Karen Parker
Karen is a five-time Canadian Comedy Award winning actor and an alumna of the Second City Toronto Mainstage. Through her work there she has been nominated for the prestigious Dora Mavor Moore Award. She also has assistant directed two Second City Mainstage shows, was director of their National Touring Company, Family Co. and House Co.
Karen has performed with theatre companies across Canada including a most recent run of She the People with Mirvish Productions. She tours the world with her comedy troupe The Lusty Mannequins. They were named ‘Best of the Fest’ at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival, and won the ‘Best Comedy Characters of the Year’ Award from Phoenix Remix, UK for their show Uncommonwealth which debuted at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe.
Selected film and television credits include: What We Do in The Shadows, TallBoyz, Mrs. America, Murdoch Mysteries, Designated Survivor, Odd Squad, People of Earth, Baroness Von Sketch Show, Hemlock Grove, Beauty & The Beast, The Firm, Saving Hope and Being Erica.
When not performing she is an acting and improv instructor at the Second City Training Centre, performs across Canada with Girls Night Out Improv and facilitates corporate improv workshops. She has been a corporate communications facilitator for over 12 years. Past clients include PWC, MNP, E & Y, Deloitte, RBC, Rogers, CPA and Home Depot. She has also collaborated as a facilitator with Second City Works and Norman Howard for custom corporate facilitations, workshops, scripts and shows. Most recently Karen designed a successful Women and Networking focussed seminar with the CPA.
With over 20 years as a professional performer and improviser Karen uses humour and a sense of play to translate her expertise to the business world in order to build teamwork, thinking outside the box and collaborative skills throughout any level of a corporate organization.
In her spare time she likes to find old furniture and breathe new life into it. If it's on the side of the road, she'll take it and find it a home!