From the depths of Grafton, WI, Jodi Skeris was born on May 24th 19something. She discovered cheerleading in grade school and continued her competitive cheerleading journey for 13 years (grade school, HS, Division I college). Not only was Jodi a skilled cheerleader, she also worked as a competitive cheer AND dance (hip hop) choreographer for 7 years. Jodi was also a head instructor for a cheer camp called Central Wisconsin Cheerleading Camps (CWCC), where she unknowingly performed improv comedy. You can’t be a cheerleader forever, so she graduated from the University of Minnesota and attended Virginia Commonwealth University—Adcenter where she attained an MS in advertising as an Art Director.

At her first Art Director position, she met Barry Callen who insisted the creatives train in improv every Wed morning at 8am. Barry taught short form improv, which he learned at Second City, Chicago. Barry told Jodi “Hey! You’re pretty good at this. You should look into it further.” So she went and took classes with Ed Herro (a former Upright Citizens Brigade [UCB] performer) at ComedySportz.

Randomly, Jodi got a call in the middle of the day from a senior copywriter who saw her art director website online and offered her a job in NYC. Astounded! She flew to NYC to check out the city she had never been to and instantly fell in love. She took the advertising job and started taking classes at Upright Citizens Brigade (UCB). Jodi has been training at UCB since 2004. Some of her past teachers include: Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh, Anthony King, Chris Gethard, Billy Merritt, Michael Delaney, Peter Gwinn, Ryan Karels, Jeff Hiller, Jackie Clarke, and Kevin Mullaney. She also decided to check out the Magnet Theater in 2005 and took classes with Armando Diaz and Mike Myers.

Jodi has written and performed two one-woman shows: “Cheer up Double Cupie” and “Adorable Balls” at UCB. Jodi has performed with several improv teams; to name only a few: “Moxie” and “Pax Romana” (Magnet House Teams) and “Great Heights” (4-person, indie improv team).

Jodi also loves to perform in musicals, both traditional and improvised. For a span of about a year, she studied with Eliza Skinner (of the musical improv team “I Eat Pandas”) at UCB. She also worked with several other musical improv performers in NY with the musical improv workshop group “Sweet Tooth.”

As a woman of many talents, Jodi still takes dance classes to this day. While living in NY, she attended many classes at the Broadway Dance Center. Her focus started in jazz and ballet, then moved to hip hop and breakdancing.

Jodi’s advertising career changed directions in 2008 and she went from an Art Director Supervisor to a Copywriter in advertising. Given the recent economic shifts, she took a job opportunity in San Francisco as a Senior Copywriter.

Since moving to SF, Jodi has started taking a number of hip hop dance classes at both City Dance Studios and Dance Mission Theater. She is also taking classes at Voice One to study voice over techniques. She occasionally drops in on some of the local improv jams.

Jodi is still an active art director and graphic designer. Her portfolio is online at: www.skeris.com
You can find her copywriting portfolio at: www.jskeris.com