Holiday! An Improvised Musical

Ann Paula Bautista

Ann Paula (she/her) is a Toronto based multidisciplinary artist, scholar, and founding member of the multi-award winning group the Tita Collective. A graduate of Randolph Academy’s College program, she has performed on stages all around Canada and the US. Ann Paula was most recently seen as Emma/Brenda in the Canadian premiere of GROW the musical at the Grand Theatre London. She was also a part of the first National tour of Disenchanted the Musical and was also a part of the remount of Badhats Theatres’ award winning rendition of Peter Pan at Soulpepper Theatre. Ann Paula was a part of Theatre 20’s Emerging artist ensemble in 2013-2014. She was also a part of the TD Confederation Centre Young Company in 2019, performing in the daily lunchtime show Aqsarniit for thousands of tourists and locals. Ann Paula was also in the critically acclaimed film Wexford Plaza and was also in an episode of the docu-series Bizarre Murders. Fun fact! She also sang the national anthems twice for the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre.

Ashley Botting

Ashley Botting (she/her) is an actor, writer, improviser, director, and singer. She’s an alumna of The Second City where she wrote and performed in four Mainstage revues, and directed two. She is a writer on This Hour Has 22 Minutes and a panelist and writer on CBC Radio's Because News. Ashley With a “Y” - her improvised one-woman musical cabaret - was NOW Magazine’s #1 Toronto Comedy Show, and The Stars of Mars - a musical she co-wrote - was awarded “Best New Musical” by The Playwrights Guild of Canada. She’s written episodes for the Emmy-winning Odd Squad, Nickelodeon’s Zoofari, and Apple TV’s The Snoopy Show. Selected theatre acting credits: Undiscovered Sonnets (Stratford), The Second City Guide to the Symphony (The Kennedy Center, Roy Thomson Hall), Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish (Studio 180) Beautiful Man (Factory), She The People (The Second City). Selected TV acting credits: Schitt’s Creek, What We Do In The Shadows, Culprits, Odd Squad, Coming In.

Aurora Browne

Aurora Browne (she/her) is one of the co-creators, writers, executive producers and stars of CBC’s sketch comedy series, Baroness von Sketch Show. Browne graduated from York University's theatre program with a BFA in Acting, and has been honing her sketch chops since 2000 when she was hired by Toronto’s Second City Troupe. Since then she has appeared on Comedy Inc, The Gavin Crawford Show, Comedy Now, The Ron James Show, InSecurity, Corner Gas and many others. She recently co-created and starred in Newborn Moms, a web series about new motherhood on ABC Digital. Browne has been nominated for numerous Canadian Comedy Awards for her work in Toronto’s red hot live sketch and improv scene, and in 2008 won the CCA for Best Female Improviser. Her son thinks she is hilarious.

Nadine Djoury

Nadine Djoury (she/her) is a Second City Mainstage alumnus where she wrote and performed in three critically-acclaimed revues. She currently writes for CBC's The Great Canadian Baking Show and co-created, wrote and starred in ABC.com/CBC Comedy's web series, Newborn Moms, earning a CSA nomination for Best Performance. Recent television credits include What We Do in the Shadows (FX), Ghosts (CBS), Transplant (NBC) and Kim's Convenience (CBC).

Kyah Green

Kyah Green (they/them) is a screenwriter, narrative designer and actor from Toronto, Ontario. They have written for multiple award winning series including CBC’s ‘Sort Of’ and Season 4 of Corner Gas Animated (2018) for which they were nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Writing in Animation. Their feature film, ‘Neverman’, co-written by Rodrigo Barrisuo (Un Traductor), was selected for the Cannes Festival Residence, Inside-Out development program, Berlin Nipkow Programm, and finished as a semi-finalist for the Academy Nicholls Fellowship. As an actor, Kyah is best known for their performance in CBC Gem's Queens (2020) and their live performance with Songbuster: An Improvised Musical, DND: Live! and The Second City House Company.

