American Comedy Institute Student, Faculty, and Alumni News Zach Woods plays Donald “Jared” Dunn on the HBO series Silicon Valley. Zach played Gabe Lewis on the hit NBC comedy The Office. He has appeared on numerous television shows including Veep, The Good Wife, and Arrested Development. His film credits include Spy, In the Loop, The Heat, and The Other Guys. Michelle Buteau co-hosts VH1’s Big Morning Buzz Live with Nick Lachey. She played Private Robinson in Fox’s Enlisted. Michelle has performed stand-up 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, @Midnight, and The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore. Michelle is a 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. Yannis Pappas (One Year Program Alum) 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. He hosts the sports-comedy series 2 Point Lead on AOL. 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. Jim Gaffigan is the star of The Jim Gaffigan Show airing on Wednesdays at 10pm on TV Land and Comedy Central on Thursdays at 8pm. Jim completed his third stand-up comedy 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. His next book, Food-A Love Story, will be released later this year. Jessica Kirson is a national headliner who recently appeared on The Jim Gaffigan Show. She made her film debut in Nick Cannon’s Cliques with Jim Breuer and George Lopez. Jessica has appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The View, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, Last Call With Carson Daly, Celebrity Apprentice and Last Comic Standing. The MAC Association in New York City named her “Best Female Comic.” 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. Carmen Lynch and Esther Ku were both finalists on NBC’s Last Comic Standing. 1 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. Craig Todaro (One Year Program Alum) 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 and will appear in an upcoming episode of Gotham Comedy Live. Michael Somerville 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 starred in his own Comedy Central Special. He made his television stand-up debut on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and has toured with fellow ACI Alum Jim Gaffigan. Tom also sings 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, Kevin Spacey, Sting and Steve Carrell. Tom was a regular correspondent on The Daily Show. 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) 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) plays Danny in the new Woody Allen film Irrational Man, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. He recently starred in the Off-Broadway play The Nether with Peter Friedman, Frank Wood, and Emmy winner Merritt Weaver. Ben played the role of Willie Thompson in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. His most recent film credits include A Most Violent Year starring Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain and Golden Globe nominee David Oyelowo and Song One starring Academy Award winners Anne Hathaway and Mary Steenburgen. Ben played the title role Tim Buckley in the film Greetings From Tim Buckley. He co-starred with Carrie Mulligan in the Atlantic Theatre production of Through a Glass Darkly. Ben is featured in the PBS TV series Live from Lincoln Center in the production of Carousel with the New York Philharmonic. 2 Zinat Pirzadeh won Comedy Festival Sweden’s award for Female Comedian of the Year and has appeared in several Swedish films. Gregory Korostishevsky plays Dmitri on the Netflix series Orange is the New Black. He has appeared in the film Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close with Academy Award winners Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock. He has guest starred on White Collar and The Blacklist. Aaron Karo is author of the new novel Galgorithm. He starred in the Comedy Central Special The Rest is History. The comedy album for The 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. 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 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) has released four comedy CDs- Eat the Yolk, Pumping Irony, Live at Gotham, and Dragonslayer. 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’s (One Year Program Alum) 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) 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. She performed her solo show Does This Dress Make Me Look Alone? in New York’s Fringe Festival. Ted Greenberg (Faculty) is an Emmy Award winning former writer for The Late Show with David Letterman. He 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 7th year at the Soho Playhouse, directed by Stephen Rosenfield. 3 Stephen Rosenfield (Director) is the co-writer and director of The Complete Performer, starring Ted Greenberg, now in its 7th 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, Starz miniseries Standup or Shut Up, and England’s Good Food Channel show Choccywoccydoodah. 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 series The U-Mix Show. He performed in Comedy Central Latin America’s special Comedy Central: Stand-up is Our Religion.