Meet Our Team
Our Team of Facilitators
Christopher Wright
Chris holds a Masters degree in education and minor degrees in film and theater. He has taught improv comedy classes and Applied Improvisation corporate workshops with Steel City Improv since 2013.
With a teaching style that mimics the same enthusiasm and energy he brings to the stage, Chris is always seeking new and innovative ways to blend his two favorite things – teaching and entertaining.
In the past, he has performed improv comedy for over a decade, appeared in various stage productions, and several 48 Hour Film Festival projects as an actor.
Chris was nominated for an Irene Ryan Award in 2006 for his role as A Husband in Sophie Treadwell’s “Machinal,” directed by Ruth Childs, received the Best Actor Award at the Pittsburgh 48hr Horror Film Festival in 2015 for his role in “Karma’s a Bitch”, directed and produced by Josh Hausman, and his former improv team The Union, which included fellow instructor Justin Zell, was voted Best Comedy Troupe of 2019 in the Pittsburgh City Paper.
In his personal life, he enjoys family time, playing golf and softball, Stephen King novels, and cheering on the Buffalo Bills and Sabres.
Justin Zell
Originally from upstate New York, Justin is a graduate of Binghamton High School’s Rod Serling School of Fine Arts and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater Arts from SUNY New Paltz.
During his ten years in New York City, he studied primarily at The People’s Improv Theater (The PIT) with instructors that included Ptolemy Slocum, Rebekka Johnson, Matt Donnelly and Ali Faranakian. Justin also studied improv at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater (UCB) with Billy Merritt, Will Hines, and Joe Wengert; The Magnet Theater with Mark Grenier and Armando Diaz; and Second City New York with Kevin Scott and Jay Rhoderick.
Justin taught and coached improv at The PIT while performing weekly on a PIT House Team, The Wilhelm. While in New York, he taught workshops for institutions such as the NYU Stern School of Business. Justin co-created and co-hosted a podcast about improvisation entitled “Improvised New York” with Elizabeth Quinn.
In 2010, Justin co-founded Steel City Improv Theater with Kasey Daley. Since then, they have taught over 5000 people the art of improvisation and have conducted training workshops for companies and universities including: CORNELL UNIVERSITY. EAT’N PARK HOSPITALITY GROUP, UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH’S KATZ SCHOOL OF BUSINESS, DDI, BAYER, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY and KRAFT-HEINZ.
Aaron Crutchfield
Since 1995 Aaron has trained, performed and developed many facets of improvisation. He began in Massachusetts with ImprovBoston serving as assistant Artistic director for 2 seasons. He co-created corporate training programming while there.
In 2001, he joined the faculty at Charles River School. For 10 years was a lead arts instructor and, worked extensively in the school’s outreach and diversity efforts. This coincided with joining Dramaworks, a theater company that specialized in corporate training for fortune 500
companies like IBM and Oxford Bioscience.
Since 2014, Aaron has been a performer, coach and corporate facilitator for the Steel City Improv Theater and various local comedy teams. The educational background, and professional on camera experience, have given Aaron special insight to the training and corporate process, as well as the needs of business environments and cultures.