Will Forte Early career (1997-2001) Where did Forte start his career? He began taking classes at the Groundlings What did he do at the Groundlings? Groundlings in Los Angeles, an improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school, while tutoring children to make ends
What did he do after the Groundlings?
What did Will Forte do after the Groundlings?
He began taking classes at the Groundlings in Los Angeles, an improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school, while tutoring children to make ends meet. Forte's first successful foray into comedy was 101 Things to Definitely Not Do If You Want to Get a Chick, a comic book he produced that details incompetent men. The comics landed him his first professional job writing for The Jenny McCarthy Show, a short-lived variety show starring Jenny McCarthy. Shortly thereafter, he was asked to submit a packet to the Late Show with David Letterman and was told Letterman responded favorably to animation. After only nine months at Letterman, he was "let go" from the job. He recalled his stint on the program as unpleasant, noting that he did not have enough experience in writing. "What an honor to work at that show but I don't think I was fully mentally prepared. [...] I always wonder what it would be like if I'd had a couple more years of experience before going there."  Forte returned to Los Angeles and began performing with the Groundlings' Main Company, with Cheryl Hines, Jim Rash and Maya Rudolph. He tried stand-up comedy three times, mostly at open mic nights, but quit after being voted into the Main Company. He joined the writing teams of two failed sitcoms, including The Army Show and Action. Forte got jobs writing for 3rd Rock from the Sun and That '70s Show, two successful programs. He loved writing but had mostly given up on acting, aside from acting with the Groundlings. While performing with the troupe in 2001, he was spotted by Lorne Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live (SNL). Forte felt his confidence was higher than usual, as That '70s Show had been picked up for two more years. He was invited to audition for SNL, which he regarded as unexpected.  At his audition for SNL, he performed multiple original characters, including Tim Calhoun, a speed reader, a prison guard, in addition to impressions of singer Michael McDonald and actor Martin Sheen. His final character was an older piece from his days with the Groundlings, in which he portrays a gold-painted street performer who performs fellatio to pay for his face paint, which devolves into a song needlessly uttering the words "cock" and "face paint" dozens of times. He felt his time to shine as a performer was already over, as he was in his thirties when he auditioned. To his surprise, he was offered a chance to be on the show, but declined, opting instead for the financial stability of his work at That '70s Show. He felt working for SNL could not live up to the idealized version he had dreamed of, but he later realized he would be making a mistake. CANNOTANSWER
successful foray into comedy was 101 Things to Definitely Not Do If You Want to
Orville Willis Forte IV ( ; born June 17, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for being a cast member on Saturday Night Live (2002–2010) and for creating and starring in the sitcom The Last Man on Earth. For the series, he received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations: two for acting and one for writing.

After obtaining a history degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and becoming a financial broker like his father, Forte changed his career path to comedy and took classes with the improv group The Groundlings. He worked as a writer and producer on That '70s Show before joining Saturday Night Live. His most famous recurring character on the show led to a feature film adaptation, MacGruber (2010). He played various roles in comedy films before starring in the drama film Nebraska (2013). He has provided voice-work for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs films (2009–2013), The Lego Movie films (2014–2019), My Life as a Courgette, Get Squirrely (2016), Luis & the Aliens (2018), The Willoughbys, and Scoob! (2020). He also voiced Eddy in Disney XD’s Lab Rats their smart home security system.

Early life
Orville Willis Forte IV was born in Alameda, California, on June 17, 1970, the son of artist and former schoolteacher Patricia C. (née Stivers) and financial broker Orville Willis "Reb" Forte III. He was raised in Moraga before moving to Lafayette at age 13. He went by "Billy" in his early years until he was teased at school for it also being a girl's name, at which point he decided he would from then on be known as "Will". Forte describes himself as having been a "really happy little boy" whose parents were "wonderful" and created a "very loving environment". He was interested in comedy from a young age, growing up idolizing comedians Peter Sellers, David Letterman, and Steve Martin, as well as the sketch-comedy television series Saturday Night Live. He often pranked his parents, and would record himself performing imaginary radio shows. He did not aim to be a comedian, however, and initially wanted to become a football player.

