Meet the people behind the Improvazilla Show!
Meet the improvisors!
Chris WElls
Artistic Director of the TCS Improvazilla Show
Chris is a senior advisor at EY Tokyo’s wavespace innovation center, in addition to being a narrator, improvisor, public speaker and emcee. A founding member of TCS in 1994, it has been a big part of his life for over twenty years. One of Tokyo’s most popular voice actors, he is the announcer you hear on JR East train lines, much to his astonishment. He can be heard around the globe on NHK World TV programs and documentary specials. Visitors to Japan can hear him all over! In both Tokyo Tower and on the JR West and Hokkaido Shinkansen platforms, in the National Museum of Modern Art and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial museum, the Kyoto National Museum, the Osaka Kaiyukan Aquarium, the Saga Prefecture Space and Science Museum, the Todaiji Museum, and more, so keep an ear out! Chris’ Narration Website.
With a BA in psychology from Murray State University, he lectures on positive psychology, cultural diversity and language acquisition, and the science of happiness, including recent findings in neuroscience. He has taught all over the world, including in Hong Kong, Milan, Beijing, Dubai, Buenos Aires, Vancouver, and Los Angeles. In The Moment Improv Website
He brings expert emcee and facilitation skills to events around the world, such as the Pioneers startup conferences in Vienna and Tokyo, the Financial Innovation Business Summit, and Tokyo's FinTech Summit. He also provides training for speakers that utilizes improvisation, resulting in better presentations and more confident speakers. Chris’ Event Moderation Website
Christiane brew
Christiane is an actress, improvisor, storyteller, emcee, and stand up. Trained in several schools of improv, Christiane has performed improv and scripted plays on stages in Tokyo, NYC, Dubai, UK, Hong Kong, Australia, and India. She has taught and coached improv (and communications workshops for businesses) in Tokyo, Bangalore and the UK.
Christiane’s recent acting work has seen her in Japan’s favourite Shin-Godzilla movie, American Express world-wide TV commercial, provided the voices for several game characters, and she is the face and body for another 2 secret world-wide video games.
Her secret superpower is listening and observing, be that when coaching or performing. A sponge that soaks everything in and plays it for the truth of the moment, not for easy laughs. And some say she’s just naturally funny, though you’ll have to be the judge of that.
Christiane is also a trainer and coach. She uses improv and more traditional techniques to empower and motivate people to discovernew ways to communicate so that they can approach life & business with confidence and creativity. Lotus Consulting's Website
Donna Burke
Donna Burke, is an Australian singer, actress, lyricist and entreprenuer.
She has been performing in the Improvazilla Tokyo show since 2009 and loves how improv has enriched her music, acting and business career. Donna appreciates the diversity and wit of the international+Japanese= great audiences that attend the Crocodile shows.
Donna sings, acts in and writes lyrics for iconic video games including Silent Hill 2 & 3, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (out on Switch April 2017) and her song "Glassy Sky" from Tokyo Ghoul has over 50 million plays on Youtube.
Since 2017 Donna has toured with Metal Gear in Concert in Tokyo, Osaka and Paris with new shows in March/April 2019 in New York and Los Angeles. In 2016 she formed Ganime Jazz with 4 Tokyo musicians and released Game + Anime in 2018 re-interpreting her game and anime hits as jazz.
Her voice can be heard in many games like Nintendo’s ARMS (Doctor Coyle) Fitboxing (Laura) MGSTPP (Indroid) and on the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Kumamoto. Donna has been Raising Heart in Magical Lyrical Nanoha since 2004.
In 2004 Donna founded Dagmusic, a production studio and talent booking agency in Roppongi and Hotteeze heat pads, exporting Japanese heat pads worldwide.
Follower her on Spotify, Facebook@DonnaBurkeSinger, Youtube DonnaBurkeOfficial and Twitter@db_actor_singer and check out Donna's Website for her next video game concert or Ganime jazz live.
Luke DK
Originally from the South of England, Luke started improvisational theatre with the Tokyo Comedy Store in 2013 and joined the Improvazilla cast in 2015. He has also been in a number of local theatre productions including TIPs Macbeth, Black Stripe’s Dealer’s Choice, and Tokyo Theatre for Children’s The Stinky Cheese Man.
With a Japanese degree and post graduate studies in Psychology, Luke works as a director overseeing USA operations at Ashinaga, Japan’s largest home-grown NGO. Ashinaga’s mission is to support orphaned children in Japan and Sub-Saharan Africa gain access to education. It has helped over 100,000 children in Japan, and currently supports over 150 students from African countries in their university studies around the world.
