Big Yellow Taxi

Big Yellow Taxi is the longest running show at the Pack Theater in Los Angeles and features a powerhouse cast of veteran improvisers and Special Guest Drivers each week. Taking the suggestion of a city anywhere in the world, the troupe creates an entire universe of memorable characters inspired by taxi cab “confessions.” Big Yellow Taxi’s unique form was created at the Pack and their shows focus on smart, clever comedy with dark undertones, social commentary, pop culture, emotional poignancy, and bold characters, all within well-balanced sets of fast-paced play and longer scenes that explore deeper themes. The result is a hilarious journey for audiences with unexpected turns and a collision of witty storytelling, theatricality, and schadenfreude.

Jodi Dennithorne (Skeris)

Originally from Grafton, Wisconsin Jodi Dennithorne (Skeris) is an actor, writer, and producer in Los Angeles. She’s appeared on Nickelodeon’s AwesomenessTV as well as several web series including Fully Formed Adults and A-holes Anonymous and also award winning indie films Amnesia, Finding Hope, and Booze, Boys, and Brownies.

Jodi currently resides in LA and has been a proud member of Big Yellow Taxi since 2014! She also created/produces/directs UCB-LA Sunset’s #DeafTalent & ASL Comedy, the only show in Los Angeles that features deaf comedians in a mainstream theater. Jodi enjoys sunny days and pools (which is why she LOVES LA) and lives with her 2 cats, dog, and fiancé.

David Aslan

David Aslan is a Los Angeles-based writer and director as well as an improviser. He has studied and performed at UCB, Pack Theater, and Nerdist Comedy School. He created, wrote, and directed the hit comedy web-series, “Lesbian Cops,” a light-hearted, high-octane spoof of cop movies from the 70s and beyond. Many of David’s scripts have placed in a wide variety of major screenplay competitions, and his most recent short film, “Layover,” screened as an official selection at Newfilmmakers LA and Newport Beach Film Festival, and was workshopped and produced with a grant awarded by the indie film collective, We Make Movies. David co-founded the writing blog The Tiny Protagonist, and has also directed and produced a wide range of short films and sketch videos starring popular comedians like Adam Ray, Kurt Braunohler, and Ben Gleib, which have been featured on Buzzfeed, Funny Or Die, and StrikeTV.

Big Yellow Taxi

John Conroy

John Conroy is an actor, director, producer, critically acclaimed playwright, comedian, DJ, marketing and communications executive, and job collector.

John’s been performing, coaching and teaching improvisational comedy for 15 years. He can be seen every week with the cast of veteran improvisers in Big Yellow Taxi. He also co-created the award-winning The Dick & The Dame: Improv Noir, is a judge in Sketchyprov, produces the Night Cap with Stacy Rumaker, and is an abridger and producer/director for Scumbag Shakespeare. John is a proud member of LA’s acclaimed PL.A.Y Noir theatre company as an actor, director, writer and producer.

John’s extensive training includes the Pack Theater, iOWest, UCB-LA, Second City, The Groundlings, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and Viewpoints with Alexandra Billings.

In his free time (?) he enjoys his bulldog, yoga, rye whiskey, and accidentally flirting with literally everybody.

Dominique Johnson

Dominique Johnson is a writer, improviser, standup, actor, and bon vivant. You can see him Every third Wednesday performing with his sketch team Haymaker and probably a bunch of other stuff any given week! He wrote and starred in the web series Mustache Murder, hit short play Whatshername. He does voices for AOK videos, You can see him with much more famous people in ABC Digital series Boondoggle and the Reggie Watts episode of IMDb.com’s series Unmade. The mustache is real…and it’s spectacular!

