Karen Cole

Karen Cole was born in Columbus,OH, USA, where her father worked in the Air Force. Two years later, he took a job as a plumber in Milwaukee, WI, so the family moved. After high school, she briefly worked odd jobs then went to Florida to study zookeeping at Santa Fe College, but dropped out of school after 3 months. She came back to Wisconsin and worked at a health food store, but quickly became bored. A good customer who got to know her, suggested she study improvisation at The Second City in Chicago, so she packed up everything that would fit in her car and left for Chicago. While training there for a year, she also performed with various improv groups and met David Shepherd of David Shepherd: A Lifetime of Improvisational Theatre (2010), (co-founder of the Compass Players), who was seeking students for internships with him. So in addition to training at Second City, Cole also simultaneously studied with Shepherd--helping with some improv concepts he was forming for the film industry. In 1996, she gave college a second try, and attended Northwestern University. While there, Karen wrote the screenplay Silent Bark , of which she entered into and made quarter-finalist in the Chicago CineStory screenplay writing competition (1997). The screenplay later entered the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition, and made the top 15% (2007). Also while in college, she was cast as a science teacher for the children's play 'See The Light' at the Museum of Science and Industry, directed by David Cromer and Bernard Sahlins (co-founder of The Second City). Karen graduated from NU in 2000 with a Bachelors Degree--Philosophy in Communication, and went on to work at a TV station in Chicago, where she appeared in various comedy sketches on the morning news show. In 2012, she was cast as an actor in her first opera at the Civic Opera House in Chicago, playing one of Klytamnestra's retinue in Richard Strauss's 'Elektra', directed by Sir David McVicar . Cole moved to New York City in 2013.