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.