DIRECTOR
REBECCA De UNAMUNO Rebecca is a regular on Australian television and radio. Her credits include The Glass House, Big Bite, CNNNN, Comedy Inc – The Late Shift, David Tench Tonight, The Chaser’s War on Everything, Stand Up Australia, Kath and Kim, Tom and Subby, The Shebang and Thank God It’s Friday. Film roles include Dags, Muffled Love (2001 Tropfest Finalist), Tragic Love (2nd place, 2002 Tropfest) and Garbage Man (2005 Tropfest Finalist). Rebecca has many stage credits including Impro @ The Store, 3 Radicals (2001 Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Cops on Heat (2002 Melbourne International Comedy Festival), Text In The City (Dublin Improv/London Comedy Store Players – 2002 Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Crash Boom Bang Theory (2002 Adelaide Fringe Festival, 2002 Edinburgh Fringe Festival), Spontaneous Broadway (2006 Adelaide Cabaret Festival), Cirque du Chaser (Australian Tour), The Umbilical Brothers – The Rehearsal and Jason Alexander’s Comedy Christmas. A two-time Cranston Cup champion, Rebecca was a member of the Improv World Cup winning team at the 2001 Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal where she was crowned the first woman in the history of the competition to be named Player of the Tournament. In 2003 Rebecca was nominated for Most Outstanding Newcomer to Television at the inaugural Australian Comedy Awards and in 2005 was a Moosehead Award recipient for her solo improvisation show Open To Suggestion at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
PRODUCER
CALE BAIN A rare Canadian on the Aussie improv scene, Cale Bain started at Harbourfront Theatresports in Toronto, Canada at the ripe age of 13 years old. He has honed his chops by playing and workshopping around North America, training at the world famous Second City and instructing at the Impatience Theatre. Since arriving in Sydney only last year, he has gone on to play with some of Sydney’s best in Impro Australia’s World Cup and Cranston Cup seasons as well as with Twisted Melon in the extended sell-out improvised play Like There’s No Tomorrow at the Old Fitzroy. As well, Cale has rekindled the Del Close inspired Harold and introduced other longform improvisation styles to the city with his bi-monthly MIDWEEK MADNESS. His new show, Rocky 24! brings the best of Sydney together in a evening of troupe sketch comedy and longform improvisation at the Roxbury Hotels some Tuesdays of most months. Cale teaches improvisation through Twisted Melon, Improcorp and University of Sydney and would love nothing more than to eat a cake at your table. Unless it’s got nuts. He’s allergic to nuts.
HOST
JULIA ZEMIRO Best known as host of the SBS hit TV program RocKwiz, Julia’s TV credits include Thank God You’re Here, The Wedge & winner of Australia’s Brainiest TV Star. She has had several theatre roles, most recently starring as Bronya in Eurobeat and has won Tropfest’s Best Actress Award twice. Julia is in constant demand as a corporate MC, and is shortly teaming up with Jonothan Coleman to co-host a nationally syndicated radio show.
CO HOST
JOSEPHINE O’REILLY Jo’s television credits include Hit And Run for The Comedy Channel, The Nualas for The Late Late Show, The Gerry Ryan Show, the Morning Show, Live at Three RTE Ireland and the BBC, Tropic Of Cancer and The Money or the Gun for ABC, and Just Kidding and The Midday Show for Channel Nine. Her theatre credits include Showjo and Tan Jose for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Boom Chicago in Amsterdam, London and Edinburgh, The Nualas in New York, the West End, Dublin and the Edinburgh Comedy Festival. She has been a professional Theatresports® Improviser in Sydney, Dublin, Edinburgh, New York, Chicago and Amsterdam.
