Kat is the owner of Provocation Theatre which operates classes for Berkeley Improv. She was the former director of the Training Center of Finest City Improv for over 5 years. With over 10 years of experience in education and the arts, her dream is to help merge her love of postmodern, experimental, Artaud-inspired theatre with improvisation.

Kat completed graduate studies in theatre at UC Santa Cruz with a focus on education and teaching performance in schools. She has studied at Second City LA, Second City Chicago, Finest City Improv, + Dosage.

Griffen has been an active member of Berkeley Improv since 2018 where he has performed in numerous shows and has made many endearing friends. He directed the University Humor Outreach Program at the University of Redlands, where he lead improv workshops for children. Griffen has studied under ComedySportz LA and the Upright Citizens Brigade, and currently performs with the Berkeley Players and Synergy Theater.

Off stage, Griffen recently completed his MFA in screenwriting at Academy of Art University. His creative writing background inspires him to use improv as a method to weave compelling and hilarious stories that resonate with audiences on an emotional level.

Arastoo has been an active composer, producer, teacher and performer in the Bay Area for over 15 years and has a degree in Applied Science with an emphasis on Sound Arts.

An alum of Berkeley Improv, Arastoo performs improv with The Berkeley Players and Synergy Theater. He has acted for the Discovery Channel ID Network, Lexus, and the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. Arastoo brings together his improv acting skills and musical talents to provide magical improvised musical accompaniment for Berkeley Improv classes and performances.

Beyond music and improv, Arastoo is an avid photographer, writer, and artist. His work has been featured on multiple albums by various artists, magazines, and businesses. For more visit arastoo.com

Christine is a local educator who truly believes that improv has been the best professional development for supporting her work with youth in a variety of contexts. Christine has taught science and improv to kids of all ages for over 25 years in Chicago and the Bay Area. She studied improv for many years with ComedySportz in Chicago and is an alumna of Berkeley Improv. Christine’s classes allow youth and adult students alike to practice skills in listening, teamwork, confidence, creativity, and spontaneity in a supportive community free of judgment. Christine’s youngest students describe her as “funny, a little cringe, and mostly cool.” What she lacks in drip, she makes up for in enthusiasm and love.

Beyond improv, Christine is science teacher, STEM program director, and FIRST Robotics enthusiast. She believes in the power of young people and she and her students are frequent presenters at edtech conferences, science festivals, and maker faires. Christine’s proudest (and tongue-in-cheek) accomplishment is twice winning the Exploratorium’s Iron Science Teacher competition.

Christine has a couple of degrees in teaching and has recently earned her MPH from UC Berkeley. Outside of school, Mytko serves as a CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocate) to help advocate for foster youth in Alameda County.

Marcia is a bilingual performer, registered drama therapist, and recent recipient of the San Francisco Arts Commission grant. For Marcia, improvisation has been a means of connection, self expression and community. Improv allows you to be authentic even when expressing yourself through a character.

Her love of theater and healing led to pursue her Masters in Drama Therapy at California Institute of Integral Studies. She is also a graduate of iWest Institute in Developmental Transformations, an embodied therapeutic form of improvisation. Currently, she is the assistant teacher with Joya Cory’s Full Spectrum Improvisation and performs with Lucky Dog Theater.

As a performer for over 20 years, Marcia has been able to travel, perform in festivals, and meet creative people from all around the world. Improv for Real Life is a chance to throw away the script of “adulting” and let our inner child play a little longer. For more visit cocreatetheater.com

Ahran Lee is a 1.5 Korean American multidisciplinary artist, improv actor, and event designer and facilitator based in Berkeley, California. Cultivating interconnectedness and kinship is central to her work as an artist, facilitator, and community organizer.

Ahran loves designing community spaces where she can facilitate collective creativity and vulnerable sharing to alchemize trauma into collective healing. Themes found in Ahran’s creative work range from AAPI women empowerment, raising mental health awareness, to exploring decolonization of oppressive systems.

Ahran wants to be the first generation in her lineage who boldly breaks away from oppressive patterns by creating and occupying space loudly and proudly. Ahran is an energy mover and an ancestral pattern shifter.

Karen Twelves has over 10 years of experience performing improv in and around the Bay Area. She is one of the founding members of the all-women troupe Chick Flick and a main stage cast member and instructor at All Out Comedy Theater. She also teaches for the GoogleArts Theater program and private clients, and teaches her own workshop series Improv for Gamers locally and at conventions from coast to coast.

Her book Improv for Gamers was published in 2018 with a second edition coming in late 2022. Check it out at improvforgamers.com.

Karen loves delivering enlivening and meaningful learning experiences, and believes that everyone can benefit from an improv class to be a better listener, collaborator, public speaker, and all-around more awesome person.