Hi, I'm Aniela McGuinness.

 

As a true Gemini, I'm a muppet made of melodrama and magic. Raised in a school bus by strict hippy parents, I lived in my imagination and dreamed of becoming an actress. After graduating with a B.A. in Theater from Florida State University, I joined IATSE (as a stagehand) and an improv troupe (as a joke). Improv is what stuck, so I made the pilgrimage to the improv mecca, Chicago, and studied at the acclaimed iO (improv Olympic).

 

In the middle of this, my mother dies of cancer. A year later I was diagnosed with cancer. Comedy quickly becomes a coping skill. Now, a two-time cancer survivor, I use my 17 years of improvisational comedy experience to make audiences cry laughing and laugh crying. I can be spotted from the Emmy Award-winning comedy, "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel." to the dramatic lead in the indie film "73 Minutes", in which I won the best actor at Sin Film Festival.

 

When not on the screen, I garden with my glorious green thumb, travel with my high-school-sweetheart husband, and volunteer at Gilda's Club helping people cope with cancer by teaching them improv comedy.