Top Story! Weekly Cast
Posted by gluvox on March 6th, 2007
John Abbott
John Abbott grew up in Boston and graduated from Harvard, where he studied Classics and wrote for the Lampoon. In Los Angeles, he was a founding member of the sketch group the Joke Pimps and learned long-form improv at the iO West. Improv credits include Cog, Trophy Wife, Nite Terrors, and coaching Mud Hen and MPG. On the scripted side, he performed in the iO Mainstage Sketch show Three’s Company, Four’s a Conglomerate and is a member of the Top Story! Weekly cast. John also contributes the occasional ripped-from-the-headlines zinger to Top Story! Weekly. John, Mrs. Abbott, and Junior live in a charming cottage in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.
Tommy Bechtold
Tommy is a graduate of the iO West training program and regularly performs with EXTRA-STRENGTH, Upstate, Victor’s Secret, Book Club and Those Who Oppose Us Will Stand Knee Deep In The Blood Of Their Children (with Top Story castmate Michael Hughes). He is also one of the hosts of Smash Cuts on The CW network. His film and television credits include House M.D., Party Down and the independent feature Sophomore. Originally from Rochester NY, Tommy got his start writing and performing in local sketch and variety shows.
Christopher Biewer
Christopher Biewer moved to Los Angeles from Chicago in April 2007 after meeting the cast at Sketchfest. Christopher started as a writer and became an official cast member December 2007. Before moving to LA, Christopher studied and performed at iO and Second City Conservatory in Chicago, and was a founding member of Hippo Horsey Donkey Monkey, an improv/sketch troupe. Christopher can be seen starring in “Crash Down Hearts”, a feature film set for release later this year. www.christopherbiewer.com
Kipleigh Brown
Kipleigh studied at the Steppenwolf Theatre and the Second City as well as performing in numerous theatrical productions around the Windy City. Her TV and film credits include “Star Trek: Enterprise,” Disney’s “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,” CBS’s “The Magic Door,” “Relative Strangers” (starring Danny DeVito), and “Design” (official selection of the 2002 Sundance Film Festival). She was named one of the “Hot Leading Ladies” of film by Film Fetish for her role in YESTERDAY WAS A LIE. www.kipleigh.com
Jen Cain
Jen Cain is from Texas, where she received her degree in Radio TV Film performance from TCU. Jen has performed at comedy theaters all over LA, festivals across the country, and with The Second City in Hawaii for eight months. She has done several national commercials and a handful of TV shows on the networks WB, MTV, CBS, ABC and Showtime. Jen was a writer and performer for the revival of National Lampoon’s Lemmings, working for them in the national tour, on a comedy album, and in thirteen half hour episodes. She recently shot a pilot created by Matt Williams (Roseanne, Home Improvement), and hosted her own live broadcast show called “Girls Night In.”.
Sean Cowhig
Sean is a Boston native - just ask his accent. He studied at Emerson College and found his love of comedy when he joined the school’s only all improv comedy troupe This is Pathetic, which was started by brilliant actor/comedians David Cross and Laura Kightlinger. His biggest achievement so far was being a featured extra in “Moonlight Mile” where he spent a day in a car with Dustin Hoffman, Susan Sarandon, and Jake Gyllenhaal. He was out of his element at the time. Sean can be seen in several ongoing iO West productions including Dr. God, Wikipedia Live, Top Story! Weekly, and iO West’s Mainstage Sketch show.
Susan Deming
Susan Deming is an alumna of Northwestern University, the Second City Writing Conservatory, and The Groundlings Sunday Company. She performs in “The Crazy Uncle Joe Show” at the Groundlings on a regular basis. Her film directorial debut, the short satire, “Purple Bins,” was invited to screen at numerous film festivals and aired on the WB’s “Online Nation”. Her latest short subject, “Oh, Sammy!” won the Atom Films Upload This! contest and aired on Comedy Central’s “AtomTV.” Susan recently enjoyed a run playing Hillary Clinton on a Showtime pilot entitled “Not Penn Jillette” opposite magician/comedian Penn Jillette, on the Oxygen Channel pilot “LOL” starring Debi Mazar, and on David Zucker’s latest spoof, “An American Carol.” She has appeared in several national commercials and played a memorable role on “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” She was most recently tapped as a YouTube Content Partner based on the popularity of her Sarah Palin spoof video, “I Picked a Girl” which featured Phillip Wilburn as John McCain. www.susandeming.com
Rachael Drummond
Rachael Drummond is a graduate of I.O. West and also the Groundlings School. She performs every Wednesday night at 9:30 on the iO West Mainstage with the award-winning Harold Team Trophy Wife. She can be seen in the 20th Century Fox sitcom pilot “Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office.” She received an honorable mention from the Garland Awards for her performance as Viola in 12th Night with Shakespeare Orange County. Her LA theater credits include her two-person sketch show, How Two, also Communicating Doors, Sex is Good for You, and Viola in 12th Night. New York credits include The Trials of Martin Guerre, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, and Viola in 12th Night. Rachael also played Viola in 12th Night in Sonoma. That makes 4 times.
