Diane Kastiel is the producer 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; 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, Steppenwolf, the Park West, Victory Gardens and other theaters as well as comedy clubs, art galleries, the basement of a tattoo parlor - she even did a show in the middle of the woods! Diane works with libraries, schools, community centers and homeless shelters to bring storytelling to a wider audience, and leads storytelling workshops at Northwestern University. Diane is an alumna of The Second City Conservatory and the University of Chicago’s Great Books program. She also has an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management…just in case. 

James Gordon is an actor, international award-winning author and poet, multiple winner of The Moth StorySLAM, and a Moth Grand Slam championr. He can be seen in episodes of Amazon's "The G" and "Background Extras," " WeTv's "Kold and Windy," and in the upcoming play "A Tale out of Fishwater."

Nicole Schnitzler is a freelance writer and recent Moth StorySLAM devotee. She's also pursuing her MFA at Northwestern University, working on a collection of essays about family and the evolution of grief. In between plans for her next adventure (ideally one that takes her one step closer to Paris!), she can be found exploring bakeries, Beyoncé dance classes, and improv classes throughout the city. She is the co-author of Chicago: Like a Local and the founder of Doors Open Dishes, a nonprofit that partners with chefs to help keep the doors open to workshops and group homes for people with developmental disabilities.

Brandt Garippo is a senior in high school, hoping to study engineering in college. He discovered live storytelling last year through a school workshop, and is excited to be making his performance debut tonight! A true storyteller at heart, Brandt wrote books for fun as a kid, and is now working on a novel in the spare time. On the rare occasions where homework offers him a reprieve from his studies, Brandt enjoys playing the piano and making the most of his boyhood friendships before he leaves for college in the fall. 

Adam Bottner is a former litigator and, for the past 14 years, director of business development for a legal technology company. Born in New York, lived in Pittsburgh, and raised in unincorporated Des Plaines (“the Third City”), he is a frequent Moth story teller and multiple Moth StorySLAM winner, featured on the Moth Radio Hour and its podcast. Adam is a graduate of The Second City Training center and has written multiple screenplays, including his most recent, "Searching for Frenchy Fuqua." He lives in Buffalo Grove and is the father of two amazing sons and the former owner of Freddy, an eyelash-crested gecko, whom he misses very much. 

Tim Schreiber has been a meat clerk, pizza driver, busboy, library assistant, columnist, reporter, student, teacher, reference librarian, and landlord - but he’s given all of that up (for the time being) to stay home with his two young children. Although he has been writing and telling stories all his life, Tim just recently caught the bug of storytelling in front of a live audience, competing in Moth StorySLAMs and appearing at First Person Live and other shows around Chicago.

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Mira Kessler was born in North Carolina, but most recently hails from New York City, where she was working as an actor for five years. She is now pursuing her MFA in acting at The Theatre School of DePaul University. Mira has performed in many Yiddish plays, and you can find her in the first episode of Netflix's Unorthodox. Mira has two cats and loves going to the beach, traveling, eating, and making dessert.

James R. Petersen was the sex editor for Playboy magazine for almost 40 years years. (USA Today once called his column, The Playboy Advisor, “the premier source of sex information in the country.”) As the Playboy Advisor, Jim did stand-up sex therapy on 125 college campuses, wrote about sex when sex was new, and appeared on Late Night with David Letterman. (Note: If you followed his advice, or were injured trying the Chinese Basket Trick, be advised that the statute of limitations has run out.) Jim is a regular at Moth StorySLAMs and other storytelling shows around Chicago.