Troupes

UCB's flagship Sunday show — a monologist and a rotating cast of heavy-hitters — the longest-running improv show in American history.

San Francisco's politically savage 1960s improv company — where Del Close refined his craft and the Harold was first attempted.

The first improvisational theater in America — seeded Second City, Nichols & May, and every long-form tradition that followed.

UCB-NY Harold team known for an early-80s-nostalgia shorthand and one of the longest stable lineups at UCBT.

iO Chicago Harold team known for sharp scenic discipline — still performing.

An improvised Jane Austen novel, in period costume, with live music — a West End weekly institution.

The completely improvised full-band musical — an hour-long musical spun from a single audience-suggested title, with live band.

Joe Bill and Mark Sutton's improvised two-hander about two guys in a bass boat — a character study disguised as a fishing show.

Amsterdam's resident English-language improv/sketch theater — pipeline that sent Seth Meyers, Jordan Peele, Jason Sudeikis, Amber Ruffin to US TV.

One of iO Chicago's longest-running Harold teams — named after the obscure Beach Boys album.

Two Whose Line regulars' perpetual two-man touring show — the most commercially successful improv duo act of the 21st century.

Three-person UCB LA improv juggernaut — Alex Berg, Todd Fasen, Alex Fernie — known as one long-married improv brain.

UCB LA three-person team (Alex Berg, Todd Fasen, Alex Fernie) who made three-person long-form the house style of late-2010s UCB LA.

iO Chicago's best-loved 2000s indie team — raucous, kinetic, seven sold-out years — the room Tim Robinson came up in.

Bob Dassie, Rich Talarico, and Stephnie Weir's jazz-trio long-form — improv as chamber music.

Saturday-night UCB long-form juggernaut known for its 'Your F'd Up Family' dysfunctional-family format.

Weekly live improvised soap opera running continuously in Edmonton since 1991 — with 50-hour annual Soap-A-Thon marathons.

90s iO Chicago Harold team named for the Blue Velvet villain — performed at Edinburgh Fringe and merged improv with jazz standards.

UCB hybrid-format show: scripted theater scenes paired with improvisers who've never seen them — the canonical 'improv meets theater' experiment.

NYC sketch troupe (unrelated to Harvard) that broke through via YouTube viral sketches in the UCB orbit.

The UK's first dedicated improv theatre — biggest improv school in Britain.

UCB-born sketch quartet — Ansari, Scheer, Huebel, Woliner — whose MTV show rode the YouTube wave into TV.

Victoria's longest-running improvised theatre company — anchored the Australian Theatresports/Keith Johnstone tradition.

Charlie Todd's public-space performance group — 'causing scenes' with hundreds of agents in flash-mob pranks.

A decade of fully improvised USS Sisyphus episodes — both a live iO show and one of the medium-native improv podcasts.

The Live Bait Theatre long-form show that legitimized independent improv as theater — invented the tag-out and the cross-fade edit.

Susan Messing's 10+ year show where she improvises a one-hour two-person piece with a different partner every week.

Thomas Middleditch and Ben Schwartz's two-person long-form — first improv comedy special Netflix ever bought.

Chicago-based improv group that built its brand on the college touring circuit — signature agents-in-black-suits bit.

The last Harold team Armando Diaz assembled at UCBT — the first NYC team to win Chicago Improv Festival; profiled in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink.

Early 90s iO Chicago Harold team — home to Craig Cackowski, Bob Dassie, Rich Talarico before they became cornerstones of Chicago improv.

UCB-NY Harold team whose 'Neutrino Video Project' roaming-camera format became a minor classic of 2000s long-form.

Proto-improv comedy duo that proved two-person improvised scenework could fill Broadway and sell comedy albums.

Oxford-Imps alumni long-form group with a Pythonesque sensibility — Edinburgh Fringe regulars and podcast stars.

UCB sketch/improv troupe that launched Rob Riggle, Paul Scheer, Rob Huebel — the 'Good vs. Elvis' generation.

UCB-NY Harold team that rotated through a generation of UCB core talent — became The Curfew in 2011.

The original Second City Toronto ensemble — the company that became SCTV.

The West End's Olivier-winning improvised musical — first improv show ever nominated for an Olivier.

Chicago's longest-running Asian-American comedy troupe — launching pad for Danny Pudi, Steven Yeun, Mary Sohn.

UCB-NY weekend sketch troupe — Maude Night institution, second-generation Maude Team.

Late-60s sketch/improv troupe who put sketch comedy on network TV years before SNL — home of Fred Willard and Bill Saluga.

The monologue-based long-form that became a form unto itself — still the longest-running show at iO Chicago.

Del Close's personal Harold laboratory — the iO team that invented tag-outs and crystallized the UCB aesthetic before UCB existed.

UK's equivalent to UCB/iO — improv school and performance company that's trained a generation of British comedians.

The first wave of Gary Austin's LA improv workshop that became the Groundlings Theatre — seeded SNL's West Coast pipeline.

A full improvised Shakespeare play, in verse, based on a single audience-suggested title — the most replicated 'genre' long-form of the 21st century.

Canadian sketch comedy troupe that emerged from Calgary's Loose Moose and Toronto's Rivoli — improv-derived sketches, character-forward.

UCB-NY Harold team that began as an indie — known for its signature 'Law and Disorder' Friday-night show at UCB Chelsea.

England's longest-running long-form improv company — Brighton-based, Edinburgh Fringe mainstays.

UK's sharpest off-the-cuff troupe — a University of Kent crew that became Britain's Got Talent semifinalists and TV regulars.

Greenwich Village's answer to Second City, founded by Compass alum Theodore J. Flicker — cradle for Buck Henry, Gene Hackman, and Joan Darling.

Boston/Harvard-born improv troupe that trained Jane Curtin and Josh Mostel — the East Coast sister of The Committee.

One of the longest-running iO Harold teams — opened iO's 25th anniversary show in 2005 as the theater's most veteran house team.

The original eight-person ensemble that opened Second City on December 16, 1959 with 'Excelsior & Other Outcries.'

UCB-NY Friday-night Harold team — the indie team that became an institution, launched Zach Woods and Bobby Moynihan.

Amy Poehler's Harold team — invented the 'slow waltz' style of long-form and became the gold standard for scenework-first improv in 2000s NY.

TJ Jagodowski and David Pasquesi's weekly two-person long-form — widely considered the gold standard of contemporary improvised theater.

The Del Close-mentored quartet — Besser, Poehler, Roberts, Walsh — who took the Chicago Harold aesthetic to NY and founded the UCB Theatre.

All-woman iO Chicago Harold team that incubated Aidy Bryant and Cecily Strong.

Stephnie Weir and Bob Dassie's husband-and-wife two-person long-form — the domestic-cinema counterpart to TJ & Dave.

Weekly improvised news satire at iO Chicago — audience members clip articles from newspapers, cast improvises from the headlines.