Don Fanelli
Don performs with The Stepfathers every Friday night at 9pm and travels across the country with The Upright Citizens Brigade Touring Company. He also occasionally performs with Hot for Teacher, the UCB Faculty Show, at the UCB East. His sketch show Sketches From An Italian Restaurant: A Billy Joel Sketch Show just completed its run. Don has studied improv under many amazing teachers at the UCB and is also a graduate of the William Esper Studio, having studied with Bill Esper in the two year acting intensive. UCB Theatre credits include The Chris Gethard Show, Character’s Welcome, Chris Gethard’s ( ), Sketch Cram, Death Wears Stilettos, The Movie, Cops & Robbers, The Brooks Brothers Clambake, and A Harry Potter Musical. Don has been on many Harold Teams including Sandino and Salmon Diane and Maude Teams Gramps and Dinner. He can also be seen performing often with his indie teams: Fuck That Shit! (A Comedy Team), Dreadnought (Performed in a sushi restaurant), and Sabonis (Winner of the 2011 & 2012 3×3 Tournament and 2013 finalists). Don has appeared on 30 Rock, The Late Show with David Letterman, MTV’s Failosophy, Hey Girl, and Girl Code, Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer, and in various Above Average, College Humor, UCB Comedy, and LandlineTV videos. Don has also performed at the NY Sketchfest and Chicago’s Just for Laughs Festival. Diddy personally gave him the nickname, Luther, with no explanation. So he will answer to that now. Check out updated videos at: www.don-fanelli.com
Guest Appearances
January 18, 2023
Jessica McKenna, Don Fanelli, and Zach Reino join Matt Besser this week for scenes about borrowing someone’s sides for an audition, coaching from the sidelines, baking one cookie for Halloween, the beep-boop section of a car dealership, regional phrases, and more!
August 18, 2021
Aman Adumer, Don Fanelli, and Pam Murphy join Matt Besser to improvise scenes about a brick store in Newark, Hogwarts House interactions, awful concert conditions, pitching an idea with some dookie on ya, and more!
April 22, 2020
Please enjoy this compilation of some of the best scenes from 2019! These performances feature James Adomian, Horatio Sanz, Jessica McKenna, Jon Gabrus, Joel Spence, Alex Fernie, Sean Conroy, Dhruv Uday Singh, James Mastraieni, Matt Newell, John Gemberling, Andy Daly, Don Fanelli, Laura Willcox, Will Hines, Lennon Parham, Katie Dippold, and Dan Lippert. Let these humons know you love them on improv4humans!
May 1, 2019
Andy Daly, Laura Willcox, and Don Fanelli join Matt Besser for this week’s improv4humans! They’ll perform scenes about competitive concert attendees, a fight over the validity of a chocolate treat, and a previously unseen typo in the Declaration of Independence. Plus, grocery shoppers struggle to work for their food, pallbearers time a burial to the funeral playlist, and a viral video creator defends her authenticity.
November 7, 2018
The humons have cast their votes, and here are your favorite scenes of 2018! These performances feature Don Fanelli, Laura Willcox, Gil Ozeri, John Gemberling, Curtis Gwinn, Tim Meadows, Peter Hulne, Colton Dunn, Jon Gabrus, James Adomian, Betsy Sodaro, Horatio Sanz, Lauren Lapkus, Ryan Walsh, Andy Daly, Danielle Schneider, Will Hines, Shaun Diston, Seth Morris, Mike Mitchell, Ego Nwodim, Craig Rowin, Ian Roberts, Lennon Parham, Jessica St. Clair, Matt Walsh, Chad Carter, Carl Tart, Hillary Matthews, Ali Ghandour, Gavin Speiller, Phil Rosenthal, Andy Daly,, Katie Dippold, and Ari Voukydis. Let these humons know you love them on improv4humans!
This episode is sponsored by The Jim Jefferies Show Podcast.
March 29, 2018
Scott Aukerman, Horatio Sanz, Jessica McKenna, Zach Reino, Craig Rowin, Mookie Blaiklock, Peter Hulne, St. Lenox, Laura Willcox, Don Fanelli, Brett Morris, James Adomian, and Betsy Sodaro join Matt Besser for LIVE Sing A Long experiments from UCB Sunset’s Inner Sanctum and SXSW! They get the audience grooving with songs by The Band, Radiohead, Johnny Cash, Foo Fighters, The Smiths, Bruce Springsteen, The Beatles, Tom Petty and many more. Using lyrics as inspiration, they perform scenes about a support group for kissing addicts, a rock & roll musician who appreciates the hotel experience, and a farmer who cultivates organic dirt. Plus, we meet bar patrons who bond while waiting to fight and a priest who can’t give his sermon because of the holes in his socks.
This episode is sponsored by Squarespace (Squarespace.com code: IMPROV) and Away (awaytravel.com/IMPROV code: IMPROV).