Contact Rachael at rachael at trophy wife improv dot com.
Visit Rachael at rachaeldrummond.com
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John Druska
John Druska hails from Berwyn, IL and studied theater, screenwriting and production at Indiana University. He has performed in Los Angeles as a founding member of sketch crew Moon County, as well as on iO’s Mainstage Sketch Show, and House Sketch Team Super Kudzu. He can also be seen at various venues around L.A. with his improv team Daddy Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, and his one-person show LOOPS: Tales From Behind the Bag (for a clip, click on this link). John resides in Hollywood and is still looking for literary representation, so, hook a brother up.
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Damien Fahey
Damien’s TV hosting resume starts with having been the longtime host of MTV’s flagship program TRL. He took over for Carson Daly on TRL in 2002 and in 2004 was hand picked by David Letterman to contend as one of the four TV personalities to take over The Late Late Show on CBS. Since then he has also sat in for Regis Philbin on LIVE! with Regis and Kelly numerous times, hosted The Daily 10 on E!, and co-hosted I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here on NBC. Damien lent his voice to two episodes of Family Guy called, “Peter’s Daughter”, & “I Dream of Jesus”. Fahey’s voice can also be heard in the animated movie Robots. He fills in for Ryan Seacrest on his morning radio show on LA’s KIIS-FM. On the comedy front, he performs improv comedy regularly and sketch comedy with Top Story Weekly at iO West. Damien also writes comedy on Twitter and on his fake news blog, The Fahey Chronicles.
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Neil Garguilo
Neil is a graduate of The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York City and has completed the comedy programs at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and iO West. Neil has worked in comedy writing and performance for The Reelz Channel and National Lampoon, to name a couple. He has written and performed in a number of stage shows that have been put up in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Providence and Montreal and has also penned the film “The Adventures of Sargento & Tuggers,” which won at this year’s USA Film Festival in Dallas, TX. Currently, Neil can be found performing in the Los Angeles comedy scene several nights a week. Neil likes you. www.neilgarguilo.com
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Jimmy Guidish
Jimmy has been a part of this great cast since 2008. He is originally from Naples, Florida, and is a graduate of the Second City Los Angeles conservatory program . He can also be seen at iO West performing regularly with his improv group Freedom Snatch.
Matthew Harris
Matthew Harris is a UCLA graduate with a BA in Theater. He was born in Stockton, California at a hospital between a graveyard and the county jail, hence his interest in comedy. Matthew has been in two national commercials, appeared on Comedy Central and Adult Swim specials, co starred on “The Lonely Island” opposite Andy Samberg, and starred in “The Pretty Boy Project” (winner best comedy short in LA Film Festival, Black Film Festival, and Cinevegas award) and Rock Obama! “The Barack Obama Musical” (official selection LA Comedy Festival, www.sadninja.com). He was also an extra in “Collateral” and got to have a gun pointed at him by Jamie Foxx (for the purposes of the movie he’s sure). Matthew continues to perform in various comedy shows around Los Angeles and sketches that pepper the internet. Top Story! Weekly is the most fun show Matt has worked on and he is proud to be among the very funny and talented players, writers and directors. Matt Harris defeated Chuck Norris’ high score in Tetris and invented the wheel, aeronautics and the helicopter but not in that order. Matt Harris is referred to by his mother as “a good boy” and only sleeps for one hour a day, which he does in 10 second stretches throughout an entire day. Whenever God wins a Grammy he thanks Matt Harris. Matt Harris rocks ass. www.nowcasting.com/matthewisaacharris
Michael Hughes
Michael Hughes’ duties with Top Story! Weekly include director, writer, actor, and TSW News co-producer. Mike holds degrees from Yale and Harvard and trained with Uta Hagen, Howard Fine, and the Groundlings. In addition to his work with TS!W, you can find Mike improvising regularly at iO West with Those Who Oppose Us Will Stand Knee Deep In the Blood of Their Children with fellow TS!W cast member Tommy Bechtold. Mike has also performed regularly at Second City with Masi Oka (”Heroes”) and Simon Helberg (”Big Bang Theory”). Film credits include “Factory Girl” opposite Sienna Miller, and “The Man from Elysian Fields” opposite Andy Garcia. Stage work includes productions at the Geffen Playhouse and the Knightsbridge Theatre, and he co-wrote and performed a song for National Lampoon.