MUSICAL DIRECTOR
JOHN THORN John has composed 4 musicals including the acclaimed All Het Up and has been musical director/composer for countless cabaret, comedy, jazz and theatre shows. John’s skills have been heard on Theatresports®, Spontaneous Broadway and Bob Downe and PASTEL VESPA cabaret shows. He has won a Green Room Award for musical direction and in 2005 was Assistant M.D for the national tour of Saturday Night Fever. Impro Australia is very excited and thankful to have John performing in the Theatresports® Nationals.
NEW SOUTH WALES TEAM
JOHN KNOWLES John has produced, directed and performed in live drama and comedy shows for over 20 years and was a member of the Cranston Cup winning teams in 2004 with The Freestylers and in 2007, as part of Randominium with fellow players Marko Mustac and Murray Fahey. John studied formal acting at Ryerson University, Canada's most respected acting school before getting himself thrown out and into a career in comedy. Since then, he has created and performed in theatre shows including The Bouncing Sheep, Gods Cowboys, IMPROZAC, OH BROTHER!, Theatresports® and Cops On Heat - hit of the 2002 Melbourne International Comedy Festival. He is half of The Guys With Cameras On Their Heads. John was recently awarded the prestigious Moosehead Comedy Award at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for his solo show entitled, John Knowles Is Saddle Sore. John's other live performance credits include: 12 Angry Men, OfficeJerks, Off The Cuff, Celebrity Challenge, The Royal Rumble, The Funny Side Of Sex & Crime, Abandon Script!, Impro-Bzerko, PopStars, ImproVasion, Extreme Theatresports®, and the sell-out show, The Comedy Improlympiad, which John directed, produced and performed in at Belvoir Street Theatre during the Sydney 2000 Olympics. John sings in his wife Ronelle’s funky a cappella choir Alchemy with daughters Lily and Lulu at their feet.
MURRAY FAHEY Murray Fahey is a filmmaker and Theatresports® champion. This jack-of-all-trades was writer/producer of the movie/tv show Dags, a 2DayFM personality, and six time Cranston Cup Champion. He has starred in countless improvised shows including the recent Melbourne Comedy Festival hit Cops On Heat and Three Radicals and a solo show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Murray is one of the country's finest performers and revered in the improvised comedy world. He directed the feature films, Cubbyhouse, Encounters and Getaway Getaway and somehow finds the odd spare moment to renovate houses and work as a full time arts lawyer.
MARKO MUSTAC Marko is an improviser, writer, actor, trainer, director and producer for theatre, television and corporate events. He became involved with Theatresports® in its first days in Australia in 1985, when he was a young actor and writer, eventually becoming Artistic Director of Theatresports Inc. in the 1990’s. Since then he has won awards, travelled the world with improvised comedy shows and worked throughout the entertainment industry in Australia.
AMANDA BUCKLEY Amanda is an accomplished performer and singer and self confessed ‘water nazi’ whose alter ego patrols the streets of Sydney looking for water wasters. Amanda studied with Trinity Arts College London and has been one exam short of a teaching qualification since 1994. Amanda was seen in Canned Laughter's productions of I Love You, You’re Perfect...Now Change!, the cabaret Valentine’s Schmalentines and currently Lend Me a Tenor. She toured Singapore in the successful show A Regular One Night Stand with Explosive Minds! and played the role of Zoe in the Zoe and Cogs Show at the Powerhouse Museum. She performed in the Cracker Comedy Festival and Melbourne International Comedy Festival in the 2006 hit improvised comedy show Scrabble Unscripted, was a 2006 RAW Comedy semi-finalist, co-hosted Impro Australia’s Theatresports® Celebrity Challenge at the Enmore Theatre and was part of the Twisted Melon ensemble for the long-form improvised show Like There's No Tomorrow. Her team The Hit and Miss Sloppy Gagfest, were runners up in the 2006 Cranston Cup Grand Final. Her vocal stylings are thanks to the Peter Bodnar School of Singing.
