Terry Greiss

Terry Greiss is the founder of Brooklyn’s Irondale Ensemble Project where he has taught hundreds of actors and non-actors to use improvisation as a tool of enhanced communication; building bridges that help us better understand each other. He created To Protect, Serve and Understand, an improv training program for New York City police officers, to help them communicate more effectively and build trust with community members. He brought this experience to his work as an improvisation instructor for the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science from 2016-2020.

As an actor, Terry has appeared in classical, contemporary and devised plays throughout the United States, Russia, including 60+ productions with Irondale in New York City. He has been known to occasionally show up on television in programs like Boardwalk Empire and Sneaky Pete.

Terry believes that somewhere, perhaps buried deeply in our DNA, is the need for human beings to make authentic connections with each other. When that happens, when we can clearly and honestly communicate we not only lose our fear of the “other,” we are individually stronger as well. He has spent a good part of his life helping people tell their stories, to reveal the excitement and value of their work, and by using the skills and talents they haven’t yet tapped, become more effective human beings.