Teachers & Coaches

Amelia Giles (she/her) has been practicing improv since 2014, and performing with Reno Improv since 2018. She’s very excited to start instructing introductory classes in the winter of 2023. Amelia has a diverse stage background, ranging from studying acting and stage management at the University of Rhode Island to performing in fully improvised musicals with her team Some Things May Never Happen: An Improvised Musical. Being lucky enough to learn from many different instructors with a wide variety of disciplines means Amelia’s performance and teaching have both developed a unique and personal point of view. She’s excited to share that point of view, and the joy of improv, with her students!

Jason Sarna (he/him) has been teaching at Reno Improv since 2018. Prior to Reno Improv, he studied screenwriting at UCLA, sketch comedy writing at The Second City Training Center in Chicago, playwriting at Victory Gardens Theater and improvisation at The Second City, The Annoyance and iO. He also studied a style of improv called “The Art of Slow Comedy” with Jimmy Carrane and stage directing with the founder and artistic director of The Annoyance Theatre, Mick Napier.

Tim Mahoney (he/him) has been performing and teaching with Reno Improv since 2017. His improv journey began at the Contemporary Theater Company in Wakefield, RI where he performed with WilburWilburNealbur. He has performed and taught at a number of theaters and festivals around the country including The Ocean State Improv Festival, The Denver Improv Festival and The Alaska State Improv Festival. His travels have allowed him the opportunity to learn from and work with amazing and talented improvisers such as David Razowsky, Patti Stiles, Laura Hall, Parallelograpmophonograph and Joe Bill. Tim currently serves on the Board of Directors for Reno Improv as the Operations Chair, and he can be seen performing with his friends in Some Things May Never Happen: An Improvised Musical.

Diana Martin (she/her), a local math teacher, discovered Reno Improv in 2015. Diana has served on the Reno Improv Board of Directors as Board President and Education Committee Chair. After completing the Reno Improv training program, Diana performed on stage regularly for two years, and began leading the weekly drop-in class, The Playground, in 2018. Since then, she has applied her education background to work on various training projects, including corporate training, educator training and coaching performance teams. Diana enjoys both the unfettered imagination of improv, as well as the practical value of becoming comfortable with the unexpected in everyday situations. Sharing this with others through teaching is her mission at Reno Improv.

Aurora Boles (she/her) has performed and taught at Reno Improv since the theater’s founding in 2015. She fell in love with improv in 2011 at her first drop-in class and completed her early improv training with Empire Improv (now located in Bakersfield, CA). Aurora has taken workshops from Colleen Doyle, Jason Shotts, Rachel Hamilton, David Razowsky, Betsaida LeBron, Mike Brown, Laura Hall, Chad Damiani, Made Up Theatre and Bird City Improv. Aurora currently serves as President on the Board of Directors for Reno Improv and plays on Reno Improv’s Living Room team, Sensitive People. Aurora loves the wonderful sense of community and human connection that improv offers. She enjoys watching students learn to collaborate with one another artistically in real time as they discover their own comedic and dramatic voice.