SUSP - Level One: The Principles of Improv with Armando Diaz and Nick Kanellis

Armando is widely regarded as one of the best improv teachers in New York City and beyond. His list of teaching credits is a long one: the ImprovOlympic Theater, Victory Gardens Theater, The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, NYU and Michael Howard Studios. He has trained dozens of actors who have performed or written for Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Mad TV, and The Daily Show.

A Chicago native, Armando studied improv under Del Close at the ImprovOlympic, Mick Napier at the Annoyance, and graduated from the Second City Conservatory. He performed in and helped create one of the most popular improvised longforms in Chicago, "The Armando Diaz Experience...." For the last decade, "the Armando" has been performed weekly in Chicago, and is now taught and performed in many other cities including Los Angeles and New York.

In addition to writing and producing short films, Armando wrote sketches for the show Upright Citizens Brigade on Comedy Central, and has performed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

As a performer, Nick is half of the critically acclaimed improv duo “Trike,” which the New York Times calls "reliably one of the best improv performances in the city." Nick is also one of the premier motion capture actors for pre-vis commercial animatics in NYC (performing in over hundreds of animated spots for both 321Launch and Edit1), is a voice over artist for two of today.com's top 10 podcasts for kids (Story Pirates and Don't Break the Rules!), was featured in TIME for Kids as an "improv expert," was named one of the 25 best things at Comic Con by Rolling Stone, and he is a two time New Yorker caption contest winner (three time finalist). He is a National Champion in Humorous Interpretation and four time National Finalist for the National Speech and Debate Association (formerly the National Forensic League), and has acted in a variety of commercials for Pur Water Filters, Pace Salsa, Verizon, and more.

As a teacher, Nick Kanellis is an improvisational instructor and consultant, creating and facilitating workshops utilizing improvisational theater games and techniques to help participants become better communicators, collaborators, and leaders. He has been teaching applied improv for roughly 12 years with the Magnet Theater, leading workshops for companies including Google, Bloomberg, Nasdaq, Syracuse, Fordham, The Howard Stern Show, and more, as well as instructing a Medical Improv course with NYU Langone's Master Scholars Program in Humanistic Medicine and their Palliative Care team.