Charna Halpern
Charna Halpern is a co-founder of the ImprovOlympic, now known as iO.
Halpern owned the iO West located in Hollywood, California, where in 1984, with partner Del Close, she began teaching Harold to many students in the Chicago theater community. Many prominent comedians performed at iO West, from Neil Flynn to Jack McBrayer. Also appearing were up and coming comedic minds such as Craig Cackowski. In February 2018 she made the decision to close the theater citing the reasons as the neighboring nightclub and lack of attendance.
She and Close co-authored the book Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation with editor Kim "Howard" Johnson in 1994. She published Group Improvisation in 2003 and Art by Committee in 2006.
