2025 UPTOWN IMPROV FESTIVAL INSTRUCTORS
Step into the spotlight and learn from some of the best improv instructors in the country! Our workshops offer a rare chance to train with working comedians who bring real-world experience and insight from their work in TV, film, and on stage to every session. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned player, you'll grow your skills, take creative risks, and have a blast doing it.
BILLY SOCO
Billy Soco is a first-generation actor, voice artist, and improv teacher of Chilean and Filipino descent based in NYC. He has trained and performed with Magnet Theater, The Second City, UCB, Freestyle+, ComedySportz, Baby Wants Candy, Shamilton, North Coast, and The Story Pirates. Billy performs regularly with Big Whoop and Kittyhawk and has brought his talents to stages and classrooms worldwide like the Vancouver Improv Festival, Birmingham Improv Festival (UK), and Teatro Lospleimovil (Chile) to name a few. He currently teaches and serves as Artistic Director for Megawatt at Magnet Theater. He also teaches on faculty with The Second City. Learn more at billysoco.com
BRIAN JAMES O’CONNELL
Brian James O’Connell is a filmmaker and teacher based in Los Angeles. His directing credits include: KILLER VIEW, ANGRY WHITE MAN starring Matt Berry, and BLOODSUCKING BASTARDS starring Pedro Pascal (*and was the Opening Night Premiere at Slamdance). BOC (as his friends call him) also co-wrote BLOODSUCKING BASTARDS with his comedy collective Dr. God and wrote KILLER VIEW. His other writing credits include: the SYFY animated series Hell Den (Maria Bamford, Matthew Lillard), MOCKpockalypse (Sam Richardson, Brendan Hunt) and Pitchslap (Joel McHale). With multiple projects in development, BOC is most excited about pitching a dark sci-fi comedy TV series based on THE ANARCHIST COOKBOOK. Brian is proud to be a Co-Founder of The Pack Theater, LA Weekly’s BEST OF LA Pick for “Best Theater Company” two years in a row, a Founding Board Member for Camp Improv Utopia & a current board member for Highwire Improv in Baltimore, MD.
CEleste pechous
Celeste Pechous has been honing her comedic chops for over two decades. A proud alumna of The Second City National Touring Company, she has performed improv and sketch comedy across the globe. Celeste starred as Campbell in Showtime’s critically acclaimed dark comedy Work in Progress, earning praise for her nuanced performance.
Her television credits span both comedy and drama, including roles in Upload, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Carol’s Second Act, The Kenan Show, Masters of Sex, Workaholics, Review, Hot in Cleveland, Get Shorty, Sharp Objects, Pearson, and One Day at a Time.
You’ve also likely seen her in several national commercials, charming you into things as insurance, milk, and banking options, with just the right amount of joy to finally open up your free checking account.
As a strong believer that creativity can spark at any moment, she is fueled by working with corporations like NBC Universal, Blizzard Entertainment, Duke, UCLA, and Clarke Universities to highlight the importance of having a cohesive group mind that brings a supportive and team-building element to each mission statement and overall goal.
Holly has been teaching, performing, and directing improvisation and sketch comedy writing in both Los Angeles and New York City for many-a-decade. She founded the first woman-owned and operated improv school in 2001 after performing as a Groundlings Main Company member for over 6 years in LA. Before leaving, she proudly created the longest-running long-form show in LA, “The Crazy Uncle Joe Show”, which you can see any Wednesday night there.
Holly performs with Drew Droege in an improvised show with wigs that they cleverly called, “WigProv”. She also started THE LOWBAR improv studio in LA from 2015-2017.
She studied with the wonderful SECOND CITY director Jeff Michalski for many years and Aretha Sills (Viola Spolin’s granddaughter). She’s appeared on TV, film and countless commercials (2 of them award-winning in fact!) - all of them using a LOT of improv. She was also on the rotating sub team of improvisers for WHOSE LINE IS IT ANYWAY? (for the one ‘girl’ slot.)
She teaches Improvisation and Sketch at PACE UNIVERSITY in NYC, creating the BFA Comedy Studies program there. She has taught at USC and UCLA, and has traveled to London, Bristol, Sydney and Melbourne to teach as well. She also started her own corporate improv training company in 2011 called iMergence.
She has created talks and programs based on her work with women and girls on perfectionism, the limits of obeying cultural ‘shoulds’, and how improv (and comedy) have the unique power to liberate us from all of it — called GOOD GIRLS AREN’T FUNNY.
It’s all here — www.HollyMandel.com
HOLLY MANDEL
Nnamdi Ngwe is an Actor, Writer, and Comedian. After studying and performing improv and Sketch at iO and The Second City, he became an award winning teacher. He has written and performed for film and TV on shows like The Amber Ruffin Show, A Black Lady Sketch Show, Blippi, House Sitters, and the Emmy Award winning Tab Time.Nnamdi can be seen performing live globally with his award winning sketch/improv group 3Peat
Nnamdi ngwe
PATRICK ROWLAND
Patrick is a writer, comedian, and actor from Chicago, now residing in Los Angeles. He’s studied and taught at The Second City and iO Theater. His solo character work was featured in Alone: Chicago’s Best Solo Comedy at The TBS Just For Laughs Festival in 2013. He is the creator of The Patrick Rowland Sketch Show, a web series he writes, produces, directs, and films himself on an iPhone. He is one of the founding members of 3Peat, a critically acclaimed, award-winning sketch/improv troupe, who has several sketches with Comedy Central's Digital platform, their most successful, The Blackening, garnered over 15 million views, and is currently being made into a feature. Patrick wrote for the Emmy and Critics Choice nominated late-night variety show "The Amber Ruffin Show".
