Mick Napier (December 1962) is an actor, director, teacher and author living in Chicago. He is the founder and artistic director of the Annoyance Theatre and an award-winning director at The Second City. He has worked with people such as Stephen Colbert, Tina Fey, Rachel Dratch, Horatio Sanz, Nia Vardalos, Andy Richter, Jeff Garlin, and David Sedaris as well as others. Napier directed the Comedy Central show Exit 57 and the Troma film Fatty Drives the Bus which also featured notable Chicago improvisers and actors still living and working there today, including Susan Messing, Joe Bill and Mark Sutton. He founded The Annoyance with the philosophy that training improvisers to be individually powerful is the best way to support those with whom one improvises, an answer to the Yes, And philosophy, which he found led to weak, polite improvisation more often than powerful, good improvisation, a subject that he elaborates on in his book, Improvise: Scene from the Inside Out.
In 2008, he directed a revival of the classic Annoyance show Co-Ed Prison Sluts: The Musical, the longest running musical in Chicago.[1]
Napier is an Artistic Consultant to The Second City and recently directed their 50th anniversary mainstage show. He has directed several other reviews, notably including "Red Scare" and "Paradigm Lost" for which he received a Jeff Award. He also teaches Advanced Improvisation at The Annoyance, the final level of the improv comedy training program.
Napier performs weekly in the partially nude male improv show Skinprov at The Annoyance as well as making appearances at different improv shows. He also served as a judge on The Second City's Next Comedy Legend on the CBC.
Mick attended Indiana University in Bloomington.