Forte was "a laid-back teen with a lot of friends" and a member of the varsity football and swim teams at Acalanes High School, from which he graduated in 1988. He was voted "Best Personality" by his graduating class and served as freshman class president. He had no ambitions for a television or film career, though his mother noticed a "creative streak" in him. Following high school, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was a member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and completed a degree in history. Planning to follow his father, he became a financial broker at Smith Barney Shearson in Beverly Hills, but felt "miserable" there. He co-wrote a feature-length script while there, and later said that he discovered he loved writing "more than anything [he] had ever done in [his] life". He had been encouraged to attempt comedy during his years at university, and he decided to change his career path to do so.

Career

Forte began taking classes at the Groundlings in Los Angeles, an improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school, while tutoring children to make ends meet. Forte's first successful foray into comedy was 101 Things to Definitely Not Do If You Want to Get a Chick, a comic book he produced that details incompetent men. The comics landed him his first professional job writing for The Jenny McCarthy Show, a short-lived variety show starring Jenny McCarthy. Shortly thereafter, he was asked to submit a packet to the Late Show with David Letterman and was told Letterman responded favorably to animation. After only nine months at Letterman, he was "let go" from the job. He recalled his stint on the program as unpleasant, noting that he did not have enough experience in writing. "What an honor to work at that show but I don't think I was fully mentally prepared. [...] I always wonder what it would be like if I’d had a couple more years of experience before going there."

Forte returned to Los Angeles and began performing with the Groundlings' Main Company, with Cheryl Hines, Jim Rash and Maya Rudolph. He tried stand-up comedy three times, mostly at open mic nights, but quit after being voted into the Main Company. He joined the writing teams of two failed sitcoms, including The Army Show and Action. Forte got jobs writing for 3rd Rock from the Sun and That '70s Show, two successful programs. He loved writing and had mostly given up on acting, aside from acting with the Groundlings. While performing with the troupe in 2001, he was spotted by Lorne Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live (SNL). Forte felt his confidence was higher than usual, as That '70s Show had been picked up for two more years. He was invited to audition for SNL, which he regarded as unexpected.

At his audition for SNL, he performed multiple original characters, including Tim Calhoun, a speed reader, a prison guard, in addition to impressions of singer Michael McDonald and actor Martin Sheen. His final character was an older piece from his days with the Groundlings, in which he portrays a gold-painted street performer who performs fellatio to pay for his face paint, which devolves into a song needlessly uttering the words "cock" and "face paint" dozens of times. He felt his time to shine as a performer was already over, as he was in his thirties when he auditioned. To his surprise, he was offered a chance to be on the show, but declined, opting instead for the financial stability of his work at That '70s Show. He felt working for SNL could not live up to the idealized version he had dreamed of, but he later realized he would be making a mistake.

After Will Ferrell left Saturday Night Live the following spring, Forte joined the cast, premiering at the beginning of the show's twenty-eighth season in the fall. He was promoted to repertory player after his first year. His early years on the program were characterized by stage fright and an inability to properly interpret sketches that he did not write himself. He had to "re-learn" how to perform after years as a writer, and later felt his natural tendency to "overthink" things improved his performance. He was particularly uncomfortable portraying President George W. Bush, as he felt he was not the best impressionist and it paled in comparison to Ferrell's impersonation of Bush. His only role was often Bush, leaving him no chance for more "absurd" pieces he favored. He was nearly fired from the program following his third season (2004–05), but after two three-week extensions to decide his fate, he was brought back. Forte estimated it took five seasons for him to feel fully comfortable performing on the show. He made his film debut in Around the World in 80 Days.

Forte's humor at SNL has been described as bizarre, and he became known for many "10-to-1" sketchespieces that were considered odd, placed at the very end of the show. Among these were a sketch titled "Potato Chip", in which Forte plays a NASA recruiter that warns a candidate (Jason Sudeikis) not to touch a bowl of potato chips on his desk, or his turn as Jeff Montgomery, a sex offender who dresses up as a sex offender for Halloween. He was also well known for his characters Tim Calhoun, Greg Stink, and the Falconer. Forte's favorite sketch on the show was one in which he played a motivational coach alongside football star Peyton Manning. He also co-starred with Andy Samberg in the first SNL Digital Short, "Lettuce". He often spent long hours crafting his sketches for the program, missing deadlines, but his pieces were often greeted warmly at table reads. During his time at the show, he co-starred in and wrote the 2007 film The Brothers Solomon. The film was originally a pilot for Carsey-Werner, and its creation was an extension of his agreement to terminate his contract to appear on SNL.