QUEENSLAND TEAM
TOM DUNSTAN Tom is a man of few words and a lot of hand gestures. Tom was raised by wolves or in a barn, depending on which parent you ask. He was unable to hold down a job till he was 15 due to not being able to "reach stuff"... and that legal thing. Tom started his eclectic career in Queensland. However unable to get any work as an eclectic he turned to improvised comedy. Partly due to the glamour and the women, but mostly due to the fact that he is too lazy to learn lines... or... how to read. Due to his penchant for only playing with midgets he quickly became know as one of the giants of impro as "That funny guy who looks like Bill Oddie". Tom won the 2002 and 2003 Cranston Cups as well as the 2005 Theatresports® National Finals but then sold them to pay off a particularly large computer solitaire debt.
KATRINA DAVIDSON Katrina Davidson started her impro career in 1989 in one of Brisbane’s first high-school Theatresports® festivals and started improvising professionally in 1993. She moved into stand up comedy in 1997 and has continued her love affair with the stage in the public eye ever since. Katrina has worked across Canada in impro and sketch comedy and is a founding member of Montreal ’s They Might be Midgets troupe. She has performed stand up comedy at Montreal’s Just for Laughs festival and has headlined for Vancouver’s Laff Riot Girls and successfully touring British Columbia. Recently she supported Steven Wright on the Brisbane leg of his world tour and has appeared on Good News Week, Raw Comedy 1998, and The Great Debate. Through 2005, Katrina was a regular panellist on The Conversation Hour with Richard Fidler on ABC radio Queensland.
TAMZIN MCCAULEY Tamzin McCauley has been involved in the performing Arts for 25 years. She is a qualified dance and speech & drama teacher and she runs BANG! Performing Arts, her own private performing arts school in Brisbane with over 200 students. She previously worked at Warner Bros Movie World for 5 years where she was an actor/ presenter. Her TV credits include: commercial for Treasury Casino, two commercials for Warner Bros Movie World, film clip Everyday Superstar Adam Thompson, choreography for TV pilot Insanity Show, and TV shows Great South East and Hot Sauce. On stage she has been a regular in improvisation shows presented by the Sit Down Comedy Club for the last 13 years, including Lightning Doubles, Impro Café and Impro Gladiators and she co-produced and performed in the improvisation show Illegal Acts! Tamzin is a current Queensland state improvisation champion with her regular and virtually unbeatable team DANG!
ALISTAIR TOMKINS Alastair is a Brisbane-based actor and musician who has a passion for impro’ theatre. He studied theatre in London at Ecole Philippe Gaulier and was worked in various performance situations in Australia, the Middle East and Japan. He regularly teaches impro’ theatre techniques to primary and secondary students, and has twice been a state finalist in Raw Comedy. Alastair has performed in Theatresports® competitions in Queensland, London and Japan, and one day hopes to train and perform with Second City in Chicago.
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN TEAM
GLENN HALL Glenn will be appearing soon on SBS as presenter of a new television show, Eco House in which two families try to live more environmentally sustainable lives. Glenn has done just about everything in his 10 years as a professional performer, plying his trade in theatre, television, film, commercials, voiceovers, corporate videos, live corporate entertainment, stand-up comedy and teaching. Glenn has appeared in numerous professional stage productions, the highlight being Perth Theatre Company’s production of Face to Face by David Williamson, which was a sell-out for the 2001 Perth International Arts Festival, and then toured to the Cultura Inglesa Festival in Sao Paolo, Brazil in 2002. Glenn has also been providing his voice for television and radio commercials and for corporate presentations. Glenn’s production company Spontaneous Insanity has produced three improvised stage productions including Soap on a Rope and The Fright Before Xmas, which have met with unanimous praise from Perth audiences and reviewers alike, and Glenn has represented WA three times at the National Theatresports® Championships and is again leading the WA team this year in March.
