Dan O'Connor

Dan O’Connor is a multi-faceted actor, improviser, writer and director.  He has worked on stage and television nationally and internationally. He is the co-founder of the critically acclaimed Los Angeles Theatresports Company (Impro Theatre) as well as a co-founder of four other American Theatresports companies including Bay Area Theatresports. 

 

He performed in the Improbable Theatre’s production of Lifegame (Off-Broadway) and in the TNN television series of the same name. 

Other improv credits include: The long running Wrought Irony at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles, Pulp Playhouse at the HBO-American Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen and Second City at the Murphy's Cat Laughs Festival in Kilkenny, Ireland.  He has also taught the Spontaneity Shop in London as well as Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland Theatresports.

 

He was the Artistic Director for Los Angeles Theatresports for the first 12 years and has recently returned to that position after a 5 year break. For LATS/Impro Theatre he has directed the smash hit Triple Play as well as The Hell Show.  He is a co-creator and director for UnScripted Rep including Shakespeare UnScripted at the Old Globe in Hollywood, North Coast Rep and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Dickens UnScripted at the Anteaus Theatre, Tennesse Williams UnScripted at Out Of Bounds West and the Livery Theatre in Ventura, Sondheim UnScripted at Theatre/Theater and  Chekov UnScripted at the EdgeFest.

 

His television acting credits include 60 episodes of the Columbia Tri-Star sketch show The Newz, two seasons as a producer/performer for Quick Witz as well as appearances on The Tonight Show and Seinfeld.  He was a writer and the improv director for “The Wayne Brady Show” and the star of David Steinberg’s Warner Bros. Pilot “the Phil Fuller Show”.  He recently was a guest star on 12 miles of Bad Rd. and Little Britain USA for HBO.

 

Theatre credits include A Christmas Carol, Horatio, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Peer Gynt at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, the world premiere of Making Noise Quietly at the Taper Too in Los Angeles, Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at A Noise Within (for which he won the Dramalogue Award for Best Actor), Ferdinand in The Tempest at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, and Joey in Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming at The New Conservatory in San Francisco.

He recently co-directed and starred in the smash hit Jane Austen UnScripted at Theatre Asylum in Hollywood.

 

He co-created and starred in the NBC/PAX improv comedy show “World Cup Comedy” which ran for two seasons which was executive produced by Kelsey Grammer.  Most recently he directed the critically acclaimed ABC/Broadway Video hybrid sit-com Sons and Daughters and Campus Ladies for the Oxygen Network. 

 

He has been a guest director and instructor for the Austin Comedy Festivals BS3 and 4 as well as Out of Bounds, The Yes And Festival in New York and The Lighten Up Theatre Fest “6” in Kansas City.

 

He has taught for the Writers Program at the UCLA extension. DUKE and Pepperdine Universities.  He was an adjunct professor for USC ‘s BFA program and has also taught in the MBA Program for the University of Texas McCoombs School of Business.

 

Recently he taught the Cirque du Soleil casts of Salitimbanco and Corteo.

 

Training includes the American Conservatory Theater and extensive work with Keith Johnstone (Creator of Theatresports) since 1986. He is a graduate of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.