on The Late Show with Craig Ferguson. He was featured in Time Out New York’s Joke of the Week. Nick has appeared on Live at Gotham and was a finalist on Last Comic Standing. He is a regular at Gotham Comedy Club. Ben Rosenfield (ACI Board Member) Ben plays the role of Willie Thompson in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. Ben recently starred alongside Academy Award winners Anne Hathaway and Mary Steenburgen in the film Song One, which premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Ben co- starred with Carrie Mulligan in the Atlantic Theatre production of Through a Glass Darkly. He plays Tim Buckley in the film Greetings From Tim Buckley. He is featured in the PBS TV series Live from Lincoln Center in the production of Carousel with the New York Philharmonic. Aaron Karo starred in the Comedy Central special The Rest is History. The comedy album forThe Rest is History reached number one on Amazon.com’s comedy bestseller list. He has developed sitcoms for 20th Century Fox, MTV, Warner Brothers, The CW, and CBS Paramount. Rene Franco is a Mexican TV Show Host, journalist and actor. His show Es De Noche y ya Llegue has been running for over 5 years in Mexican television and broadcast all over the world by the popular El Canal De las Estrellas Network. He is currently leading a Mexican national tour of Mexico’s best stand-ups. Gregory Korostishevsky plays Dmitri on the new Netflix series Orange is the New Black. Mary Dimino recently released her book Scared Skinny No More!, based on her one-woman show Scared Skinny, which won the New York International Fringe Festival Best Solo Show Award. Mary is a winner of the MAC Award for Outstanding Female Comedian. She has appeared on The Chris 2 Rock Show and The Graham Norton Effect. She also appears in national commercials for Dunkin’ Donuts, Chase and Nicorette Gum. Andrew Ginsburg (One Year Program alum) Andrew has released four comedy CDs- Pumping Irony, Live at Gotham, and Dragonslayer. His latest comedy album Eat the Yolk reached the top 10 on Itunes comedy album list. He is a headliner at Carolines on Broadway and has appeared in numerous Saturday Night Live sketches and digital shorts. He performed in American Comedy Institute’s 25th Anniversary show. Shabana Rehman (One Year Program alum) Shabana’s one-person play, For Kingdom and Fatherland, co-written and directed by Stephen Rosenfield has been performed in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Oslo. She is one of Norway’s leading comedians. Julie Kottakis (One Year Program alum) Julie performed in the Ladies of Laughter Festival, the Laughing Skull Comedy Festival, and is a regular at the Comic Strip Live and Broadway Comedy Club. Julie won New York’s Funniest Lawyer and NYC’s Most Incredible Comedian competitions. She performed in American Comedy Institute’s 25th Anniversary Show. This summer she’ll perform her solo show Does This Dress Make Me Look Alone? in New York’s Fringe Festival. Zinat Pirzadeh won Comedy Festival Sweden’s award for Female Comedian of the Year and has appeared in several Swedish films. Stephen Rosenfield (Director) Stephen is the co-writer and director of The Complete Performer, starring Ted Greenberg, now in its 6th year at the Soho Playhouse, For Kingdom and Fatherland featured in the New York International Fringe Festival, and American Radical which premiered at NJPAC (New Jersey Performing Arts Center). His recent TV appearances include Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing and Starz miniseries Standup or Shut Up. He has recently been a guest artist at Lawrence University, Brigham Young University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Stephen was recently elected to the Board of Directors for the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST). Federico Cyrulnik is on the creative team at Disney Channel (Latin America) and is the Director of the Disney Channel show The U-Mix Show. This summer he will perform in Comedy Central Latin America’s special Comedy Central: Stand-up is Our Religion show. Carla Vasconcelos (One Year Program alum) Carla co-starred in the film Love Actually. She is a leading actress and comedian in Portugal where she appears in numerous television series and films. Ted Greenberg (faculty) He recently appeared on The View; selected by Barbara Walters as her favorite comedian. He is starring in the off-Broadway hit The Complete Performer, now in its 6th year at the Soho Playhouse, directed by Stephen Rosenfield. Carl-Einar Hackner is a Swedish illusionist, actor, and comedian who has performed in Sweden, Germany, Austria, Spain, The UK, and Australia. He performed in the long-running variety show at Liseberg in Gothenburg. He starred as Robert in the TV series Herbert & Robert. 3 John O’Boyle (ACI Board Member) John is a producer who is currently represented on Broadway with the Tony nominated Matilda the Musical and is a Tony winner for Best Play Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Victor Verhaeghe plays Ward Boss Fleming on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. He has appeared on The Good Wife, Fringe, and Law & Order among other shows. Elaine Marcos has appeared on Broadway in Annie, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, A Chorus Line, The Wedding Singer and Miss Saigon. Her show Super Gay Asian Cabaret will appear at the Hollywood Fringe Festival and the Academy for New Musical Theatre. Sunda Croonquist is host of JLTV’s top rated variety and comedy talk show James and Sunda.