Nick Armstrong

Nick Armstrong is an actor, writer, improviser, and community builder who has spent nearly two decades helping build the national improv scene. He is Co-Owner and Artistic Director of RISE Comedy in Denver and the founder and Executive Director of Improv Utopia, a nonprofit improv retreat running camps across the country since 2011. In addition he is also Co-Owner of Haus of Comedy in Sacramento and Crowdwork based out of Chicago. On screen, Nick has appeared on the Emmy-winning The Office and Grey’s Anatomy, as well as Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks and Recreation, New Girl, Key & Peele, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! He was a member of the prestigious Sunday Company at the Groundlings and was a member of the critically acclaimed teams King Ten and Kind Strangers at iO West.

2026 Workshop: Character Lab Intensive

So, you may have some improv under your belt, maybe even a lot. But this class doesn’t just want to make you a great improviser; it wants to help make you a better actor. To build a truly realistic character, you need emotional, physical, and behavioral commitment, plus a strong point of view. That’s what makes a character grounded, believable, and able to sustain a scene. In this intensive, we’ll work on developing character and perfecting it throughout the weekend, showing you what it takes to build something solid. To cap it off, we will be performing a documentary-style show where we showcase your character work.

WHAT WE WILL WORK ON:

• Emotional commitment — how to fully invest in what your character feels and let it drive their choices
• Physical commitment — using body, posture, and movement to bring a character to life
• Behavioral commitment — building specific habits, tics, and mannerisms that make a character feel real
• A strong point of view — giving your character a clear way of seeing the world that fuels every scene
• Grounding and believability — what separates a cartoon from a well-rounded, realistic character
• Sustaining a character — keeping your character consistent and alive across a full scene or show
• Performing in a documentary-style showcase — putting your character work on its feet in a final show