Forte's best-known character on SNL was MacGruber, a special operations agent who is tasked in each episode with deactivating a ticking bomb but becomes distracted by personal issues. The sketches were based on the television series MacGyver. It was created by the writer Jorma Taccone, who pitched the idea relentlessly to Forte. He was initially reluctant to commit to the sketch, deeming it too dumb, but accepted after persuasion from Taccone. The first sketch aired in January 2007, and led to multiple more segments in the following years. In 2009, the sketches were spun off into a series of commercials sponsored by Pepsi premiering during Super Bowl XLIII that featured the actor behind MacGyver, Richard Dean Anderson, as MacGruber's father. The advertisements led the character and sketches to receive a wider level of popularity. Following the success of the advertisements, creator Lorne Michaels approached Forte, Taccone, and writer John Solomon with the idea to produce a MacGruber film.

Regarding his experiences on SNL, Forte remarked, "Looking back, the experience is something I'll never forget. I still miss it, and I'll always miss it. That's my family." His celebrity impressions included George W. Bush, Tom DeLay, John Edwards, Timothy Geithner, Newt Gingrich, Chad Lowe, Zell Miller, David Petraeus, Harry Reid, Brian Williams and Hu Jintao.

In the summer of 2009, MacGruber was shot on a tight schedule for four weeks in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was written while simultaneously producing the weekly episode of SNL, and the show's production process left the trio deprived of sleep. Forte was positive regarding the film, saying,  The film was released in May 2010 and received mixed reviews. It fared worse at the box office, where it failed to recoup its budget and was pulled from theaters after its third week. Forte found the failure tolerable, commenting, "When you make something that you’re really proud of and it doesn’t do well, you can live with it." The film has since seen more positive reception and has been dubbed a cult classic.

Forte left Saturday Night Live shortly before the beginning of the show's thirty-sixth season in 2010. He felt it the "right time to go," considering his eight-year tenure there, his expansion into film with MacGruber, and his age. In addition, his sister had just had kids and he wanted to move to the West Coast to be closer to them. He soon regretted the decision, calling the following year an "emotionally trying period," as he felt "devastated" that he would no longer be on the program. He assumed his shot at a film career was ruined, and he imagined that if acting did not work out, he would return to writing primarily. Following this, he entered what he has called a "lost period" and had small supporting roles, such as Rock of Ages, That's My Boy and The Watch, all of which were not successful.  The only commercial successful film he worked on was Grown Ups 2, where he made a cameo as a male cheerleader.  He also took a role as Paul L'astnamé, the cross-dressing boyfriend of Jenna Maroney on the critically acclaimed sitcom 30 Rock.

Forte took his first dramatic role for the 2013 film Run & Jump. Director Steph Green offered him the part, and Forte imagined it a "fun thing to try," though he noted that she had more confidence in him than he had himself. Later, he sent an audition tape to Alexander Payne for a role in his next film, Nebraska. He equated his casting in the film to his fear of joining SNL a decade prior, noting that he was "terrified" to begin working on it. He felt scared initially, but followed Bruce Dern's acting advice to "look for the truth" in each scene—in other words, "In every scene, you're just trying to play it as honestly and as real as you can."

Forte began work on The Last Man on Earth, a sitcom, with longtime collaborators Phil Lord and Christopher Miller in 2013. Though it was the duo's idea, Forte attached himself to the concept, crafting a treatment over a weekend. The series was pitched around Hollywood to positive responses and was picked up in 2014 by Fox. Forte serves as the series' creator, a writer, the lead role, and showrunner for the first season. He felt odd being in charge of its writing team (composed of longtime friends), and awkward at delegating tasks, so much so that he would end up doing the work himself. Being a showrunner "truly was an amount of work I never knew existed," he said, which involved him working a "minimum of 12 hours" daily. The series premiered in 2015 to positive responses, and was renewed for the next three seasons.