JAMES EATON Jimmy has worked extensively in the Perth comedy and theatre scene as well as working for ABC TV, Channel V and NOVA FM. 2003 Triple J Raw comedy national finalist at the 2003 Melbourne comedy Festival and 2006 media guild people’s choice award winner, Jimmy is one of WA’s most recognizable and talented improv comedians, he is a star of The Big HOO-HAA, WA’s premier live improv comedy show that has been running every Saturday night for the last four and a half years. Jimmy has been a professional stand-up comedian for the last three years and has supported the likes of Greg Fleet, Dave Callan, Akmal Saleh, and Pommy Johnston just to name a few. He also runs and manages Lazy Susan’s Comedy Den, Perth’s best selling comedy theatre venue. Jimmy is excitedly awaiting the premier of his new stand-up show, Jimmy James Eaton’s Sausage Sizzle. He will be touring the show at the 2007 Wild West Comedy Festival and then the 2007Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
TEGAN MULVANY Tegan has been an avid member of the Perth theatre and comedy scene for the past five years. While studying drama at Curtin University’s prestigious Hayman Theatre, she was invited to join The Big HOO-HAA weekly improvisational comedy show. Two years of regular appearances on the Lazy Susan’s Comedy Den stage has led her to The Enmore Theatre. She is now proudly representing her beloved western state in her Nationals competition debut.
XAVIER MICHELIDES Xavier Michelides has worked as a Stand-up comedian for the past 6 years, after being the regional winner of raw Comedy for WA in 2001. Since then he has worked both in Western Australia and over East, in the club scene and corporate circuit. In 2006 he received critical acclaim for his performance in the Melbourne International Comedy Festival show The Dead Set and in the same year was named the National Theatresports® Championships fairest and best. He is now currently co-managing Lazy Susan’s Comedy Den in Perth, Western Australia. Xavier is soon to star in his new show What to do When the Zombies Attack at the Wild West comedy Festival and Melbourne International comedy festival.
VICTORIAN TEAM
JASON GEARY Jason has been involved with Impro Melbourne, as performer, director and co-creator in many of the company’s productions for ten years, including sell out comedy festival shows, Late Night Impro and Celebrity Theatresports®. Jason is a well-known for character comedy. Most recently seen on a National tour of Eurobeat: Almost Eurovision as the lecherous co-host ‘Sergei’ he has appeared in Channel Ten’s Thank God You’re Here, and was part of the ensemble writing/performing team on SkitHouse. He has worked with Shaun Micallef in, Micallef Tonight (Nine), Welcher and Welcher (ABC), and three series of the Logie award winning Micallef Programme.
LLIAM AMOR Lliam is an actor, improviser, writer and illustrator. Television and theatre appearances include Channel 10's popular comedy show Thank God You're Here, the hit Fringe show An Evening With Julia Zemiro and Lliam Amor, The Micallef Program, Neighbours, MDA, Blue Heelers, The True Adventures of a Soul Lost at Sea, It's a Dad Thing and loads of TV commercials. His work in the corporate arena has encompassed a variety of roles and clients. As an improviser with Impro Melbourne and Troupe De Jour, he has performed in 15 years worth of shows including Celebrity Theatresports® and Late Night Impro at the International Melbourne Comedy Festival. In 2005 he performed in Germany and London and also travelled to Belgium to participate in the 4th International Improvisation Theatre Festival where he won the International Maestro Championship.
RAMA NICHOLAS Rama Nicholas has been working as a professional actor and improviser in Melbourne for over ten years. She has been a committed ensemble member of Impro Melbourne for 6 years, performing, producing and directing various short and long form productions. Including Late
RIK BROWN Rik Brown developed a love of improvisation during his days studying at Rusden. After he graduated in 1996 he began performing with Impro Melbourne. He became part of the successful Theatresports® team Calamity Wayne who won several State Titles and developed their own long-running improvised comedy show The Bingo Board of Doom which celebrated its 100th show in 2005. Rik has performed throughout Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore and recently performed in Theatresports® All-stars and in Celebrity Theatresports® during the Melbourne Comedy Festival. |