[email protected]

Ashley Knaysi

I am currently playing with Big Yellow Taxi here at Pack. I have been improvising since I was 18 and have been through levels at UCB in New York around 1998, the training center at IO (around 2003) and worked there for maybe five years from 2005 – 2010 and was lucky enough to have studied with Miles Stroth through the first three levels he ever ran independently outside of IO… right when he was conceptualizing what he wanted the Pack to be. That was a pretty great time. I played on quite a few teams at the IO, and coached, taught and ran workshops for about five years when I was living in VA getting my RN (from 2010 to 2016 right before I moved back to LA).

Brian James O’Connell

Brian James O’Connell is a working actor, writer, director, filmmaker and teacher in Los Angeles.

He currently teaches as part of the Core Improv Faculty at The Pack Theater and the Digital Program at The Pack Theater, of which he is also the Founder.

Brian is the Creator and Executive Producer of WPCK, the Executive Producer of The Deconstruction, Creator and Executive Producer of Big Yellow Taxi, the Executive Producer and Founder of Long Hard Tuesdays, the Executive Producer and Founder of The Lady Invitational and Executive Producer of Genre Night! at The Pack Theater.

Brian is a graduate of the prestigious North Carolina School of the Arts (David Gordon Green, Danny McBride, Jody Hill, Anthony Mackie, Peter Hedges, Mary-Louise Parker, Dane DeHaan, Terrence Mann, Chris Parnell, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Jeff Nichols) and moved to Los Angeles in 2000 to follow his dreams of a career in filmmaking.

BOC (as his friends call him) is part of the comedy collective Dr. God, who recently completed their first feature film project BLOODSUCKING BASTARDS, starring Fran Kranz, Pedro Pascal, Joey Kern, Joel Murray, and Emma Fitzpatrick, which O’Connell directed (his third feature as a director) as well as co-writing the script with Dr. God. The film was the Opening Night Premiere at Slamdance in 2015 and is available now on DVD and On-Demand after it’s theatrical run.

A regular performer, coach and teacher in Los Angeles, Brian derives most of his approach to improv from The Deconstruction, the form created by iO’s legendary team, The Family (Miles Stroth, Neil Flynn, Ian Roberts, Matt Besser, Adam McKay, Ali Faranahkian.).

With his internationally touring improv duo Billyhawk and iOWest’s legendary improv group Dr. God, Brian has performed and taught in festivals in Denver, Phoenix, Toronto, Philadelphia, Austin, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chapel Hill, NC. Well-respected as one of Los Angeles’ premier improvisers, Brian is famous for his encyclopedic knowledge of minutiae and his insane recall ability and memory.

BOC also serves as the Director of Camp Outreach and is a board member for the non-profit Camp Improv Utopia, the premiere improv, acting and training retreat in the country.
Check out www.facebook.com/Improv1to1/ for Brian’s signature 1-on-1 improv coaching.

Hope Richards

Of the three great loves of Hope’s life, Improv is the one that’s got her heart for good. They met in high-school, classic girl-meets-elective story. Things got serious in college when Hope joined ComedySportz. They began to explore and experiment when Hope joined the Sac Comedy Spot, heavily influenced by the UCB culture. This small city girl followed her great love and moved to LA: to be closer to Improv, to be able to grow together. She took classes at the iO West and watched as many shows as she could. Then she found The Pack Theater, her new home. She has performed with house teams Family Van, Big Yellow Taxi, Best Friends, and assisted with the Lady Invitational. She’s so excited to be on this amazing journey with the love of her life, and can’t wait to see what happens next.

Jessica Young

Jessica is an actress, improviser and stand up comedian. Her training in improv began in 2003 when she went through the program at IO West and performed there weekly for over a decade. She loves playing at The Pack on Big Yellow Taxi! each week. Jessica is a founding and current board member of Improv Utopia since 2010. Her genreprov team Kind Strangers continues to travel to festivals ’round the map with their acclaimed Improvised Tennessee Williams show. For 14 years Jessica has worked as an actress who does improvised role plays for various divisions of the State of California Law Enforcement agencies to train them how to deal with and react to victims of domestic violence. She has mad love for all things paper, has a voice deeper than your father, and an unmistakable laugh.

Big Yellow Taxi

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