Mitch Rouse

Mitch Rouse is a writer, director and actor. Rouse grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He dropped out of college and moved to Chicago, to study improvisation under the late, great Del Close. During this time he was asked to join the stage of Chicago's famed, Second City Theatre, (John Belushi, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Tina Fey) where he wrote and performed several shows. Rouse moved to New York, to perform in the David Sedaris play, "Stiches", at La Mama Theatre. While there, Mitch teamed up with Second City alum, Stephen Colbert, to create and star in Exit 57 (1995), Comedy Central's first original half-hour, sketch comedy series. "Exit 57" ran for two seasons and received five Cable Ace Award nominations, including Best Actor (Rouse) and Best Writing for a comedy series. Rouse created and appeared in the Comedy Central cult-hit "Strangers With Candy" (1999)_, the network's first half-hour, scripted series, which later became a feature film produced by David Letterman's World Wide Pant