Robert Z Grant

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

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, studied clowning and Commedia with Christopher Bayes at The Public Theater and at Juilliard, and honed his improv chops in the tradition of Second City.

Robert was a long-standing cast member of the award-winning improvised musical comedy BROADWAY'S NEXT HIT MUSICAL, and he toured the country and internationally performing with the show for over ten years. Other credits include: five years of the COLLECTIVE:10 play festival; Tomas in 42 SECONDS OF HAPPINESS and THE RAINBOW EXPERIMENT (both indie feature films); several short films; and all five seasons of INSIDE AMY SCHUMER (Comedy Central and Paramount+).

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," a book which he also designed and edited.

Robert was inducted into Dowling High School's Performing Arts Hall of Fame in 2013, and has returned 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.

Robert’s book, "Improv and the Actor's Imagination – An Essential Guide to Get Yourself Into Trouble”, was released in 2021. Signed copies are available at the Drama Book Shop, and by request at improvforactors.org. The follow-up book, “Improv Builds Character”, which focuses on the ever-important “who” of our improvisation work is slated for release in 2023.