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Bio

Phil Ranta is a new media executive by day, comedian by night, and an avid pancake eater by morning.

As a comedian, Phil has been performing live improv, sketch, and stand up for nearly a decade. A graduate of the Second City Conservatory, the Upright Citizen’s Brigade improv and sketch programs, the Westside Eclectic (now the Westside Comedy Theater) improv program, and the Improv Inferno program, Phil has the equivalent of three-thousand PhDs in live comedy. A lover of small hotels, couch surfing, and airplane snacks, he never turns down a comedy festival opportunity, performing many times at the Los Angeles Improv Festival, the Out of Bounds West Improv Festival, the Sacramento Improv Festival, and many others. At the 2009 Los Angeles Improv Festival, he won the Harold Improv Competition with his team McShane.

He currently performs every Saturday night at 9:00 pm at Second City Hollywood as part of Saturday Night’s Main Event. Career highlights include: two contracts performing aboard Norweigan Cruise Lines with the Second City in Hawaii, Canada, and Alaska, touring with the comedy group Bro Squad 5, writing for the award-winning weekly sketch comedy show Top Story! Weekly at the iO West, and performing at an Irish pub where a heckler threatened to kick his ass before he even made it to the microphone.

In the new media business, Phil serves as the CEO and Executive Producer of the Comedy Podcast Network. The website combines original audio programming with a social network that simplifies communication between podcast creators and fans. Previously, Phil worked as the Executive Producer for the mobile entertainment company Viva! Vision producing over one thousand original mobisodes for three channels on Verizon’s V-Cast video service. He also worked as a professional photographer for Viva! Vision’s mobile slideshow applications, photographing over one hundred models. During his tenure at the company, revenues grew over 600% and was featured on the prestigious Inc. 500′s Fastest Growing Startups list.

He has freelanced at countless new media companies throughout his career as a “jack of all trades,” working on everything from setting up production and post-production studios, writing, producing corporate videos, audio engineering, videography, photography, video and photo editing, on-set productions, directing shoots, and new media startup consulting.

Originally from Grandville, Michigan, Phil grew up in the snow and plans to die in an avalanche someday. He graduated with High Honors from the University of Michigan with a B.A. in Film and Video Studies. He is a proud member of MENSA, he still loves super-nerdy role playing video games, and has terrible insomnia which allows him to write very long bios on his website.

And he makes a mean salsa. Mean like Joe Green (pre-Coca Cola).