Helen Ota
Artistic Director & Core Performing Member

Helen H. Ota has been a Cold Tofu member since 1993. She got the acting/performing bug at the young age of four when she tapped dance and sang "I am a Happy Clown" on stage in Culver City. Much to her parents' horror, she continued to perform that same number over and over again for her grandparents, uncles, aunties and cousins for many, many months after that.

While growing up, Helen has performed throughout Los Angeles, including dancing in the L.A. Sports Arena, Shrine Auditorium, San Diego , Hawaii, and even a pre-game show at Dodger Stadium. Helen has also danced in Japan (Tokyo and Kansai) for cultural festivals.

After joining Cold Tofu, Helen continued to perform on stage and in film. Some of her credits include Lysistrata, Tom Jones, Bobby Gould in Hell, Nihonmachi: The Place To Be, The Golden Hour, Back in the Day, Manzanar: Story of an American Family, A Jive Bomber's Christmas, Hands On, Carpool and BuddhaHeads .

Helen also works for Center Theatre Group, a nonprofit arts organization and is an executive board member of the Nisei Week Japanese Festival.

J. Stephen Brady
Core Performing Member

J. Stephen Brady has been a veteran of the Los Angeles theater scene for twenty years. He is a performing and teaching member of Cold Tofu, which he first joined in 1992. He also taught and performed with the Washington, DC area's premiere improv group, WIT. Offstage, with his perspicacious approach to evaluating thoroughbred horse races on the website Sports Media America, he is rapidly becoming known as "America's Favorite Handicapper."

Corinne Chooey
Core Performing Member

Corinne hails from San Francisco's Chinatown. When she was little, the Almighty Greyhound tour bus used to drive through her neighborhood and drop off people from the outside world. Whenever Corinne attempted to cross the street, she was often made to take pictures next to strange White children. She is still waiting for her compensation check from Greyhound Lines, Inc. Corinne's recent acting credits include, Michael Mann's Collateral and Comedy Central's Reno 911! She just completed C.Y. Lee's World Premiere of The Body and Soul of a Chinese Woman at the Stella Adler Theatre. A past participant in FOX's Diversity Writers' Program, Corinne's writing credits include, OPM's Get Laughs or Die Trying, Cold Tofu's CTN Network and Lodestone Theatre's American Monsters 2.

www.corinnechooey.com

Robert Covarrubias
Core Performing Member

Robert Covarrubias is a native of Boyle Heights and managed to avoid the street gangs and drug scene while growing up in the housing projects. He attended L.A. City College majoring in theatre arts and was exposed to Shakespeare, Moliere, and the Commedia dell' Arte. It was these early Improvisers of the Commedia that struck a chord with him. At LACC, Robert appeared in numerous productions and won a Best Director Award for Moliere's The Flying Doctor.

His big break came in 1978 when he was cast in the lowrider cult classic Boulevard Nights, and was hired to perform with The Improvisational Theatre Project, a Mark Taper Forum touring company. He hooked up with Cold Tofu in 1984, L.A. Theatresports in 1990 and Wrought Irony in 1992. In 1993, Robert made his first appearance on the Tonight Show With Jay Leno and has made over 200 Tonight Show appearances.

Robert has also worked with Steven Spielberg on The Terminal and Alexander Payne on Sideways. Currently Robert performs with Cold Tofu, Acme Comedy Theatre and Impro Theatre.

Denise Iketani
Core Performing Member

Denise Iketani is one of seven children and was often overlooked because there were so many darn kids running around. Denise had to find some way of getting her parents attention and decided that performing would bring her the love and attention she craved. Plus, she thought that it would be a way to get to meet Scott Baio.

Since then Denise has performed on stages throughout Los Angeles - LATC, the Alex, the Doolittle (now the Ricardo Montalban Theater), and East West Players (EWP) to name a few. She was nominated for a Theatre LA Ovation Award for her performance as Tamate in Pacific Overtures at EWP. Denise has played a social worker, a hairdresser, several nurses and doctors on shows like Frasier, General Hospital, Family Law and The Division. She is a co-writer of the play Nisei Widows Club and a proud member of the greatest improv group ever. An avid arts education advocate, Denise is a Teaching Artist with the Los Angeles Music Center, Education Division. She is also the Drama specialist at Los Encinos School. She has never met Scott Baio.

Kevin Ocampo
Core Performing Member

In 1982, Kevin Ocampo first stepped onto a stage doing an old vaudeville routine with his Second Grade teacher for the school talent show. Twenty years later, Kevin took the next logical step and began learning Improvisation in Cold Tofu's training program. Now, Kevin is an associate member with Cold Tofu and has trained at other centers around LA, including IOWest, and the Westside Eclectic. He can also be seen onstage regularly at the IOWest, and with Cold Tofu.

Tom Oshiro
Core Performing Member

Tom leads a dual life - Assistant Professor at UCLA by day and improviser by night. He has written sketches for the last several Cold Tofu mainstage shows and lately he's worked on bringing them to life on video. You can see some of these projects on his website: www.tomsprojects.com

Michael C. Palma
Core Performing Member

Michael C. Palma - Born and raised, Mike has been a Cold Tofu member for 4 years now, and still has a tough time not laughing at the rest of his Cold Tofu cohorts!

His recent stage credits include TeleMongol (a sketch comedy collaboration), Imelda: A New Musical at East West Players, and Edamame Heights at the ACME Comedy Theatre.

He credits his family and friends for his success, and to Helen for all her love and support.

www.michaelcpalma.com

Zakiyah Reagan
Core Performing Member

Zakiyah Reagan began her stage career dancing ballet and Katherine Dunham technique. Later, having always appreciated the need for laughter, she began comedy improvisation with Los Angeles Theatresports. She then hooked up with Cold Tofu. Recently she has improvised and done sketch comedy at the ACME Comedy Theatre.

Aaron Takahashi
Core Performing Member

Aaron Takahashi has been a part of the Cold Tofu family since 1998. He is currently a core performing member and instructor for the group. He also writes and performs sketch with ACME Comedy Theatre's Charlie Company. Aaron has appeared on the Comedy Central hit show Reno 911!, and in the films Better Luck Tomorrow and Balls of Fury. The most noteworthy of his numerous television commercial credits is a spot for Amp'd Mobile, where he is rapping by himself in a public restroom before getting caught. Most recently, Aaron was an ensemble member and writer of "Telemongol: Invading Your Box 24/7", the historic sketch show collaboration between Cold Tofu, OPM, 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors, and Lodestone. His favorite things to buy at bake sales are Rice Krispies Treats.

Wanru Tseng
Core Performing Member

In her real life, Wanru can often be found elbow-deep in biological and chemical hazards. Now that Wanru thinks about it, Wanru isn't getting paid enough. Wanru joined Cold Tofu in 2003 and met some amazing people who taught her a lot, including the meaning of true friendship.