James Staahl, B.A.

Adjunct Faculty

213.740.3303

LUC 301

Having extensive credits as both an actor and a writer in comedy features, variety and sitcoms, Jim Staahl brings a varied perspective to teaching comedy writing. Staahl began his comedy career as a resident member of Chicago’s Second City Theater and wrote for SCTV. As well as writing for an assortment of sketch/variety shows, Staahl starred in his own syndicated series, Laugh Trax and has appeared in many shows for which he was also a writer including: Steve Martin’s Twilight Theater, I, Martin Short, Goes Hollywood, John Candy’s Big City Comedy and Howie Mandel’s summer replacement series, Howie.

His half-hour writing credits include, Mork and Mindy, Married People, Lightning Force, The Searcher, Charles In Charge, and Sledge Hammer, along with numerous TV Pilots for NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX.  Staahl received two Emmy nominations for writing on Bobby’s World, an animated series he co-created with Howie Mandel and co-produced for 8 years.  Jim also co-wrote multiple episodes for Emmy Award winning Disney series, Teacher’s Pet.  Feature writing credits include: Here Come the Munsters, The Beverly Hillbillies, Under Surveillance, Star Kid II and Blow Hard.

As an actor, starting with Mork and Mindy, he was a series regular on three network series and appeared in a number of features including Spies Like Us and Night Shift.  He was a series regular on Curb Your Enthusiasm and recently appeared on King of Queens.