Current Cast Members
Venessa Sanchez...is the Founder of Twisted gray Matter and is the San Ramon Improv U Director and Teacher. She
has been teaching improvisational comedy through the city of San Ramon
and directing the Night at the Improv shows since 2004. When
she is not busy bringing out the lighter side of life experiences with
adults, she is busy taking in all of life's lessons and turning them into comedy (always better to laugh than cry!). Venessa has performed both long and short form improvisation, as well as scripted theater, and has training in both theater and improvisation. She also makes appearances with the San Ramon Community Theater both on stage, directing, and behind the scenes with costume design. Venessa also keeps busy doing costumes with Standing Ovations and is currently working on her own production company and independent theater to be launched in 2011. |  |
Lisa Gilbert...took improv classes with San Ramon Improv U and has been hooked ever since! She enjoys having an outlet to express her true feelings (especially about her neighbors!). She is no shrinking violet by any means and the rest of her life is quite an enigma...and is currently working on a book of "-ism's"! | |
 | Sarah Smyth ...Loves the stage and discovered her passion for acting and improv while in college. Sarah has no problem making a fool of herself in front of strangers and was deemed the nickname "anything for a laugh" at the age of 12. She believes in her past life, she was either popular member of SNL or a rockband drummer legend named Stimpy. Originally from "the dirty south" Louisiana, Sarah is finding out that the California lifestyle better suits her fancy. When not on stage with the troupe, you can find her spending time with her redheaded superstar husband and their two feline children, Batman and Marley, or running marathons around the streets of south-side San Ramon. Sarah likes fall weather, tattoos, riding her electric neon green scooter, and eating sushi for breakfast, lunch and dinner.Sarah is a closet IT nerd who loves people and eventually wants to open her own breakfast joint in the bay area. |
| Michael Gordon Michael has a long history with improv, dating way back to the hazy 80’s in blurry Berkeley. Employing deep-seated approach-avoidance techniques, he escaped the stage for several decades, only to be drawn back into it like a modern-day Michael Corleone. He is a connoisseur of good baseball, quality food, fluffy animals, fine (and not-so-fine) films, Peet’s coffee, and “progressive” thinking (not necessarily in that order). Come and watch his head explode on stage! V | |
