ABOUT

Rachel Michaela began her study of acting under Roger Corman Studios legend Eb Lottimer (Albuquerque) in 2015. In 2016 she began studying improv under Ben Taxy at Santa Fe Improv. She went on to study comedy under Lesly Kahn (Los Angeles) in 2016, and was honored to be mentored by the great Sam Christensen (Burbank) from 2016 until his death in 2019. 

Rachel performed in hundreds of performances at The Box Theater in Albuquerque as a member of Albuquerque’s only Harold team Big Feelings (2017-2018), longform team The Hive (2018-2019), and The Show (2019-2022), the longest running short-form improv show in New Mexico. 

In 2020 she was named Lead Instructor in Santa Fe helping to rebuild (and later merge) two schools–Stage Santa Fe and Santa Fe Improv–into the current iteration of Santa Fe Improv. One of her favorite pastimes is coaching and teaching students in improv and performance. She has led corporate team building workshops and assisted in facilitating a study measuring Applied Improv–using the techniques of improvisation to enhance professional performance and well-being. Rachel has taught hundreds of improv students both virtually and in the classroom and is currently teaching independently in the state of New Mexico.

In 2021 she became a founding member and manager of The Faculty Lounge™, New Mexico’s original professional longform improv team. After a hugely successful 3-year performance run in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Las Vegas, they were selected to perform at the 2023 District Improv Festival in Washington DC. 

Rachel’s improv training is extensive. She has studied with Will Hines (UCB/WGIS), Jim Woods (UCB/WGIS), Alex Berg (Convoy), Brandon Gardner (UCB), Carla Cackowski and Craig Cackowski (Orange Tuxedo), Joel Spence (UCB/WGIS), Nick Armstrong (RISE Comedy), Amey Goerlich (UCB NY/Chaos Bloom), Rachael Mason (2nd City Chicago), Megan Hovde (2nd City Chicago), Jay Sukow (2nd City Chicago), Dave Razowski (2nd City Chicago), and Shannon O’Niell (RaaaatScraps, NY), and Ronnie Adrian (UCB). 

She has also studied and performed Shakespearan improv with Improv Boston and The Nursery (UK), and is a graduate of The Groundlings Writer’s Lab under Annie Sertich and Leonard Robinson. She passed with rave reviews and has been invited to return to Los Angeles to continue with The Groundlings Advanced Writer’s Lab.

Rachel performed alongside comedic greats Bob Odenkirk (Albuquerque), Neil Casey (Santa Fe), Will Hines (2024 Cloudtop Comedy Festival), and has been a two-time guest on Matt Besser’s Improv4Humans podcast (2022, 2023). 

Rachel is a SAG-AFTRA commercial, film, and TV actor and has been accepted into The Barrow Group Acting School (NY). You can see her recurring as Ruby in Walker Independence (CW, HBO), and as reporter Heather Ramirez in feature film Cop vs Killer ( Amazon, YouTube,  Tubi).

Rachel is a commercial, film, and TV actress represented by The O’Agency in Albuquerque, NM.