BOOM CHICAGO'S NOTABLE ALUMNI

Seth Meyers began his career at Boom Chicago where his shows attracted the attention of Saturday Night Live scouts. After a 13 year stint at SNL, nine of which were head writer, he was given his own Emmy Award winning TV show Late Night with Seth Meyers which is probably the best late night show on TV.

His ‘A Closer Look’ segments are watched around the world and provide a smart, insightful and very funny take on US politics and ‘Corrections’ is ultiple emmy nominatedfor it’s breaking the fourth wall comment on a week of shows

Seth was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in 2014. Seth’s Netflix special, Lobby Baby, is one of the most watched comedy specials in 2019 and a new comes out in 2024. His Documentary Now has run for four successful seasons.  

Jordan Peele met Keegan Michael Key at the 2002 Comedy Swap where Boom Chicago switched stages with Chicago’s legendary Second City. The two went on to create the very influential sketch comedy show Key and Peele on Comedy Central, where Boom alums Becky Drysdale and Colton Dunn were on the writing team.

Jordan went on to direct Get Out, one of the most influential films of 2017. His movie received four nominations and he won one.

He received another Academy Award nomination for Best Picture for producing Spike Lee’s BlacKKKlansman in 2018. Jordan directed, wrote and produced the acclaimed horror film Us (which was also a great walk-through haunted house at Universal Studios). He is involved in projects as diverse as Toy Story 4, The Twilight Zone, Fargo, and the reboot of Candyman.

Nope confirmed that he is one of the few auteur directors these days who can sell a film based only on his name.

After leaving Boom Chicago, Jason Sudeikis has gone on to an exciting career that included years on Saturday Night Live.

Afterwards, he appeared in films and series like Downsizing, Horrible Bosses, We’re the Millers, Hall Pass, and Angry Birds Movie 2.

Recently, he became a global superstar as the co-creator, writer and star of Ted Lasso, the Emmmy award winning comedy sensation about an American coach of an English football team on Apple TV+ series

That show also features writing, acting and producing and directing from Boom alums Brendan Hunt and Joe Kelly.

After Boom Chicago, Amber joined the writing staff of Late Night with Seth Meyers in 2014. When she joined the show, she became the first black woman to write for a late-night network talk show in the United States. Her ‘Amber Says What’ and ‘Jokes Seth Can’t Tell’ have made her a standout performer in her own right.

NBC hosted three seasons of The Amber Ruffin Show on NBC’s streaming service Peacock and cowrote two New York Times best selling books about racism. Becasue they were written by Amber, they were smart, important, and really funny   

Ike Barinholtz launched his career with a two year stint at Boom Chicago in 1999. He left for a five year run on the famous MAD TV (with fellow Boom actors Josh Meyers, Nicole Parker, and Jordan Peele).   

Since then, he acts, writes, produces and directs in films and TV series like Mindy Project, Suicide Squad, Bad Neighbors, Bad Neighbors 2, Sisters, Central Intelligence and Blockers.

Recently he was a writer and star of Mel Brooks’ History of the World Part II. He also won the 2023 Celebrity Jeopardy championship, winning a million dollars for charity.  

Brendan Hunt is an American actor and writer known for roles in the films We’re the Millers (2013) and Horrible Bosses 2 (2014) as well as voicing two characters in the video game Fallout 4 (2015).

He is a co-creator of the Apple TV+ sitcom Ted Lasso which has received the most Emmy nominations (and many wins) of any comedy in recent memory. He also plays Coach Beard on the show.

He has created two very exciting one man show Five Years in Amstedam and The Movement You Need. The latter had its world premiere at the Boom Chicago Comedy Festival in 2023 and will undoubtably tour the United States.

Boom Chicago alum Colton Dunn is a very funny comedian, actor, writer, and producer. From 2002-2004, Colton lived in Amsterdam and performed at Boom Chicago, working on shows like Rock Stars and Boom Chicago saves the world, (Sorry About the Mess). That was the era with, among others, Jordan Peele, Brendan Hunt, Suzi Barrett, Heather Campbell, and Jim Woods.

Colton finished up a very successful six season run as Garett on the NBC comedy Superstore. One of the network’s highest rated shows, the workplace comedy found its footing in the second year when it garnered critical acclaim, getting 100% positive remarks on Rotten Tomatoes.

After her Boom days, Kay Cannon was a very in demand writer and producer working on seminal TV shows like 30 Rock, New Girl and Girlboss and the three Pitch Perfect films. The first two were great!

She then moved on to directing the groundbreaking and hysterical Blockers which changed the politics of teenage sex comedies to be more modern and female positive while still being raunchy and raw. Indeed, recent comedies like Booksmart seem to live in the social world created by Kay earlier in Blockers.

She worked on a reboot of Cinderella in 2021 and her recent project was 2024’s My Ex-Friend’s Wedding.   

After leaving Boom Chicago Michael Orton-Toliver started the Free Association, which has grown to become London’s premiere long form improvisation theater in London.

Mike co-created and co-wrote the UK show Borderline which was a huge hit in the UK in 2016-7. He then created his own writing and production company in London which is working on various projects and formats in the US and UK.

Recently, he wrote and produced Players, a series about an e-sports videeo game playing team.  

Tami Sagher wrote and produced many famous TV shows like Inside Amy Schumer, 30 Rock, Orange is the New Black, Broad City, How I Met Your Mother and Girls and Broad City.

She appeared in shows like The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Russian Doll and the films Knocked Up and Don’t Think Twice (about the New York improv scene). 

She recently wrote on Marry Me, a film starring Jenifer Lopez, Owen Wilson and Sarah Silverman and was an executive producer on The Great, Life and Beth and Shrill.

After his time in Amsterdam, Joe Kelly went on to write and produce on shows like Saturday Night Live, How I Met Your Mother and The Detroiters. 

He recently co-created and co-produced the mega hit Ted Lasso with fellow Boom alums Jason Sudeikis and Brendan Hunt.

The world is Joe’s oyster now!