Caitlin Barlow

Best known for her role as Ms. Cannon on the comedy series "Teachers" (TV Land, 2016-), Caitlin Barlow brought a tremendous sense of authenticity to the role-having worked as a teacher herself. Growing up in Illinois, Barlow discovered her knack for comedy while performing in high school plays. She would go on to earn a B.A. in history from Illinois State University as well as a master's in Bilingual Education from DuPaul, but even as she began her career as an educator teaching fourth grade in Chicago schools, Barlow never put aside her love of performing at clubs like Chicago's iO Theater, The Annoyance Theater, and Second City. She would even seek out and perform at comedy venues while teaching ESL classes in Japan for a year. Eventually, Barlow teamed up with a group of five other performers and formed a sketch troupe. Each of the women just happened to have a name that could be shortened to "Kate" (Katy Colloton, Cate Freedman, Kate Lambert, Katie O'Brien, and Kathryn Renee Thomas), and so they appropriately dubbed themselves The Katydids. In addition to performing on Chicago's many comedy stages, the group began posting videos to Youtube, earning particular acclaim for their web series "Teachers" (Youtube, 2012). Just a few years later, the show was picked up by cable station TV Land and expanded into a half hour series.