Matt Besser

Who Matt Besser is

Matt Besser is a comedian, actor, writer and director from Little Rock, Arkansas, who toured the Midwest doing stand-up after college while studying improvisation with Del Close in Chicago, where in 1991 he became a founding member of the Upright Citizens Brigade. With the UCB he wrote and performed stage shows such as Saigon Suicide Squad, winner of Best Sketch at the 1996 U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, and the sketch series Upright Citizens Brigade on Comedy Central from 1998 to 2000, and the group went on to open its own theatres and improv school in New York and Los Angeles.

He created and starred in Comedy Central's Crossballs, has guest-starred in Parks and Recreation, Modern Family and New Girl, appeared in films including Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Junebug, and wrote and co-directed the film musical Freak Dance. His stand-up albums include May I Help You Dumbass?, The 6 Most Important Sets in the History of Standup (2012), Besser Breaks the Record (2016), also filmed as a special for Seeso, and Pot Humor (Comedy Dynamics, 2019), and he hosts the improv podcast improv4humans. Two tracks from Pot Humor, Head Shop Games and Field Sobriety Tests, were played on SiriusXM's Raw Dog Comedy channel in January 2022.