In 2016, Forte played Hulka, a low-level weed dealer, in the comedy Keanu, starring Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key. In 2018, he starred as National Lampoon magazine co-founder and writer Doug Kenney in the Netflix biographical film A Futile and Stupid Gesture. The film was directed by David Wain and also features Domhnall Gleeson as co-founder Henry Beard. Forte voiced Shaggy Rogers in the Scooby-Doo film Scoob!.

In 2021 Will Forte began starring in Sweet Tooth, a Netflix Original Series produced by Robert Downey Jr. Additionally, he reprised his role as MacGruber in a TV series on Peacock.

Other work
Forte is a supporter of the camp Wampler's Kids and recorded a promotional piece at SNL with Will Ferrell. Forte was a childhood friend of founder Steven Wampler and previously the national spokesman for SciEyes, a non-profit organization created to support research, training and public education in stem cell biology and to further the field by recognizing and supporting its potential for creating new therapies for the treatment of blinding and debilitating eye diseases. He was a primary donor towards the establishment of a research fellowship for third-year medical students at Duke Medical Center. He serves on the Board of Directors of the National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness.

Personal life
Forte resides in Santa Monica, California. He purchased his home there just two weeks before joining the cast of Saturday Night Live, which required him to move to New York City, and later admitted that "it was not the greatest timing". He dated his Last Man on Earth co-star January Jones in 2015. In 2019, he became engaged to Olivia Modling, whom he met in 2018. Their first child, a girl named Zoe, was born on February 15, 2021. He married Olivia Modling on July 31, 2021.

Forte's mother has visited every film set on which he has worked and made an appearance on a Mother's Day episode of SNL, in which he sang a song to her on Weekend Update. He also officiated his sister Michelle's wedding and filmed the birth of his niece and nephew.

Forte has discussed and joked about his OCD tendencies. He recounted listening to only one song in his office at SNL for an entire year because he wanted to challenge himself. During an interview with Larry King, he discussed his OCD as a challenge he had to overcome but not one he wished he did not have, as it is a part of his personality. In a February 2015 feature on him and his show The Last Man on Earth, the writer of the article said that Forte mentioned OCD often but it was not clear if he had ever been formally diagnosed, though Forte related how he and a former girlfriend had gone through an OCD questionnaire and it concluded that Forte "should immediately talk to someone about this".

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos

Video games

Web

Crew work

Awards and nominations

References

Bibliography

External links

 
 Will Forte LiveJournal Community
 Will Forte shares his favorite NY places at ontheinside.info
 Interview with Will Forte at CollegeHumor
 

1970 births
Living people
20th-century American comedians
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American comedians
21st-century American male actors
American impressionists (entertainers)
American male comedians
American male film actors
American male screenwriters
American male television actors
American male television writers
American male voice actors
American sketch comedians
American television writers
Comedians from California
Male actors from the San Francisco Bay Area
People from Alameda, California
People from Lafayette, California
People from Moraga, California
Screenwriters from California
University of California, Los Angeles alumni
The Groundlings are an improvisational and sketch comedy troupe and school based in Los Angeles, California. The troupe was formed by Gary Austin in 1974 and uses an improv format influenced by Viola Spolin, whose improvisational theater techniques were used by Del Close and other members of the Second City, located in Chicago and later St. Louis. They used these techniques to produce sketches and improvised scenes. Its name is taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act III, Scene II: "...to split the ears of the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumbshows and noise." In 1975 the troupe purchased and moved into its current location on Melrose Avenue.

The Groundlings School holds new sessions every six weeks with over 300 students per session, with more than 2,000 students per year going through the program. The competitive program, with admission by audition, consists of five levels (Basic, Intermediate, Advanced Improv, Writing Lab, and Advanced Lab). Participants must satisfy instructors in order to advance.

The program takes years to complete, as 18-month to two-year wait-lists between upper levels are common. Students may be asked to repeat Basic and Intermediate classes multiple times. By the late 2000s, students had one chance to complete classes in Improv and Writing. Failure to pass either of these classes means a student cannot complete the program, nor be invited into the Sunday Company.

