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American Institute Student, Faculty, and Alumni News

Michelle Buteau played Private Robinson in Fox’s Enlisted. She has performed on ’s , Totally Biased with W.Kamau Bell, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and . 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 Jenny.

Craig Todaro (One Year Program alum) Craig performed in American Comedy Institute’s 25th Anniversary Show where he was selected by Gotham owner Chris Mazzilli to appear on Gotham Comedy Live. Craig is now a pro regular at 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 . 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 .

Jessica Kirson is a touring national headliner. She recently made her debut in Nick Cannon’s Cliques with Jim Breuer and . Jessica has appeared on , , and Last Comic Standing. The MAC association in 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 and has appeared on The Tonight Show with , 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 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 and performed in ’ 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 debut on The Late Show with David Letterman. He has hosted shows for , 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 , and has toured with fellow ACI alumni . 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 . He has appeared on and hosts monthly series “Funny Story” at The 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 , including , Louis CK, , , , , Jim Gaffigan, , , and Jeffrey Ross.

Nick Cobb (One Year Program alum) Nick recently appeared on Inside and had his late night debut on The Late Show with Craig Ferguson. He was featured in Time Out New York’s of the Week. Nick has appeared on 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 . Ben recently starred alongside Academy Award winners and Mary Steenburgen in the film Song One, which premiered at the 2014 . Ben co- starred with Carrie Mulligan in 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 forThe Rest is History reached number one on .com’s comedy bestseller list. He has developed 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 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 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 . 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 , 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 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, , , , 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 , and is a regular at the 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 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 ) 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 will appear at the Fringe Festival and the Academy for New .

Sunda Croonquist is host of JLTV’s top rated variety and comedy talk show James and Sunda. She also appeared on Law & Order and Strong Medicine. She has been featured on Oprah’s OWN Network, Comics Unleashed, Comedy Central and The Today Show. She is performing on Direct TV’s upcoming , Live!

Sofia Nino de Rivera starred in the TV show, You Should be Working at This Hour, in Mexico on TV Azteca. She is pioneering a comedy movement in Mexico City. Sofia has written and performed for MTV, Comedy Central and VH1. Her stand up was featured in the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Joe Grossman is on the writing staff of The Late Show with David Letterman and appears on the show as a performer.

Dave DeVito was named “Best Stand-Up” at the Los Angeles Comedy Festival. He is the founder and producer of Comedy Party USA now in its eighth year. Comedy Party USA is the longest running underground comedy show in 's West Village and was named the Best Comedy Workout Room by The Complete Performer's NYC Comedy Club Awards.

Joe Schiappa (faculty) Joe recently wrote for MTV's Money from Strangers and Silent Library. He is also a winner of the Sierra Mist Creative Lab. Joe has developed shows that have gone Off Broadway, to the HBO Comedy Festival in Aspen and the Strip in . He also performs as one-half of duo Nathan+Joe. He recently directed Steve Buschemi and Mayor Bill de Blasio in a video for New York’s Inner Circle .

Johnny Watson has appeared on Saturday Night Live and Good Morning America. He headlines in comedy clubs throughout the United States and Canada. He’s the co-host of the radio show Watson ‘n Watson.

Rob Santos (One Year Program alum) Rob has appeared on Super Ego TV and the Stand-Up 360 Comedy Festival. He performed in American Comedy Institute’s 25th Anniversary Show.

Clayton Fletcher recently completed a tour in Australia. He has worked with comics and . He hosts The Clayton Fletcher Show at New York Comedy Club and co- hosts a podcast on Broadway Comedy Club Radio.

4 Mara Altman (One Year Program alum) Mara’s first book, Thanks for Coming, was translated into three languages - German, Portuguese and Spanish- and was optioned by HBO. She has written four kindle singles- That’s What She Said, Bearded Lady, Sparkle, and Baby Steps. She has also written for New York Magazine, The New York Times, and First Things.

Robin Gelfenbein (One Year Program alum) Robin’s critically acclaimed solo show My Salvation Has a First Name (A Wienermobile Journey) premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival. She is host of the show Yums the Word at The Gallery at LPR in New York City. Robin has written for Rosie O’Donnell. Her writing has been featured in Marie Claire, Huffington Post Comedy, The New York Times. She has appeared on Saturday Night Live, VH1’s Awesomely Badder Videos, and AMC’s Lisa Life Coach with Cheri O’Teri.

Drew Wininger (One Year Program alum) Drew is a frequent guest on the comedy talk show Keith and The Girl. He starred in his one-man show, Clinical Depression (the funny kind) at Under St. Marks Theatre in New York City.

Andrew Goffman is the author and star of the hit Off-Broadway show, The Accidental Pervert, currently running in its 6th year at the 13th Street Repertory Company.

Greg Collett (One Year Program alum) Greg is the founder of Comedians-at-Law, a group of lawyers turned comedians. They launched the successful national comedy tour Lawmageddon.

Dan Nainan recently performed in the stand-up show The Maharajas of Comedy hosted by Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar. He has performed for President Obama.

Kate Redway starred in and co-authored the one-person play, American Radical, which premiered at NJPAC (New Jersey Performing Arts Center). The play is co-authored and directed by Stephen Rosenfield.

Katy Olson (One Year Program alum) Katy has appeared on Starz’s, Stand Up or Shut Up, a miniseries about ACI Stand Up Comedy Workshops and can be heard on Comical Radio.