Nick Ware
Nick Ware is a teacher, writer, and improvisor originally from Montgomery, Alabama, USA though he comes to Tokyo by way of Tallahasse (Florida, USA), Osaka, Bowling Green (Ohio, USA), Orlando, and Los Angeles. He enjoys medium-sized semi-obscure wild animals (capybara, binturong), pro wrestling, museums, all the entertainment media forms, watching most sports, and bagels. He and his wife have five lovely stuffed animals that they are raising together but the platypus is a handful.
He has trained with improv with SAK Comedy Lab (Orlando) and UCB (New York/Los Angeles) and was a cast member of two shows at SAK for five years. He’s also performed at various festivals in the Southeast US including Orlando Fringe. His sketch comedy has been performed at The Pack Theater in Los Angeles. He once took a drop kick for five cents, so that technically makes him a professional wrestler, as he has done it for money.
He has nothing to promote.
Sam Doerr
Saying "Yes and..." to life. Sam believes that improv teaches you how to fail fast, learn and get back up again with a mindset of service. He takes that philosophy into his work and life as well. He has been integrating improv techniques into his corporate training and development since moving to Japan in 2010. Also an actor, singer/songwriter. Check out his youtube in the link page below.
Originally from Sacramento CA. Sam got a degree in Theatre from Seattle University and completed an internship in Sound Design at the Berkeley Rep. He has worked in Theatre from San Francisco, Seattle to New York, where he had the opportunity to work with playhouses such as the Atlantic Theatre Company, Keen Company and the Roundabout. He has also worked in film production in New York and Tokyo.
Rodger Sono
Rodger Sono is a tireless supporter of all things theatrical and creative in Tokyo. He is the Improvazilla Show’s talented photographer and videographer, editing together entertaining clips from shows and giving audience members photos to remember their night. During the day he is an editorial cartoonist at The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun. You can see him onstage as a regular member of the Pirates of Tokyo Bay, as well as in various Tokyo International Theatre productions.
Victoria Humpert
Meet the pianists!
Chizue Chie
Julianne spicer
Kevin Mchugh
Kevin McHugh is a pianist and composer from Seattle. He began working in improv theater professionally from age 15, when he joined Seattle’s Unexpected Productions as their main pianist for both Theatresports shows and long form productions. He continued improvised theater at Oberlin College and Conservatory, where he graduated magna cum laude with degrees in piano and German.
In 2006 he won a year long Watson Fellowship to pursue a self-designed project exploring improvised music scenes in São Paulo, Cairo, Mumbai, Shanghai and Tokyo. Upon returning to the US, Kevin lived in the Bay Area as a regular pianist for numerous improv groups including Bay Area Theatresports (BATS), Secret Improv Society and Big City Improv, as well as the Tony awarding winning San Francisco Mime Troupe.
Since 2009 Kevin has lived in Tokyo, working as a full-time jazz pianist and accompanist for both Broadway and improv theater shows. He is the leader of the improvised collective “nariiki,” post rock quartet “nouon,” a founding member of the Japanese improv group Improlabo and Trio Impro, and accompanies the Tokyo Comedy Store and many other groups throughout Japan.
Shion lee
Thomas Sagnard
Thomas is an actor, improviser, stage director, coach, and voice actor from France. For more than twenty years, he has been performing and teaching the art of improv all over the world.
Trained in Grenoble, France, at the Ligue Impro38, he has performed as a regular comedian-improviser in his home country as well as in Korea (Seoul City Improv), Morocco, and China (Beijing Improv).
In 2015, he coached Team Morocco for the World Cup of Match d'Improvisation and led the team during their 2016 European tour.
In France, he directed Michael Bièche in his critically acclaimed show "Sans Cérémonie" and shared the stage with some of the best French-speaking improvisers, such as Richard Perret, Cécile Giroud, Igor Potoczny, Salomé Corbo, Odile Cantero, and Geremy Credeville.
Thomas has started several improv groups in Morocco (La Marocaine d’Impro) and Beijing (ImproPékin). He is currently leading and coaching the newly created French-speaking group IMPROTOKYO (Instagram: improtokyo).
He gets his inspiration from comedy geniuses like Jacques Tati, Rowan Atkinson, John Cleese, and Louis de Funès, and enjoys shooting pictures, running, and watching sports and sitcoms.
Follow him on Instagram: thomassagnard
TCS Alumni