Students may be voted into the Sunday Company, where they may remain for no more than two years. Many move on sooner than that. Many Groundlings performers have found success in movies and television, including several who have become cast members and writers on Saturday Night Live, MADtv, and Reno 911!.

History
In 1972, Gary Austin Jr. (a veteran of San Francisco's "The Committee") assembled a group of performers in Los Angeles to work on their craft. Together they would improvise, perform monologues, scenes, characters, songs, dances, and classic plays.  After about a year, they started doing performances and inviting friends to come and watch.  Word got out about the workshop, more people started coming, and soon a core group of performers began to showcase their material at various venues around Hollywood. 
 
In January 1974, Austin announced that he wanted to create a theatre company. There were fifty founding members of the company (membership at that time required payment of $25 to attend workshops). They developed material in the workshops and performed the best pieces in the weekend shows. This new group produced its first show in the 30-seat basement of the Oxford Theatre (now The Met) near the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Western Avenue. Esteemed LA Times theatre critic, Sylvie Drake, was in the audience that first weekend, and wrote a rave review.  "This could be the start of something big," Drake predicted.
 
As the buzz about the new company increased, the entertainment industry started taking notice. Comedian Lily Tomlin was a regular in the audience, and she hired several Groundlings to perform on her eponymous The Lily Tomlin Show. Later that year, Lorne Michaels, who produced Tomlin's TV special, asked Groundling Laraine Newman to be a cast member for his new late night comedy series Saturday Night Live.
 
Before long, membership in the company grew to 90.  To keep the size down, the company required selection by audition. Phil Hartman, then a graphic designer, tried out in the first audition. He was accepted but, due to the stiff competition, he had to wait more than a year before starting to perform in shows. With such a large company, workshops seven days a week, and sold-out shows going up three nights a weekend, The Groundlings needed a place to call their own.

The Groundlings School of improvisation officially began in 1978 with 17 students and staff members Gary Austin, Tom Maxwell, Phyllis Katz, Cherie Kerr, Laraine Newman and Tracy Newman. In the 21st century, it has an annual enrollment of more than 4200 students. The Sunday Company was formed by Suzanne Kent in 1982 to further develop the talent coming through the school.
 
In 1975 the company acquired what became The Groundlings Theatre at 7307 Melrose Avenue (the building was previously used as an interior decorator’s studio, a furniture showroom, a gay bar, and a massage parlor). Through equity and with the use of their own funds, company members set out to modernize the building and convert it into a performance space. They battled through four years of red tape, building codes, and parking restrictions before producing any shows on the stage. During that time, The Groundlings performed their revues at a handful of theaters all over town, including The Improv, The Matrix, The Hollywood Canteen, and the White House. Finally, in April 1979, the revitalized 99-seat theater opened its doors to audiences.
 
In November 1979, Gary Austin stepped down from his position as artistic director. Tom Maxwell was elected as his successor, and he served for the next ten years. In 1989, The Groundlings began the enduring tradition of having Groundlings or Groundlings alumni direct each new revue. The Main Company of no more than 30 members, collectively makes artistic, business and creative decisions. In April 2017 Groundlings paid tribute to passing of their founder, Gary Austin, by gathering at the theatre and laying flowers at his plaque.

Operations
Students must pass an audition to get into Basic class. If one does pass the audition, their results are valid for one year.  If a student does not pass the audition, they are allowed to audition again in four months. Students are allowed to audition a total of three times.

After completing the Advanced Lab level, a student may be voted into the Sunday Company, which performs every Sunday at 7:30pm. During this time, students write, rehearse and perform new material every week. After six months of performing in the Sunday Company, students are either voted to remain in the company for another six months, voted to be dismissed from the school, or voted into the Main Company (aka The Groundlings). No one can stay in the Sunday Company for longer than 24 months nor less than six months.

All members of the Main Company are selected from members of the Sunday Company. All Main Company members can remain in the company for as long as they desire. Usually members do not stay for longer than a decade; most Groundlings retire sooner from the company. The Main Company (capped at no more than 30 members at any time) collectively acts as the organization's artistic director, democratically making business and creative decisions as a group.