Commercial: Cris Dennis/Film Artists Assoc./(818) 883-5008
TILLERY JOHNSON
Hailing from rural North Carolina, Tillery studied literature and creative writing at UNC - Chapel Hill where he stumbled onto the improv scene at the DSi theater. Since then he has written, performed and trained on two of the United States’ more famous coasts, at such prestigious schools as iO West, UCB and “the streets”. A Jack of all trades who thinks Jack of all trades is a compliment and still doesn’t know why they call him Jack, Tillery can be found doing shows throughout Los Angeles long after the theaters have closed for the night.
GREGG LOPEZ
Besides writing and acting in ‘Top Story! Weekly’, Gregg is also a songwriter who records under the moniker ‘Murdered Man.’ He recently work-shopped his original musical ‘Soundsville,’ and contributed music to National Lampoon, Judy Tenuda’s ‘Mountain Girl’ and ‘Cartoon Dump’ at the Steve Allen Theater. He’s featured in the upcoming film ‘Low Rollers,’ and is a founding member of the improvised talk show ‘The Late Night Explosion’ as well as the meta-parody duo ‘The Krazy Brothers.’ A native of Long Island, NY, Gregg is a graduate of AADA in New York and the iO West Writing Program. http://gregglopez.com
MIKE MCLENDON
Mike McLendon is an actor, improvisor, comedian, and writer of short bios originally from Austin, Texas. In addition to performing on the mainstage at iO West, Mike has performed around the world with The Second City Theatricals, Mission Improvable, and The Dinner Detective. Mike is a proud member of the mainstage Harold Team “Bandit” and the former cagematch powerhouse, “Orpheus Roy” – now playing Friday nights on the mainstage. In addition to living and breathing improv at stages across town, Mike was also the face of 3 National Campaigns for 7-Eleven. No, he does not get free Slurpees.
GRASIE MERCEDES
Grasie Mercedes is an actress, TV host & style blogger who graduated from NYU with a degree in Broadcast Journalism. She began her comedy career by entering the improv program at iO West. Now a graduate, she performs weekly with her Harold team Triggerfinger and monthly as a sketch performer in Top Story! Weekly. Her TV credits include a recurring role on All My Children, roles on Guiding Light, NCIS, Criminal Minds, Southland and a dozen national commercials. In the hosting world, Grasie hosted E! News Now, the online clip show for E! News, co-hosted a music show pilot called Music On Demand and has worked for various online outlets such as MAXIM.com, UGO Networks and SeenOn.com conducting celebrity interviews and hosting for Red Carpet events. She was on the first season of The Style Network’s Style Star as an On-Camera Fashion Expert. She also has her own fashion web series on LookTV and is a Style Contributor for HelloGiggles.com. For updated credits and projects, check out her blog www.StyleMeGrasie.com and her Twitter feed @grasiemercedes
Matt Moore
Matt Moore has performed throughout Los Angeles. Matt is a student of vaudeville comedy and has won both the Upright Citizens Brigade’s Classiest Sketch in LA contest as well as iO West’s Nicest Sketch in the Whole World contest.
mattmooreexperience@gmail.com
Jim Nieb
Jim has worked steadily since 1991 as an actor, comedian, impersonator and variety performer. Jim has taught and performed improvisation since high school and was a long time member of the comedy improvisation group ComedySportz in Washington, DC. Jim still travels quite a bit performing around the Country and world. In 2006 he was honored to have a chance to perform for the USO at various bases in Bosnia and Kosovo. Jim is also a student at the well respected Playhouse West Theatre and School in North Hollywood, which was founded by Robert Carnegie and co-founded by Jeff Goldblum. Jim can be seen performing with Top Story! Weekly as well as the improvisational comedy group The Society. www.jimnieb.com
Jared Nigro
Jared Nigro is a comedy writer/performer from the surf capitol of the world: Pittsburgh, PA. He was on the UCB Maude team, “Extreme Tambourine,” and is awaiting the last level of schooling at The Groundlings. Jared wrote and performed in a two person show, “Apocalypse When? End of the World Sketch Show,” that ran for 6 months at the Hollywood Improv. The show was invited to perform at the 2012 LA Comedy Fest, where it was nominated for ‘best sketch duo’ and ‘best sketch show.’ His dream is to get a SCUBA license. His biggest pet peeve is people touching his knees (happens a lot, too).
