Improviser & comic
Student
Chicago public school teacher
College professor
Entrepreneur
Journalist
Writer & editor
Marketing consultant
Tiffany Desrosiers
Tiffani Desrosiers is an improviser and comedian from Warrenville who has been performing all over Chicago and the suburbs for the last seven years. She credits her experience as an NBC page and working on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" as a catalyst into her career in entertainment.
By day, Tiffani is the Assistant Director of Wesley Kids Day Out in Naperville.
When she's not performing, she loves volunteering at her children's school, watching her favorite athletes (her three kids!) and getting as much sleep as possible.
Archy Jamjum
Archy Jamjun is a storyteller and writer from Chicago. Since winning The Chicago's Biggest Liar Contest in 2014 and the Chicago Moth GrandSLAM in 2015, he has enjoyed telling stories all over the city and is excited to be out in the ‘burbs because he is originally a suburbanite himself. Archy is currently working on a collection of short stories and his MFA in Creative Writing at Roosevelt University.
Gabriel Sheridan
Gabriel Sheridan is a public school teacher in Chicago. She's used to speaking to groups of six- and seven-year-olds, but does her best to entertain a crowd of adults from time to time with her storytelling. Gabriel is also a passionate union activist. "Going to a union meeting is like going to church,” she says. “Everyone there is full of love and mostly they agree on the basics.”
Phyllis Porche
Phyllis Porché was born and raised on the south side of Chicago. She teaches English composition at a small technical college and writes fiction in her spare time. An avid listener of NPR’s Moth Radio Hour, Phyllis mustered her nerve to compete in a Moth StorySLAM last year – and won! Phyllis credits her parents with her love of reading and writing, and is regularly inspired by her muses: strong coffee, meditation, and milk chocolate Hershey’s Kisses.
Diane Kastiel
Diane Kastiel is the producer, director, and host of First Person Live. A writer and storyteller from Chicago, she’s a three-time winner of the National Public Radio’s Moth StorySLAM and her work has been featured on the Moth Radio Hour, its podcast, and at special events for WBEZ, NPR’s Chicago affiliate. Diane has told stories on stage at The Second City, the Park West, Victory Gardens and other theaters - but also in more unconventional settings, including art galleries, the basement of a tattoo parlor, homeless shelters - she even did a show in the middle of the woods! Diane is an alumna of The Second City Conservatory and the University of Chicago’s Great Books program, and has an MBA from Northwestern University…just in case.
David Himmel
David Himmel is a literary and journalistic mercenary. His pursuits of the greater good have led him to be an oldies radio DJ, a marketing director, several different team mascots, the editor-in-chief of a health magazine, a Second City-trained actor, a stand-up comic, and the owner of three Volkswagen hatchbacks. He is the author of “A Camp Story” and the forthcoming book, “Previously Recorded.” David is a contributor to and co-editor of the digital ‘zine, Literate Ape and was the head writer on the award-winning web series, “Greetings! From Prison.” He has performed at storytelling events such as The Moth and Mortified and serves on the Associate Board of Gilda's Club Chicago. In May 2007, David wrote the first cover profile on Kim Kardashian for the now defunct Racket magazine. In it, he predicted exactly the Kardashian-influenced world we live in today. Blame David - he deserves and accepts it. David lives in Wicker Park with a dog and a creative strategist wife.
Sheri Reda
Sheri Reda is a writer, editor, and performer whose three Master’s degrees – in Modern Letters, Religions and the Arts, and Information Sciences – support her voracious appetite for creative endeavor. Sheri is also a certified Master Life-Cycle Celebrant whose personalized weddings, memorials and other ceremonies have been rated among the best in the United States. Her stories have energized programs at storytelling venues throughout Chicago, and her work with the experimental theatre company Neo-Futurists has fed her soul.
Vincent Truman
Vincent Truman is a writer, cartoonist, director and actor - basically, wherever there is little to no money to be made, Vincent is there. He is the fourth of three children (ask him about it after the show) to an interfaith marriage. As someone who is half Catholic and half Jewish, Vincent is a master of finding sales and feeling guilty about it. He is engaged to and constantly inspired by a lovely lady named Sarah. He is currently working on a book of cartoons entitled, “This Is My First Time, So Please Be Brutal.”