Lisa Wyczesany
Lisa started improvising in 2012 after making the post-college leap to Los Angeles from Chicago. There, she graduated from the Westside Comedy Theater’s training program in Santa Monica and became a founding member of the long-running resident house team Air Force Fun. The team performed regularly across LA and beyond, including at iO West, UCB Franklin, Second City Chicago, ACME Hollywood, the Denver Improv Festival, and more. Beyond improv, Lisa dabbled in live and online sketch comedy, studied stand-up and TV writing, and even headlined the interactive rom-com improv show, Win a Date with Lisa Wyczesany (spoiler: no actual dates were won).
Lisa left LA in 2020 and returned to the Chicago suburbs, where she was thrilled to find another fun & welcoming “westside” community in Westside Improv.
Outside of improv, Lisa has worked for a variety of LA based TV production companies and advertising agencies, putting her DePaul University degree to good use. These days, she and her husband own and co-produce V is for Vino, an educational travel show about wine. They live with their adorable, chunky, one-eyed rescue cat, Babe—who, despite limited depth perception, remains the true star of the household.
UPCOMING SHOWS
PERFORMS WITH
Kayla Pernai
First love dogs, natural love music, unexpected love IMPROV! Kayla works as a marketing professional by day, but outside of work, she's passionate about theatrics and music. She used to do choir and was even part of a country cover band. She once wished she had red hair like the original Annie and might have cried herself to sleep about it as a kid (maybe even more than once!). Joking aside, Westside put a pulse back into her life and reignited her creative side, which she'll forever be grateful for! Since November 2022, she's been taking improv classes at Westside, discovering new ways to express herself artistically, and having a blast with fantastic people in this community. Kayla is excited to be performing with the team Blank Slate!
UPCOMING SHOWS
PERFORMS WITH
Hillary Prager
Hillary fell in love with the stage ever since landing the coveted role of Marshmallow in her first grade Christmas school play. She found the spotlight and never looked back! Hillary is a graduate of the training program at iO (improvOlympic) and studied improv at the Second City and the Playground Theater in Chicago. She took a little break (about 20 years) from improv and became a middle school teacher. But because she missed the stage so much, she made her way back and was lucky to find Westside where she couldn't be happier.
UPCOMING SHOWS
PERFORMS WITH
Hanna Fowler
Hannah Fowler began studying improv and sketch comedy at Second City and IO in Chicago in 2015. See was a founding member of The FeLions all-female sketch comedy group and has appeared in multiple web series, including Stuck In Realty, an official selection of the 2023 HollyShorts Monthly Screening Series. Catch Hannah performing with Blank Slate at Westside!
UPCOMING SHOWS
PERFORMS WITH
Natalie Brown
Natalie was a part of her college improv team, Heywire!, and got her degree in theatre at Augustana College. Knowing she wanted to continue improv post-grad, she started classes at Westside in Spring of 2022 and has been having a blast ever since! When not doing improv, she’s doing taxes, crocheting, or petting her hairless cat.
UPCOMING SHOWS
PERFORMS WITH
Christine Guare
I have no idea what I am doing. I signed up for a Westside Improv class in April of 2018. I found myself taking three more classes at Westside and becoming a professional student of improv. I'm thankful Jeff Ash created a new team at Westside in 2020. I can proudly say, I'm on Shade Tree, these people are the nicest f*%$#er's ever. I am a stay at home mom of three boys and swear A LOT. Thank you Westside community for getting me out of my house and keeping me sane. Again, I have no idea what I am doing.
UPCOMING SHOWS
PERFORMS WITH
Sally Hepler
Sally has loved performing ever since, as a young child, she would recite the entirety of the Lion King from her swing set to no one. While she found theater (mostly musical) in high school and college, Westside is her improv home. She started on the piano and played shows for years before finally getting up the courage to do the “onstage thing”. She would like to take this opportunity to thank and blame her husband Josh for getting her into improv.