Sketch Writing Level Two (online) with Armando Diaz and Johnathan Ross

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.

After spending 4 years pursing a BS in computer engineering from The George Washington University, Johnathan decided he’d put all that aside to study comedy & writing at the Magnet Theater and Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB) under extraordinary comedic talents including Monique Moses, Phoebe Tyers, Joanna Simmons, Chris Hastings, Keisha Zollar, Peter McNerney, Molly Lloyd, Chet Seigel, and Anthony Apruzzese.

He’s since directed two house sketch teams at Magnet Theater, Mama’s Boy and House Party.

Johnathan also produced, co-wrote, and co-starred the web series Six Story Walk-Up , and has appeared in videos featured on Funny or Die .

While in pursuit of an acting and production career, Johnathan is also passionate about diversity and inclusion in the comedy community and entertainment industry at large. He co-runs Remix: The Diversity Sketch Lab, a project which focuses on getting diverse voices involved in the community hosted at the Magnet Theater.

If you can’t make his weekly shows, you can catch him improvising around town with his indie teams Good at Sports & Just 2 Brothers. And if you’re extra diligent you can catch Johnathan’s solo improv act Hold My Drink .

Want to watch some more things he’s been in? Check out these channels:

• YouTube
• The Nitro Girls
• SixStory Walk-Up