Presenter Profile

Jessica Austgen is a Denver-based actor, playwright and improviser, and is currently serving as the Artistic Director of the Denver Improv Festival. As an actor, she was recently seen as Fanny Dashwood/Lucy Steele in Sense and Sensiblity at the Arvada Center (Henry Award nominee, Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Play), where she’s appeared in Tartuffe, All My Sons, The Crucible, and The Women. Other favorite roles include Hannah in Arcadia, Elbow in Measure for Measure, Frank Goodman/Mr. Asa in the Catamount’s production of Men on Boats, Julie in Miss Julie, Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night and Cecily Cardew in The Importance of Being Earnest. Jessica has been seen at the Aurora Fox in The Last Night of Ballyhoo, I Hate Hamlet, The Last Train to Nibroc and as Jaycee Triplethree in Comic Potential (Westword’s Best of Denver Award) and in the upcoming Second City’s Twist Your Dickens. Jessica performs with ComedySportz Denver and co-hosts the comedy/literature podcast Required Readcast. Her duo, BAUS, has been featured at the Denver, Detroit and Omaha Improv Festivals. Jessica teaches currently improv at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and at Voodoo Comedy, and has been a guest instructor at the University of Denver, the University of Northern Colorado, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the GroupMind Foundation and Camp Improv Utopia. BFA: University of Colorado at Boulder; MA: University of Denver.