Brian O’Connell
Brian James O’Connell is a working actor, writer, director, filmmaker and improviser in Los Angeles, and is also the Bar Manager for iO West. Brian is a graduate of the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts, where, after receiving his BFA in Film Editing, Brian became the first-ever former student hired by the SOF to oversee the school’s production department as Production Coordinator. Brian’s first feature film as writer/director, KILLER VIEW, was released theatrically in the Fall of 2009. Brian is in post production as a Director of the animated comedy series ZOMBIE GRANDMA starring Guillermo Diaz (read Guillermo talk about ZOMBIE GRANDMA here.) A member of the Screen Actors Guild, Brian’s on-screen credits include the festival favorites THE GIRLS’ ROOM (with Soleil Moon Frye and Wil Wheaton), RED DIRT RISING, and in the internet television series MR. WRONG and MODEL BALL. A regular performer and coach at iO West, Brian is well-respected as one of Los Angeles’s premier improvisers and famous for his encyclopedic knowledge of minutiae and his insane recall ability and memory. Brian can be seen performing at iOWest currently with Billyhawk, Dr. God, EXTRA STRENGTH, mud, garguilO’connell, Top Story! Weekly, and Tigerpants. (Check out the videos page on Brian’s website to see performances by any of these groups).
Tommy O’Rourke
Tommy O’Rourke, a native of Detroit, is a writer/actor in the truest sense of the word. He has recently completed work hosting the pilot “Make a Star” and starred in LMFAO’s “Champagne Showers” video with over 95 MILLION hits. His most recent feature “Dirty 30” and pilot “No Problimo” are in development. A cast member and writer in the revival of National Lampoon’s Lemmings, he is a Second City and UCB grad and currently in the Groundlings program. Tommy performs weekly on the improv team “Freedom Snatch,” a group that held the nationwide improv cage match record with an astonishing 46-0 WEEKS of audience voted victories!
Amy Paffrath
Amy Paffrath was born and raised in the heart of the US, in St. Louis, Missouri. Young Amy was a busy kid taking dance and gymnastic lessons from the ripe age of 3. She is a middle child and thus has always loved attention. Amy accomplished this by putting on newscasts and plays for her family. She got the last laugh by charging them admission. Amy graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism in 2005. She moved to LA 6 months later and landed her first big gig as a video vixen in Paramore’s #1 hit “Misery Business.” In early 2007 she was given the amazing opportunity to host her very own show, “Broadcaster News.” The pop culture news show ran daily and racked up more than 200 episodes and hundreds of thousands of hits online. It was on “Broadcaster News” that Amy was able to explore impersonations and fell in love with doing sketch comedy. Since then, Amy has worked as a Fun Fearless Female reporter for Cosmopolitan.com, has been a series regular on MSN’s “The Big Debate,” stars in the upcoming musical “I Kissed a Vampire” and will appear on the new CBS comedy “The Defenders” this fall. Becoming the host of E! News Now and a Daily 10 correspondent was a dream come true for Amy. When she’s not dishing the latest from Hollywood and then skewering it on Top Story! Weekly, Amy can be found hiking, working with one of the many charities she supports, hanging with friends or traveling the world.
Artemis Pebdani
Artemis has done a lot of live theatre and comedy in Los Angeles. She has also done some tv. Most notably, she expertly plays the role of Artemis on FX’s “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia.”
She is also a ninja.
Corey Podell
After being raised in the wild swamplands of South Florida, Corey attended Boston College, became a school teacher and didn’t realize she should be a writer/performer until her quarterlife crisis at age 25. Since that revelation, Corey has been a member of the Groundlings Sunday Company, and has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and 2 Broke Girl$. Just ask her about it, she can go on at length. Corey loves to perform all around LA with her sketch group, Big Boss and is the creator and producer of the critically acclaimed story telling show, Taboo Tales.
Brent Pope
Brent honed his acting chops on the mean streets of rural Nebraska, but he was born on the unpaved streets of the rural Philippines. Brent has appeared on a variety of tv, film and stage projects, including North Mission Road and The Investigators for Court TV, The Hollywood Fight Club’s production of the David Mamet classic Edmond, and a hilarious spoof of Million Dollar Baby, directed by On the Lot’s Sam Friedlander. Brent can currently be seen with his comedy troupe Dead Honkey (10 time iO West Sketch Cagematch champs), on his webseries Friendly Fire, and in Top Story! Weekly.
