Troupes

UCB's flagship Sunday show, a monologist and a rotating cast of heavy-hitters, the longest-running improv show in American history.

San Francisco's politically savage 1960s improv company, where Del Close refined his craft and the Harold was first attempted.

The first improvisational theater in America, seeded Second City, Nichols & May, and every long-form tradition that followed.

UCB-NY Harold team known for an early-80s-nostalgia shorthand and one of the longest stable lineups at UCBT.

iO Chicago Harold team known for sharp scenic discipline, still performing.

An improvised Jane Austen novel, in period costume, with live music, a West End weekly institution.

The completely improvised full-band musical, an hour-long musical spun from a single audience-suggested title, with live band.

Joe Bill and Mark Sutton's improvised two-hander about two guys in a bass boat, a character study disguised as a fishing show.

Amsterdam's resident English-language improv/sketch theater, pipeline that sent Seth Meyers, Jordan Peele, Jason Sudeikis, Amber Ruffin to US TV.

One of iO Chicago's longest-running Harold teams, named after the obscure Beach Boys album.

Two Whose Line regulars' perpetual two-man touring show, the most commercially successful improv duo act of the 21st century.

Three-person UCB LA improv juggernaut, Alex Berg, Todd Fasen, Alex Fernie, known as one long-married improv brain.

UCB LA three-person team (Alex Berg, Todd Fasen, Alex Fernie) who made three-person long-form the house style of late-2010s UCB LA.

iO Chicago's best-loved 2000s indie team, raucous, kinetic, seven sold-out years, the room Tim Robinson came up in.

Bob Dassie, Rich Talarico, and Stephnie Weir's jazz-trio long-form, improv as chamber music.

Saturday-night UCB long-form juggernaut known for its 'Your F'd Up Family' dysfunctional-family format.

Weekly live improvised soap opera running continuously in Edmonton since 1991, with 50-hour annual Soap-A-Thon marathons.

90s iO Chicago Harold team named for the Blue Velvet villain, performed at Edinburgh Fringe and merged improv with jazz standards.

UCB hybrid-format show: scripted theater scenes paired with improvisers who've never seen them, the canonical 'improv meets theater' experiment.

NYC sketch troupe (unrelated to Harvard) that broke through via YouTube viral sketches in the UCB orbit.

The UK's first dedicated improv theatre, biggest improv school in Britain.

UCB-born sketch quartet, Ansari, Scheer, Huebel, Woliner, whose MTV show rode the YouTube wave into TV.

Victoria's longest-running improvised theatre company, anchored the Australian Theatresports/Keith Johnstone tradition.

Charlie Todd's public-space performance group, 'causing scenes' with hundreds of agents in flash-mob pranks.

A decade of fully improvised USS Sisyphus episodes, both a live iO show and one of the medium-native improv podcasts.

The Live Bait Theatre long-form show that legitimized independent improv as theater, invented the tag-out and the cross-fade edit.

Susan Messing's 10+ year show where she improvises a one-hour two-person piece with a different partner every week.

Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz's two-person long-form, first improv comedy special Netflix ever bought.

Chicago-based improv group that built its brand on the college touring circuit, signature agents-in-black-suits bit.

The last Harold team Armando Diaz assembled at UCBT, the first NYC team to win Chicago Improv Festival; profiled in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink.

Early 90s iO Chicago Harold team, home to Craig Cackowski, Bob Dassie, Rich Talarico before they became cornerstones of Chicago improv.

UCB-NY Harold team whose 'Neutrino Video Project' roaming-camera format became a minor classic of 2000s long-form.

Proto-improv comedy duo that proved two-person improvised scenework could fill Broadway and sell comedy albums.

Oxford-Imps alumni long-form group with a Pythonesque sensibility, Edinburgh Fringe regulars and podcast stars.

UCB sketch/improv troupe that launched Rob Riggle, Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel, the 'Good vs. Elvis' generation.

UCB-NY Harold team that rotated through a generation of UCB core talent, became The Curfew in 2011.

The original Second City Toronto ensemble, the company that became SCTV.

The West End's Olivier-winning improvised musical, first improv show ever nominated for an Olivier.

Chicago's longest-running Asian-American comedy troupe, launching pad for Danny Pudi, Steven Yeun, Mary Sohn.

UCB-NY weekend sketch troupe, Maude Night institution, second-generation Maude Team.

Late-60s sketch/improv troupe who put sketch comedy on network TV years before SNL, home of Fred Willard and Bill Saluga.

The monologue-based long-form that became a form unto itself, still the longest-running show at iO Chicago.

Del Close's personal Harold laboratory, the iO team that invented tag-outs and crystallized the UCB aesthetic before UCB existed.

UK's equivalent to UCB/iO, improv school and performance company that's trained a generation of British comedians.

The first wave of Gary Austin's LA improv workshop that became the Groundlings Theatre, seeded SNL's West Coast pipeline.

A full improvised Shakespeare play, in verse, based on a single audience-suggested title, the most replicated 'genre' long-form of the 21st century.

Canadian sketch comedy troupe that emerged from Calgary's Loose Moose and Toronto's Rivoli, improv-derived sketches, character-forward.

UCB-NY Harold team that began as an indie, known for its signature 'Law and Disorder' Friday-night show at UCB Chelsea.

England's longest-running long-form improv company, Brighton-based, Edinburgh Fringe mainstays.

UK's sharpest off-the-cuff troupe, a University of Kent crew that became Britain's Got Talent semifinalists and TV regulars.

Greenwich Village's answer to Second City, founded by Compass alum Theodore J. Flicker, cradle for Buck Henry, Gene Hackman, and Joan Darling.

Boston/Harvard-born improv troupe that trained Jane Curtin and Josh Mostel, the East Coast sister of The Committee.

One of the longest-running iO Harold teams, opened iO's 25th anniversary show in 2005 as the theater's most veteran house team.

The original eight-person ensemble that opened Second City on December 16, 1959 with 'Excelsior & Other Outcries.'

UCB-NY Friday-night Harold team, the indie team that became an institution, launched Zach Woods and Bobby Moynihan.

Amy Poehler's Harold team, invented the 'slow waltz' style of long-form and became the gold standard for scenework-first improv in 2000s NY.

TJ Jagodowski and David Pasquesi's weekly two-person long-form, widely considered the gold standard of contemporary improvised theater.

The Del Close-mentored quartet, Besser, Poehler, Roberts, Walsh, who took the Chicago Harold aesthetic to NY and founded the UCB Theatre.

All-woman iO Chicago Harold team that incubated Aidy Bryant and Cecily Strong.

Stephnie Weir and Bob Dassie's husband-and-wife two-person long-form, the domestic-cinema counterpart to TJ & Dave.

Weekly improvised news satire at iO Chicago, audience members clip articles from newspapers, cast improvises from the headlines.