Shows
The Groundlings Revues (now commonly referred to as the Main Shows) were the first shows performed by the company and they established the Groundlings improv, character, and sketch comedy style. In 1981, the revue was given a title, "L.A. 200, Groundlings 3".  From that point on, every revue would have its own name, and have the word "Groundling" in the title.  Initially, one or two revues were performed in a year, increasing to three by the 1990s, and four in 2007, in addition to a special holiday show in December. Main Shows are performed every Friday at 8:00 p.m. and every Saturday at 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m.

In 1992, Melanie Graham created Cookin With Gas, a weekly short form improv show performed by Groundlings, Groundlings Alumni, Sunday Company members, and special celebrity guests.  The show continues every Thursday night at 8:00 p.m., and is now the longest running improv show in Los Angeles.  It was followed in 2001 by the long-form improv Crazy Uncle Joe Show, which runs every Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m.

Creation of The Pee-wee Herman Show
Starting in 1981, the company added alternative format shows to the theatre's regular line-up.  The first one was The Pee-wee Herman Show, created and co-written by Paul Reubens as a showcase for his Pee-wee Herman character, which he created in Groundlings workshops and revues. Pee-wee and his friends (played by and co-written by other Groundlings like Phil Hartman, Lynne Marie Stewart, John Paragon, Edie McClurg, and John Moody) started performing Saturdays at midnight, after the regular revues.  Quickly, the show became a huge LA hit; it transferred to The Roxy Theatre on Sunset Blvd and was filmed for an HBO special. In the following years, Pee-wee became a pop culture icon, spawning films, toys, and a children's television show. An updated revival of the original stage show (with many of the Groundlings reprising their roles) had a successful run in Los Angeles' Nokia Theatre and in New York on Broadway at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on November 11, 2010. This production was filmed for another HBO Special.

In popular culture
Groundlings cast on Saturday Night Live and Mad TV have often adapted their sketches and characters developed at The Groundlings into TV audience favorites. Former members of The Groundlings have further developed such materials into shows and films, such as Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, A Night at the Roxbury, and Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.
 
In 1998, the Groundlings were given an improv television program on the F/X network called Instant Comedy with The Groundlings. In September 2008, The Groundlings began producing short-form sketch episodes for Crackle.

On September 12, 2011 the Groundlings featured a sketch titled "Resting Bitch Face" (written by Patric Cagle, co-starring Nate Clark, and directed by Mitch Silpa). The sketch was uploaded to YouTube on October 11 and performed repeatedly throughout the Fall of that year.

The film Bridesmaids was written by Groundlings alum Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo and featured a cast consisting heavily of members of The Groundlings, including Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, Wendi McLendon-Covey, and others in supporting roles. The film was a box office success and nominated for two Academy Awards. In the same year, Groundlings Jim Rash and Nat Faxon won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for The Descendants.

David Blaine Street Magic
In 2006, The Groundlings recorded a skit called David Blaine Street Magic performed in the alleyway behind the theater. After being uploaded to YouTube, it has become one of the most popular videos on the website. As of October 2014, the video has had more than 38 million views and 60,000 comments since October 12, 2006. The skit stars Mitch Silpa parodying David Blaine in both the topics of Blaine's performances and his mannerisms. The skit is written by Michael Naughton and Mikey Day, who play the two innocent bystanders on whom Blaine performs his tricks.

Members

Current Main Company

Notable Main Company alumni

Notable school and Sunday Company alumni

Fortune Feimster

See also
 The Second City
 Upright Citizens Brigade
 ImprovOlympic
 ComedySportz
 Under the Gun Theater
 Annoyance Theatre
 Footlights

References

External links
 
 

1974 establishments in California
American comedy troupes
Improvisational theatre
Improvisational troupes
Hollywood history and culture
Landmarks in Los Angeles
1970s in comedy
1980s in comedy
1990s in comedy
2000s in comedy
2010s in comedy Gary Austin (born Gary Moore; October 18, 1941 – April 1, 2017) was an American improvisational theatre teacher, writer, and director who founded The Groundlings theatre company in 1974.

Early life
Austin grew up in the Nazarene Church and in Halliburton oil camps in Oklahoma, Texas and California. He graduated from Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe Springs, California, in 1960 and earned his BA in Theatre from San Francisco State University in 1964.