Josh Rachford
Josh Rachford is an actor and comedian living in Los Angeles. After graduating from the University of Virginia with a BA in Cognitive Science he lived in New York, where he studied improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and worked at web start-up Tumblr. Now in LA, Josh has appeared in commercials, on HBO’s The Newsroom and NPR’s Marketplace, and with the Story Pirates.
Derek Jeremiah Reid
Derek Jeremiah Reid is the H.N.I.C. of Dead Honkey. If you don’t know what that means, just ask your black friend (probably Derek). Derek started doing comedy in Austin Texas at Esther’s Follies. Then he hosted the short lived show “The Basement” on the short lived channel Fox Family Channel. Derek is now a cast member of the improv troupe Robert Donwey Jr.Jr. Derek has studied at Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade. Derek doesn’t run on C.P.T., and if you don’t know what that means, you’re probably a Honkey.
Deanna Russo
A New Jersey native and Rollins College graduate, Deanna Russo is best known for starring in NBC’s 2008 reboot of Knight Rider, as well as her recurring roles on Gossip Girl and Rescue Me. When not performing sketch or improv, Deanna can be found crocheting large Afghans. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook and visit her website.
Tammie Smalls
In addition to performing with the cast of Top Story! Weekly, Tammie is a graduate of the conservatory at Second City, where she performs with the improv group The Tuskegee Experiment. Smalls is also an Emmy nominated television producer for her work on the Showtime Network series, “Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t.” She also wrote and produced the award winning E! Celebrity Profile featuring comedian Margaret Cho. Tammie, who is also a VO talent and vocalist, is from New York.
Brian Vestal
A Sacramento native, Brian Vestal’s life long dream has just been to make people laugh. After many scholastic years of pencil mustaches and prat falls, Brian earned a degree in Theatre from California State University, Fullerton. A graduate of the Second City Training Center in Los Angeles in such shows as “Be Afraid” and “Gonzales Arrives”, he has also performed at UCB, The Open Fist Theatre, as well as iO West. Brian’s very excited to be in Top Story! Weekly, and pursue his new passion for “fake news”. He is very proud to have worked with Second City Chicago Mainstage director Ron West and SNL writer Anne Beatts. Brian also wants you to know that you are a special, pretty flower. High fives are free: just ask. www.brianvestal.com
Julia Wackenheim
Julia Wackenheim grew up solely in casino towns, Reno and Atlantic City respectively. She grew up with big dogs, really big dogs, like Irish Wolfhounds and stuff. After graduating high school, Julia left gamblin’ for Bean Town (Boston). She earned her BFA in Acting from Emerson College with a minor in Sass and Italian pastries. While at Emerson, she was a member of the long standing comedy group, This Is Pathetic, and starred in many plays. After college, Julia moved to LA to perform comedy on and off stage. She can be seen in many commercials (Walmart, eBay, Sabra Hummus), Jimmy Kimmel Live! and DVD copies of FlashForward. Her dream job is to be in a Purina-like commercial where a big fluffy cat can beg for food at her feet. www.juliawackenheim.com
BLAKE WALKER
Blake Walker is a Texas native, but a real aesthete. He earned his BFA from Southern Methodist University where he majored in theater; sharing an alma mater with fellow Top Story cast member Artemis Pebdani. Since living in Los Angeles he has balanced his passions for music and comedy delicately. Firstly, by playing drums with his band The Etiquette and secondly, by performing with many improv and sketch comedy groups over the years. Blake was also previously a member of the Upright Citizens Brigade sketch team Extreme Tambourine with Top Story writer Matt Manser. He also has performed with his three-man improv group Riverboat Gamblers for the last four years. Blake is very glad to be here!
PHILLIP WILBURN
Originally from Texas , Phillip is known for his ability to imitate almost any voice, from Tom Cruise to George W. Bush, and everyone in between. The LA Times said Phillip’s George W. Bush is “played to squinty eyed perfection.” He has done voice work for “Dragon Ball Z” on the Cartoon Network and the “Lupin The Third” movie series Phillip produces and stars in viral videos that have received well over a million hits. His video “Leave General Petraeus Alone” received over 100,000 hits in just one day; MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann used it to open a speech by President Bush, and the video was also featured on Hardball with Chris Matthews. Election ‘08 kicked off with Phillip’s John McCain being featured on CNN’s Showbiz Tonight and The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Phillip can be seen on stage in Top Story! Weekly at iO West every Sunday night at 9. For more info go to www.phillipwilburn.com.