BIOGRAPHY

John is familiar face to Bay Area fans of improv and sketch comedy thanks to his work as a member of the region's top performing groups: BATS Improv, True Fiction Magazine, and Killing My Lobster.

John can be seen on screen with Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness, now on DVD. He also appears in the independent films Security and Charlie the Ox. You can also catch him in the occasional commercial—there's a glimpse of him in the current Tony Robbins infomercial, now inescapable on a TV near you.

(You may also recognize him from your company's safety, sales, or sexual harassment training video, due to his many appearances in industrial films, earning him the unofficial title of "King of the Industrial.")

His true love is improvisational theatre. He is a member of the Main Stage Company at BATS Improv, where he performs year-round. He is a regular performer with renowned improv troupe True Fiction Magazine and performed with TFM at the Amsterdam International Improvisational Theatre Festival and in Helsinki, Finland.

He is a writer and performer with Killing My Lobster, San Francisco's favorite sketch comedy troupe, and appeared in the KML shows Tales of a Lonely Planet, The Bruno's Island New Plays Festival, GOOOAL!!!, and KML Goes to the Polls. With the lobsters, he performed at Upright Citizens Brigade in both New York and Los Angeles. In 2006, he appeared in the three-month run of the world premeire of Hunter Gatherers, the lobster's first full-length play which was named one of the "Top 10 Bay Area Theatre Events of 2006" by the San Francisco Chronicle and was named outstanding new play by the National Theatre Critics Association.

Other local theatre roles include Tony in Tony n' Tina's Wedding at the Cable Car Theatre (during which, he met his wife Jennifer), Paul in Moon Over Buffalo at California Conservatory Theatre, and 106 Years of Comedy with Eastenders Rep at the Eureka Theatre.

In addition to his performing credits, John is also the producer and director of an award-winning documentary short entitled Portrait of an Artist: Victor Hugo Zayas which debuted at the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival and screened at festivals around the world. Additionally, he has "behind the scenes" production credits with NBC and Universal Pictures. (Which means he used to get people coffee on movie sets.)

In 2006, he had a chance to interview Christopher Guest and Eugene Levy and ask them about their film, For Your Consideration. Click here to see the video. When he's not on stage and screen, he works as a communication and non-profit consultant and is VP of Marketing at Tendo Communications.

And to answer the most commonly asked question, it's pronounced CO-VACK-UH-VICH.