Katie O'Brien

Known to comedy fans as the uptight Mary-Louise Bennigan on the series "Teachers" (TV Land, 2016-), Katie O'Brien was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1989. A natural performer with a knack for comedy, she expressed herself through her high school's theater and show choir programs before moving to Chicago-the comedy capital of America-to attend the University of Illinois at Chicago. O'Brien immediately became involved in the improv scene, clicking with a group of six other performers who all happened to have first names that could be shortened to "Kate." The group formed a comedy troupe aptly named The Katydids in 2009, and began performing original material at venues like Second City and the iO Theater, in addition to creating online videos, like the popular "People Against the Malling of Wrigleyville" (2010). O'Brien also co-starred in Broadway in Chicago's production of Nora Ephron's "Love, Loss, and What I Wore" from 2011 to 2012. Around this time, the group began posting a webseries about the ridiculous misadventures of a group of Midwestern educators called "Teachers" (Youtube, 2012). The videos proved so popular that the Katydids eventually expanded the show into a full half-hour comedy series for TV, premiering on TV Land in 2016.