Meet Gunnar Rohrbacher of Actors Comedy Studio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gunnar Rohrbacher.

Gunnar, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started at the Groundling’s and Lisa Kudrow was my first teacher. I’ll always be grateful for that. She didn’t teach for long before her career took off, so I know how fortunate I am to have learned from her. Through Lisa, I met Cynthia Szigeti who became my mentor. Cynthia ran the school at the Groundling’s for a period of time and is responsible for literally hundreds of careers in show business.

After she left the Groundling’s, Cynthia taught independently for a long time and introduced me to another great mentor, Phyllis Katz. Cynthia and Phyllis were both parts of the formation of the Groundling’s and it’s school. I still marvel at the brilliant teachers I had when I was first starting out.

Over the years I honed my talents, acting, improvising and writing. I performed constantly on every stage in Hollywood, but I also wanted to teach. I asked Cynthia when I was fairly young still and to my great surprise, she said yes! I started teaching basic improv, then advanced, then writing lab. That was nearly twenty-five years ago and I’ve been teaching, directing and producing comedy ever since.

For a short time, I also worked in casting. When I was in a position to watch other actors audition, I quickly learned how important it was to have a comfortable relationship with the camera. Some people – especially comic actors – were still doing stage work in front of the camera. I began to see clearly why some actors were creating a career for themselves and booking work, while others were not. Everyone is talented in their unique way but a lot of actors have inadequate training and don’t realize it. They think improv training alone is enough to book on-camera jobs and it isn’t.

Casting was frustrating for me because I wanted to help everyone who was struggling with the audition process. At the end of the day, auditioning is its own genre of acting and most actors don’t love it. Just as I started thinking about how I could be of more to help to my funny friends, I was asked to open a comedy department at an existing on-camera school. The Universe is funny that way. So after teaching improv and sketch, I turned my attention to teaching comedy for the camera.

The comedy department I created and supervised grew into a thriving enterprise, so after nine years, I thought it was time to leave and open a studio of my own. Lauren Bertoni was my teaching assistant at the time and like me, she was precocious and willing to take big chances. Ah, youth! She became my business partner and we opened Actors Comedy Studio together in 2011. ACS is the only school in the world dedicated entirely to teaching Sitcom Acting, Auditioning and Writing.

I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve created. It’s entirely unique in the world and we have a wonderful community of actors and writers who are for sure going to be the next stars and showrunners of television comedy.

Has it been a smooth road?
For a comedy studio, we’ve had our share of tears! There definitely has been a lot to overcome. Opening a business is never easy and we entered a crowded marketplace that emphasis improv training for comedy actors. Improv is where I started and I love it, but I think it’s overvalued in the context of creating a career in television. A lot more iconic actors on TV did not take classes at an improv franchise than did. So, in a way, we are reeducating the marketplace and that can be difficult.

The truth is, however, acting is becoming more and more a self-service industry and more and more a digital industry. Smaller roles don’t have callback sessions anymore and actors are being asked to record their auditions themselves and email them in with increasing frequency. That means actors are not performing live, in rooms when they audition, nor are they meeting producers, writers and directors. They are not getting feedback that actors used to get. Comfort with cameras, technology and auditioning has never been more important to a newer actor than it is now.

One of our biggest challenges is seeing how clearly actors need camera training and watching them get stage training that provides no guidance on how to develop a career.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Actors Comedy Studio is the only Sitcom acting & writing school in the world. It was a risk to open such a highly specialized business, but it was more than worth it. People love sitcoms. People love to laugh. It’s a joy to go to work every day and know that we are helping people’s dreams become a reality.

A couple of other places have comedy departments but if you look under the hood, it’s often the case that the owners or teachers aren’t comedians. I am. I can do everything I ask of my students, from writing and acting to auditioning. We’re the real deal.

Our other instructors are all notable in the industry. Dorian Frankel is an Emmy Award-winning casting director (Veep, Baskets, Parks and Recreation, etc.), acclaimed actor Elaine Hendrix teaches here as well as one of my Groundling’s mentors Phyllis Katz.

We’re all experts and it feels good to know that everyone here is in extremely knowledgeable in regards to the industry. More than just comedy, we can responsibly and efficiently guide actors toward a career, answering all their questions along the way.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
There is great acting training everywhere in the world but no other country makes great sitcoms. We do that best and we do it primarily in Los Angeles. I’m fortunate enough to teach people from all over the world and it’s fascinating how invested all cultures are in our TV comedy. It translates everywhere, which is really exciting because when I meet people for the first time, it’s like we’ve always known each other. Our common language is laughter.

There is only one place in the world (for now) Actors Comedy Studio could exist and it’s in Los Angeles.

Contact Info:

• Address: 7461 Beverly Blvd. Ste. 202 Los Angeles, CA 90036
• Website: www.actorscomedystudio.com
• Phone: 323.302.9152
• Email: [email protected]

Image Credit:
Lauren Bertoni

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