Kate Carson-Groner

Kate was born in the tiny town of Elkin, NC. From an early age she had a passion for performance, appearing in her first play as "child on the shoulders of an ensemble member in the running scene" in Music Man at the age of 2. She then took a break from the business until the ripe age of 9, when she was cast as Belinda and Fan in A Christmas Carol at the Andy Griffith Playhouse in Mt. Airy, NC. She had a long stint at the AGP, with favorite roles including Anne in The Diary of Anne Frank and The Youngest Tart in Big River! In high school, Kate was thrilled to play 65-year-old Aida in Over the River and Through the Woods as well as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! She also directed her first show; a series of one-acts about relationships by local playwright and director Brack Llewellyn. Kate left Elkin to attend the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA. She immersed herself in the theatre department and expanded her knowledge of the craft. Favorite roles at SCAD include Jennie Mae Layman in The Diviners, Celia in As You Like It, Indian Squaw/El Gato in Cannibal! The Musical, Margaret in The Marriage of Bette and Boo (dir. Sharon Ott), and Woman in a workshop of 4:48 Psychosis. Kate was also thrilled to Assistant Direct a production of Elephant Man under the direction of Professor Karla Knudsen. Her senior year, Kate wrote a one-woman show entitled Aviarius in which she played 5 characters. She also directed a sell-out production of The Comedy of Errors for which she created a series of Commedia-inspired character masks. During SCAD, Kate also performed in community theatre productions and student films. She starred in the short film Growing Down directed by Jeremy Bowditch, and voice-acted in Window Pains, an animated short created by Paul Allen Tillery IV. Kate was a co-founder of the improv troupe The F in Funny and sang for a time with the SCAD Performance Ensemble, an honors chorus and performance group. She also pursued at Vocal Performance minor. Over the summer of 2006, Kate traveled to Paris to study French Street Theatre at Friches Teatre Urbain. She learned to walk on stilts and studied trapeze, aerial performance, masks, flamenco dance, and clowning. She was also introduced to the world of processional theatre and 'happenings.' It changed her life. Kate graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2007 with a B.F.A. in Performance and a Vocal Performance minor. She married Michael Lippert in the fall of that year and moved to Chicago with him and their adopted dog Duke Ellington shortly thereafter. She completed an internship at Redmoon Theatre in the summer of 2008 and graduated from the Second City Conservatory and Music Improv program in June of 2009. In the winter of 2008, she joined with six of the most talented female improvisers and best friends she's ever known to form Eleanor, a long-form all-female improv team, coached by Craig Uhlir. She also joined with Michael and their friend Ted Evans to form Action Couch Productions, the parent to the web series Funemployed, which she acts in, co-writes, co-produces, and co-directs.