Tony Kelly appeared in the BBC America Sci Fi show Primeval. His debut comedy album PS, I Hate You was recently released. He stars in the webseries The Hurler.

Debora Rabbai (faculty) Debora is the Co-Artistic Director, Co-Producer, and performer in Broadway’s Next Hit Musical currently on national tour. She has appeared on Late Night with O’Brien and in a national commercial for Mastercard.

Becky Veduccio has appeared in the films Mona Lisa Smile and Maid in . She writes the column Nuggets From a Mom With No Filter for the website Woman Around Town.

Kenny Neal Schultz is the writer, producer, and host of comedy short Pigs in a Blanket. He was featured in HIV magazine.

5 Daniel Crow (One Year Program alum) Daniel performed in American Comedy Institute’s 25th Anniversary show.

Ana Carolina (One Year Program alum) Ana is an Argentinean comic who was featured in the first English-language comedy show performed in Buenos Aires.

Brad Szollose is an Award winning and internationally best-selling author of Liquid Leadership, a business/life coach, successful entrepreneur, and keynote speaker.

Fara Greenbaum (One Year Program alum) Fara’s solo shows How I Became An Astronaut and My New Weird Show have been presented by The Midtown International Theater Festival, Manhattan Repertory Theatre Festival, The Network One Act Festival and The Plus One Solo Show Festival.

Christi Chiello has been featured on The Tyra Banks Show and her standup show Get a Room was featured in Time Out New York. She has performed in the New York Comedy Festival, the Jersey City Comedy Festival and ’s Women in Comedy Festival.

Mike Motz (One Year Program alum) Mike is the first winner of the Hick Hop Radio Comedy Search. He appears in the hit off-Broadway show Simon Lovell’s Strange & Unusual Hobbies and co-hosts Jokes and Gender at Broadway Comedy Club.

Steven Fales’ album “Confessions of a Mormon Boy LIVE from ” has been released on iTunes and Amazon.com. The album is based on his critically acclaimed solo play, Confessions of a Mormon Boy for which he received the New York Outer Critics Circle Award nomination for Outstanding .

Megan McCormick (One Year Program alum) Megan is the host of the travel adventure series Globe Trekkar on PBS and the Discovery Channel’s Sea Nation.

Alex Bond (One Year Program alum) Alex has appeared on Saturday Night Live and All My Children.

Lou Stone Borenstein (One Year Program alum) Lou co-created and stars in the web series Is This Thing On?

Lexi Cullen-Baker (faculty) Lexi’s stand-up has been featured on ComedyTime TV and Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing.

Paul Murdock (One Year Program alum) Paul is a regular at the Broadway Comedy Club and has opened for fellow One Year Program alumni Andrew Ginsburg at Carolines on Broadway. He co- created and stars in the web series Is This Thing On? Brad Zimmerman is touring in his one-person show, My Son the Waiter: A Jewish Tragedy. As a comic, Brad has opened for and .

6 Robert Broderick (One Year Program alum) His group, Abandoman, opened for Ed Sheeran. He performs on BBC radio with James Hancox as the duo Pic N Mixtape. He frequently performs in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Jessica Fletcher (One Year Program alum) Jessica made her television debut on WE TV’s CinemaTherapy and is a regular at Broadway Comedy Club. Herbert Ssegujja (One Year Program alum) Herbert is a director of the Ugandan comedy group Fun Factory and started the first standup comedy workshop in Uganda.

Alison Grillo (One Year Program alum) Alison was featured in Time Out New York’s Joke of the Week and was profiled in The Advocate. She performs for colleges and universities and at clubs around NYC.

Danny Palmer (One Year Program alum) Danny is a regular at the Comic Strip Live and recently headlined at Carolines on Broadway as part of their Breakout Artist Comedy Series.

Chuck Marti played Fast Freddy in the film Rob the Mob with Andy Garcia and . This summer he will appear in The Tempest in Inwood’s Shakespeare in the Park festival.

SJ Lehoven performs in Kauai’s improv group Inspirates and recently debuted her radio play NOW Who Are You?

Jackie Maruschak has performed in plays in Los Angeles and New York. She performed in American Comedy Institute’s 25th Anniversary show.

Raj Mahal (One Year Program alum) Raj has been featured on MSNBC and CNN.

Lauren Chicklo opened for ACI One Year Program alumni Andrew Ginsberg at Carolines on Broadway and Don’t Tell Mama.

Mary Ann Conk (faculty) She recently appeared in the national tour of the long running hit Shear Madness. She also appeared in the premier stage adaptation of Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows at the Flat Rock Playhouse.

Mike Cupolo (One Year Program alum) Mike appears in the off-Broadway hit The Complete Performer, now in its 6th year at the Soho Playhouse.

Michaelanthony (One Year Program alum) He was recently signed as an illustrator by Creative Circle. He is also a voiceover artist for the video game Contagion.

Gareth Jones is the writer and producer of Wotcha! Gotcha!, which premiered at the Burgdorff Center for the Performing Arts. He has appeared in plays in New York.

Jacob Silver (One Year Program alum) Jacob appears in Eater.com’s webseries We Love Food. He performs in clubs in New York City.

7 Ethan Herschenfeld originated the roles of Aguirre and Hog Boy in the opera Brokeback Mountain, which premiered in Madrid. This summer he will guest star in the NBC’s Unforgettable.

Please stay in touch with us about your recent accomplishments so we can help you promote them!

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