Andy Harmon
Andy Harmon is a director, actor and playwright with a special interest in improvisation who has been training actors and business professionals for over three decades. He studied with the creator of modern improv theatre, Viola Spolin, in Hollywood in 1978 and 1980 and was personally authorized by her to teach her landmark improv techniques in the UK, where he lived and worked for 30 years. He founded The Spolin Workshop London in 1979 and taught acting and improv at many of London's leading drama schools. He was the Artistic Director of The Drama Studio, London 1981-82 and ran workshops for the Swedish State Drama School in Malmo and the Royal National Theatre in London, where he served as improv coach for Mike Alfred’s production of Goldoni’s ‘Countrymania’. He co–produced "Improvisathon'85" in London’s West End, a marathon fundraiser for Ethiopian famine relief. The show featured guests Michael Palin, Jonathan Pryce, Tim Roth, Kenneth Branagh, Hayley Mills and a host of other British stars working with three teams of improvisers in six 'shifts' over 12 hours. The event helped to kick start the improvisational comedy scene in London in the 1980s including the original UK version of ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway?’
He has directed over 25 productions in Europe and the United States and co-authored and directed, La Comedia, Dante’s Journey Through the Kingdom of the Dead, in Sweden in 1999. Locally he was a member of improv company ‘Joe and Mustard’ and directed and starred in Moliere’s “Imaginary Cuckold’ for California Desert Rep in 2008. He is founder and director of "Trouble in Public"a new improv group selected to appear at the 9th Annual Improv Comedy Festival at IO West in Hollywood this past June.
Regarding his corporate work, along with his wife, psychologist Anita Harmon, he founded leadership consultancy, Actor's Mind, in 1991 and has trained and developed leaders at IBM, McKinsey and Company, PwC, the UK Home Office, The Body Shop and elsewhere. In 2009, he was keynote speaker at the Alaska Writer’s Conference and in 2011, led a session of ChangeDialogue™ at the Association of Business Psychologists Conference in the U.K.
He has directed over 25 productions in Europe and the United States and co-authored and directed, La Comedia, Dante’s Journey Through the Kingdom of the Dead, in Sweden in 1999. Locally he was a member of improv company ‘Joe and Mustard’ and directed and starred in Moliere’s “Imaginary Cuckold’ for California Desert Rep in 2008. He is founder and director of "Trouble in Public"a new improv group selected to appear at the 9th Annual Improv Comedy Festival at IO West in Hollywood this past June.
Regarding his corporate work, along with his wife, psychologist Anita Harmon, he founded leadership consultancy, Actor's Mind, in 1991 and has trained and developed leaders at IBM, McKinsey and Company, PwC, the UK Home Office, The Body Shop and elsewhere. In 2009, he was keynote speaker at the Alaska Writer’s Conference and in 2011, led a session of ChangeDialogue™ at the Association of Business Psychologists Conference in the U.K.