Rich Talarico

The Second City, Chicago Mainstage

  • Slaughterhouse 5, Cattle 0 (2000)
  • Second City 4.0 (1999)
  • The Psychopath Not Taken (1998)
  • Promise Keepers, Losers Weepers (1998)
The Second City e.t.c.
  • River Ants (1997)

Rich Talarico is an Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning writer and producer best known for his work on Comedy Central’s Key & Peele. Additionally, he has written/produced for The Key & Peele Superbowl Special; Review for Comedy Central; FOX’s MADtv; NBC’s Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, NBC's New Year’s Eve special, the two-hour TV special Must See TV: A Tribute to James Burrows,“ and "Red Nose Day." Rich also produced and wrote Frank TV for TBS, The Sketch Pad for HBO and co-produced The Naked Trucker and T-Bones Show for Comedy Central. He served as an improv coach on the first Anchorman film and did punch-ups on Mean Girls and the Oscar-winning Get Out.

Rich took his first improv class from Stephen Colbert in Chicago at The Second City back in the 1900s. He went on to tour with The Second City National Touring Company and later co-created five original sketch comedy revues with The Second City's e.t.c. and Mainstage companies. While in Chicago, Rich was also involved with Improv Olympic (Now iO) under the direction of Charna Halpern and the late Del Close. He played on the Improv Olympic house teams “Mr. Blonde” and “Faulty Wiring,” co-created the long-form improv shows “Strap Heads,” “Trio,” “Close Quarters,” and “Dasariski,“ and played with the early casts of Chicago’s longest-running improv show, “The Armando Diaz Experience, Theatrical Movement and Hootenanny.”

Rich has studied with writing teacher Robert McKee and has appeared in a number of TV commercials, most notably A&W Root Beer’s “Mr. Dumass.” He has also appeared in featured roles on Review, SNL, Late Night With Conan O’Brien, Early Edition, What About Joan? and the feature film High Fidelity. Rich plays chess and drums.

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Instagram: @rich.talarico