Robert Z Grant

ROBERT Z GRANT is probably best known for his anonymity.

ROBERT Z GRANT is a New York-based actor, improviser, author and teacher.

At 17, Robert moved to New York to study Dance at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he was one of only two men accepted into the program that year. He has since worked with some amazing talents. He trained as an actor with Bill Esper at the William Esper Studio in New York (where he is now a member of faculty teaching improvisation), studied clowning and Commedia with Christopher Bayes at The Public Theater and at Juilliard, and improv with Ralph Buckley in the tradition of Second City.

Robert was a long-standing cast member of the award-winning Off-Broadway improvised musical comedy BROADWAY'S NEXT HIT MUSICAL, and he toured the U.S. and internationally performing with the show. Other credits include: Peter in THE BRAZILIAN DILEMMA (AIFF official selection); Tomas in the award-winning 42 SECONDS OF HAPPINESS and THE RAINBOW EXPERIMENT (indie features available on Amazon); and four seasons of INSIDE AMY SCHUMER (Comedy Central).

Robert is a founding member and former co-Artistic Director of The Collective NY, a not-for-profit theatre and film production company. Since the company’s founding in 2007, Robert has performed in, produced and directed numerous shows. He was nominated for a NY Innovative Theatre Award in 2011 for Outstanding Direction of a Play for “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me." He conceived and developed The Collective’s successful NO EMPTY SEATS initiative which provides up to half of the seats for every Collective performance for free and on a pay-what-you-can basis in support of the company’s mission of accessibility to quality theatre. In 2013, Robert had his first play, OUTSIDE THE BOX, published as part of the "Collective:10 Anthology, Vol. 1”.

Robert was inducted into Dowling High School's Performing Arts Hall of Fame in 2013, and has returned several times to the school to offer coaching, talkbacks and workshops to current students.

Robert teaches improvisation at colleges and high schools across the country. In New York, he is a member of faculty at the William Esper Studio. He has performed and led workshops at the American Comedy Institute, the International Center for Photography, ComedySportz NY, the Children’s Acting Academy, and for such companies as CNN Money, IBM, Astra Zeneca, Pfizer, Merrill Lynch, Crayola, Heineken USA and others.

www.robertzgrant.com