Meet the Actors of Spontaneous Combustion...

Paul Dougherty has been doing improv since he was 8 years old, and using a tape recorder and microphone crafted many stories using different voices (usually super hero stories). In 1995, he started his acting career with Shoestring Radio Theatre where he has acted in, written, and directed radio plays (www.shoestring.org). Paul's start in improv was in 2001, and he has been active with BATS Improv, Lila Theatre, The Show, and now - Spontaneous Combustion.

Nina G. Perry has been hooked on improv since her first class with Patricia Ryan in 1998. She has studied with Rafe Chase, Regina Saisi and many other BATS Improv coaches. She has also performed with Running On Improv, and is a former BATS Sunday Player. Other performance credits include ten years with the a cappella singing group The Special Guests, two musicals with Woodside Community Theatre, and two short films for the 48 Hour Film Project in San Jose.

Danny Miller has studied acting at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, and has long dreamt of acting for stage and screen. In May 2008, at the suggestion of his girlfriend, Nikki, he took further steps towards that aim by taking his first BATS Improv class. He found that in addition to building his acting skills, improv was an excellent way to learn to live in and love the present moment. Since that time, Danny has taken over a dozen BATS classes and landed a role as Detective Allard in the radio play Fair Play. Along with working out, triathlons, searching for spiritual fulfillment, and lavishing Nikki with attention, Spontaneous Combustion is one of Danny's primary pastimes.

In 2007, on a whim, Doug Olsson signed up for his first BATS Improv class not knowing what he was getting into. He continued to take classes to hone his improv skills, and a year later, standing in the wings of the BATS theater just before appearing in front of a paying audience, he asked himself: "How the hell did I get here?" Since then, he has been a regular BATS Sunday Player, has appeared in A Pistol a Lasso and a Can of Grease and now can be seen in short films such as: Painted Blood, BYOBW, No Coming Back, and Eyes of the Blue Dog. His other passion is kitesurfing in exotic countries.

As one of the youngest children in a family of eight, Heather Ryan learned at an early age how to stand out in a crowd. She enrolled in a few acting classes in high school and college, and took to the airwaves on her college TV and radio stations. After moving to the Bay Area to escape the cold Wisconsin winters, Heather sought a creative outlet and decided to take an acting class at American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Alas, the class was full, so she took an improv class instead. From that moment on, she knew her true calling was improv, and has since taken classes at the San Francisco Comedy College and BATS Improv. She has performed on the BATS stage numerous times and performs on her own stage of life daily.  Heather is older than her twin sister by two minutes.

After eight years of technical theater work, Terry Sandke rode off into the "adult" world for 30+ years of “serious” activity.  In 1996, he found improv and, for the first time since he was seven years old, found a place to play. Terry was a Sunday Player at BATS Improv from 1998 through 2009, performing and directing a wide range of improv formats.  He has studied with the San Francisco Comedy College, Synergy Theatre, and Lila Theatre. Terry tried scripted theater once, playing Jerome in the Sunnyvale Community Players production of Merrily We Roll Along. He also teaches improv in Palo Alto with Dragon Productions.

Elizabeth Whalley, first cast in Puss ‘N Boots at age eight, was unable to perform due to a case of the mumps. So she made her stage debut last fall in Jean Giraudoux's The Enchanted at Foothill College. She began studying improv in the last millennium, and is a former BATS Improv Sunday Player. In the past, Elizabeth has been a member of the improv groups Go and Corn Nuts. She has also performed with Synergy Theater in their Backer's Audition and First Draft improv shows. She's a vegetarian, except for sausage pizza.

At the age of ten Hilary White appeared as a little purple flower in a community theater production of Alice in Wonderland. The acting bug bit! For her "initiation" into her high school drama club, she had to improvise a scene. Since it came naturally and was lots of fun, she continued acting by performing on stage and taking commercial acting and voice-over classes. But it wasn't until she revisited improv that she found her acting niche and discovered her true passion. She was previously a BATS Sunday Player, and puts her improv skills to use daily as a middle school teacher in Daly City. Hilary is delighted to be part of Spontaneous Combustion.

The elusive Dawn Bailey often gushes to strangers that being the lightician and house manager for Spontaneous Combustion has been the highlight of her career.  She enjoys traveling around the world and thinks people from Wisconsin are awesome.  Dawn spends her free time either playing with Rosie Kat or playing the little known card game "Pimp: The Backhanding" with her husband, Paul Dougherty.  She also enjoys laughing hysterically at things that other normal people don't really find funny.  As witnessed by her photo, she has a thing for Hello Kitty.