The Committee
After college, Austin moved to Los Angeles where he became a stage manager for the L.A. branch of San Francisco's famed improvisational comedy group, The Committee. It was here Austin worked as an improviser with Second City's Del Close and began to develop characters. When the Los Angeles company closed in 1969, Austin moved to San Francisco where he became a performing member of The Committee.

After his departure from The Committee, Austin moved back to Los Angeles and worked at the newly-opened Comedy Store where he improvised with The Comedy Store Players, worked as emcee, and did stand-up.

In 1972, Gary gathered together a group of actors and started the Gary Austin Workshops. After a year he decided it was time for the actors to perform publicly and he began directing shows in Los Angeles.  As word got around about the workshop, the improvisers began to perform at various venues around Hollywood.

The Groundlings
In January 1974, Austin created the non-profit improvisational theatre company, The Groundlings, composed of members of his workshops.  The company moved into the Oxford Theatre in East Hollywood.  Austin continued as Artistic Director.

A non-profit company requires a name to be agreed to by the charter members.  After taking a poll, Gary found that most members wanted the company to be called "The Working Class." The night before the vote, Austin was reading Hamlet's speech to the players "with the intention of using Shakespeare’s acting lesson as a jumping off point for the next day’s workshop" and came up with the name Groundlings (a reference in the play to the lower class audience members who sat on the ground in front of the stage to watch plays at the Globe Theatre in Shakespeare's day.) The next day, Austin presented the name and after much debate, "The Groundlings" won.

During the course of one year at The Oxford the Groundlings became known throughout the Hollywood industry. They performed in a thirty-seat theatre with a cast of twenty-five and the actors often outnumbered the audience. Austin was interviewed by Sylvie Drake, Los Angeles Times theatre critic, one week before the opening show. In her article in the Times the Sunday prior to the Groundling opening she concluded, "This could be the start of something big." She gave the Groundlings the first of many rave reviews.

As the buzz about the new company increased, the entertainment industry began to take notice. Comedian Lily Tomlin was a regular in the audience, as was Lorne Michaels, and several Groundlings were hired to perform on Lily, the 1975 Emmy Award-winning ABC special. Gary was hired to direct portions of the show. Later that year, Lorne Michaels, who produced the Tomlin special, asked Groundling Laraine Newman to be a cast member for his new late night comedy series Saturday Night Live. He asked Gary to move to New York City to direct the cast and Austin declined in order to continue his work with The Groundlings.  Before long, membership in the company grew to 90 performers. To keep the size of the company down, auditions became required. (Phil Hartman, who was then a graphic designer and not an actor, attended that first audition. He got in, but because of the stiff competition, it would be over a year before he started performing in the shows).

As the company grew in numbers and popularity, it was time to move into a new theatre. One day while driving home from a workshop, Austin saw a For Rent sign on a building at 7307 Melrose Ave. in West Hollywood and in 1975, the company members rented the empty space and constructed The Groundling Theatre with their own hands. Due to building codes, parking restrictions and problems with contracting, it would take four years for the theatre to open to the public. In the meantime, the Groundlings continued to perform at various Hollywood locations, including The Improv, The White House (home of Kentucky Fried Theatre) and even the Plantation Dinner Theatre in St. Louis. The Groundlings performed on national television on the Merv Griffin Show, on an NBC special and on the then local Regis Philbin Show. A year after the theatre opened Austin left the company due to creative and business differences. He returned in 1990, to direct the show for a while.

Other Work
Gary Austin was Artistic Director of The Gary Austin Workshops in Los Angeles, Seattle and Washington DC.  He worked in New York at Artistic New Directions and at People's Improvisational Theatre. He wrote two solo shows, "Church" and "Oil," and performed them coast to coast. In 2014, he released his album The Traveler which featured both songs and storytelling. 

His final show at The Groundlings was "Gary Austin in Word and Song" in 2016.

Death
Austin died of cancer in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 75.  He was survived by his wife Wenndy MacKenzie and daughter Audrey Moore.

Quotes

References

External links
Gary Austin at AND Theatre Company
Gary Austin at The Groundlings

1941 births
2017 deaths
American theatre directors
Deaths from cancer in California
San Francisco State University alumni