Susan Messing

Susan Messing is an American improvisational performer, teacher and author associated with Chicago's iO Theater and Annoyance Theater. She grew up in New Jersey, studied theater at Northwestern University and began improvising at iO, where she was part of the Harold team Blue Velveeta, before joining The Second City mainstage in 1998. She also helped found The Annoyance Theater in 1989 and has created roles in more than thirty of its original productions, among them Co-Ed Prison Sluts, That Darn Anti-Christ, The Real Live Brady Bunch, The Miss Vagina Pageant and Your Butt. She directed a stage adaptation of Judy Blume's work. She appeared on NBC's Late Friday and on Comedy Central's Premium Blend, and voiced the character Eos in Red Faction, a 2001 video game. The Chicago Reader called her Best Improviser in 2008. She teaches improvisation at the Annoyance and iO theaters and has taught at DePaul University and the University of Chicago.