Brandon Hackett

Brandon Hackett is a Toronto-based comedian, actor and TV Writer. He is an alumnus of the Second City mainstage, where he co-wrote and performed in four revues, and he has written for the TV shows Shelved, Run the Burbs, This Hour Has 22 Minutes and The Beaverton. He has also lent his voice to many cartoons, including Gary and His Demons, Doomlands, and Pinecone and Pony.

Samantha Hancock

Sam Hancock (she/her) is an LGBTQ+ comedian, actor, writer, and creator who relocated from Barrie to Toronto in 2013. She performed in Second City’s Fiercely Funny and understudies the Mainstage Cast of The Second City (2021-2023). Sam completed Advanced Improv with The Groundlings (2021), and is a graduate of Randolph Academy (2015), The Second City Conservatory (2018). She is a Bad Dog Featured Player Alumna (2019). Sam recently debuted her solo sketch show, Going Solo (2023) and will be performing an original one-woman show, Knock Knock, this winter.

Reid Janisse

Reid Janisse (he/him) wrote and performed in four Second City mainstage revues, including the Canadian Comedy Award winning Barack to the Future and 0% Down, 100% Screwed. His Second City family shows include Improv Showdown, Superdude and Doctor Rude, Miracle on Mercer Street, The Naughty Listers, Princess Polly and the World’s Smallest Ninja, The Totally Made Up Show and Improv Extravaganza Explosion (SC Chicago). Reid spent ten years as the Creative Director of Mad Science Productions, creating international touring shows such as Newton’s Revenge, CSI: Live! and Star Trek Live: Starfleet Academy. With Ross Petty Productions, he wrote two pantos at the Elgin Theatre – The Little Mermaid and Cinderella. Most recently, he wrote and performed in the Lookup Theatre production Toronto Circus Riot, and performed regularly with the musical improv troupe Songbuster

Stephanie Malek

Stephanie Malek (she/her) is a professional fangirl, comedian, singer, and all around nerd from Toronto, ON. Stephanie is the co-host of The Fandom Show, a podcast that celebrates the love of loving things - from boy bands to magical girls, space to Space Mountain. She is also known for creating and co-producing the award-winning improvised musical Songbuster! While not deep in fandom, she is co-hosting nerd trivia nights at Storm Crow Manor, and can be found performing at comedy venues around Toronto and the world at festivals such as JFL, New Zealand Improv Fest, and Toronto Sketchfest.

Jan Caruana

Jan Caruana (she/her)‘s career has been interesting and varied. She is a multiple Canadian Comedy Award winner and has performed across North America in a variety of comedy shows. A mainstay of many Toronto stages, Jan co-wrote and performed in the Second City Toronto’s critically and audience acclaimed revues The Meme-ing of Life and We Can Be Heroes (named one of NOW Magazines Top Ten Shows of 2013). Jan was a member of the cast of “One Night Only”, a fully improvised two-act musical at Factory Theatre and was part of the Off-Broadway workshop production in 2018. She was also the winner of a Dora Award as part of the ensemble for “The Wonder Pageant”. She has appeared in films and television shows including Baroness Von Sketch (where she is also a writer), Rookie Blue, Odd Squad, Mean Girls, Pretty Hard Cases and Kim’s Convenience. Jan is a Canadian Screen Award nominated writer for her work on City TV's Sunnyside and the YTV youth sketch show That’s So Weird, creating some of the series most memorable and colourful characters. She is also very proud to have written for The Baroness Von Sketch Show, The Happy House of Frightenstein and the international sensation The Next Step on BBCKids. Currently, Jan is a writer (and panelist) for CBC's Because News with Gavin Crawford.

Scott Christian

Scott Christian (he/him) is a Toronto-based musical director, pianist and composer. He's written a number of original musicals including A Misfortune based on the Chekhov short story, which premiered at the Charlottetown Festival. Scott has worked as an MD and musical improvisor with Second City Toronto, as well as the National Theatre of the World. He has musical directed at theatres across Canada, and has worked on productions of Stephen Sondheim's Company, Merrily We Roll Along, Assassins, and Marry Me a Little - which makes him a good fit for this show! By day Scott makes video games with his studio Hilltop Productions, and their very funny new game Lil' Guardsman will be released this January.

Stephanie Malek

Seann Murray

Alia Rasul