Staff

Meet the Team

Katie Tarara

Executive Director

Katie Tarara brings twenty years of leadership experience in non-profits and business to her interim role at Arcade. She is known for building teams that get results and she has led teams to create programs, release new products, increase revenues, cultivate customer relationships, and build powerful partnerships. A long-time fan of comedy, Katie began taking classes and performing comedy at Arcade Comedy Theater in 2018. Currently, she’s on the producing team and the regular host of “Bracket Night” a comedy game show at Arcade and has previously been in the cast of Camp Loose Leaf and Latchkey Kids. In her role as Executive Director, Katie combines her love of comedy with her passion for data-driven decision making to lead the team of staff and volunteers who are working to build a sustainable future for Arcade.

Nia Johnson

Director of Programming

Nia is Arcade’s Director of Programming, as well as a comedian, actress, and improviser. As a graduate of Arcade’s improv program, her love of improv and Arcade grew with the theater when she became a house manager in 2017, with the move to 943 Liberty Ave. Nia has been a member of Arcade max team Change Machine, as well as a cast member of such beloved shows as Playlist and The Smallest Show in Town. She also co-produced a month-long live-read series for Arcade’s first-ever Black History Month celebration. Nia is excited about the possibilities of this position and committed to expanding the Arcade audience and community.

Connor McCanlus

Academy Director

Connor McCanlus is a Pittsburgh native and proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and the Screen Actors Guild. McCanlus studied acting at Clarion University and received his comedy training at Steel City Improv Theater. He was an original member of Well Known Strangers and spent many years under the tutelage of the late Woody Drennan. Comedy highlights include being half of the duos Hipsterpotamus, babyGRAND, and The John Connor Chronicles. McCanlus has coached numerous comedy teams including Point Park University’s improv club from 2014-2016 and has taught workshops for Philly Improv Theater, Coalition Theater, Pittsburgh Musical Theater, University of Pittsburgh, and the 2025 Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival. McCanlus has directed theatrical productions for Front Porch Theatricals, Throughline Theatre Company, Uncumber Theatrics, and is currently the Resident Director of the Sketch Comedy Lab at Arcade Comedy Theater.

Kevin O’Brien

Operations Manager

Kevin O’Brien is a musician and educator who has been part of the Pittsburgh comedy scene since 2014. As an improviser, Kevin has performed regularly on numerous house and indie long form, short form, and musical improv teams around the city and in festivals around the country (most notably The Ted City Yodelers; Your Life: The Musical; Miniature Table Concerts; Kill Screen and Moop Troop). As a coach, Kevin also regularly works with a variety of numerous house and indie long form, short form, and musical improv teams (most recently Select Start; Barbara, A Mother; and Choir Consequences). As a writer, Kevin has produced several sketch shows for Arcade Comedy Theater and Fringe Festivals around the east coast. As a teacher, Kevin has brought musical improv workshops to festivals and since 2018 regularly teaches short form improv, musical improv, and sketch classes at Arcade. Since 2016, Kevin has also worked as a Stage Manager at Arcade, where you can hear his booming pre-show announcements voice and his sing-song call of “THIS IS PLACES!”

Madelyn Estep

Operations Manager

Madelyn Estep is proud to join the Arcade Comedy Community. Though not a stage performer herself, Madi has a passion for the arts and creates content on her own YouTube channel (@mestep94). Before coming aboard at Arcade, Madi was the Assistant Director of an Early Childcare Education Center, and the Director of Fun at YMCA Camp Kon-O-Kwee Spencer. She has a degree in education from Ohio University, and loves to keep things organized yet colorful. When Madi is not at Arcade, you can catch her at the movies, going to estate sales with friends, or trapped under a blanket by one of her two cats. If there’s one thing Madi wished to share with everyone, it’s how beautiful the city of Pittsburgh really is and that they did this song on Glee.

Aaron Tarnow

Technical Director

Aaron Tarnow has been the Technical Director of the Arcade Comedy Theater since 2017 and has been working here in some capacity since 2015. In that time, he has been the TD (along with wearing other hats) for many Arcade productions, including: The Thanksgiving Play, The Night Before Christmas, JFLE: Grand Finale, Dr. Iguanatron’s Medicine Show, Boo Humbag!, Sex a.k.a. Wieners and Boobs, and My Dinner with André: The Musical: A Live Read. He is (or was) also the Technical Director/Producer for many current and former recurring Arcade shows and teams, including: JFLE (SF Sketchfest 2020), Knights of the Arcade (2021 Best Comedy Troupe, Pittsburgh City Paper), Latchkey Kids (2022 Best Improv/Sketch Team, Pittsburgh Magazine’s Best of the Burgh), Bracket Night, You’re the Next Contestant, Justin & Jerome Experience, The Death Show, and others. Outside of Arcade, Aaron is a Production Technician at City Theatre Company and works at various other theatres around Pittsburgh. During the pandemic closure, he acted as a remote technician for the Magnet Theater (NYC)’s virtual shows, including as the remote TD for Nights of Our Lives, New York’s second longest-running storytelling show. Prior to that, he was the Technical Director of the Pittsburgh Comedy Festival (2014-2018), as well as its Executive Director (2016-2018). If you’ve read this far, he wants you to sign up for a class at Arcade, because he thinks the local comedy scene is great, but it would be even better with you in it.