Jessica Belbin

Jessica Belbin has been learning and performing both long and short form Improv since 2007 with The Kinkonauts Improv Theatre Company. While there she began learning from two great mentors how to facilitate improv to grow and improve human skills.

She graduated with an Honours Broadcasting Diploma from Mount Royal College in 2007. Jessica was awarded the 2007 RTNDA National Scholarship Award for her radio documentary about a surrogacy pregnancy and birth. While still in school she began working for New Cap Entertainment as a radio traffic reporter and morning show personality for it's two radio stations in Calgary. Jessica then worked for a personal development company where she experienced and watched many facilitators working at their craft.

Jessica has written and performed stand-up comedy, a one-hour one-woman show, and been a writer for a children's tv show. She has consulted with a speech pathologist on creating a web series to help children speak better and coached people one-on-one to be more comfortable in front of the camera, live audiences, and how to get past their anxieties in social settings. She also facilitates a workshop called 'Improv for Mental Well-being'; which uses improv skills to create better mental health.

Jessica has also studied the Meisner acting technique, clown technique, mask, and embodied dancing. All of these modalities combined with her broadcasting work and over 17 years of improv training has given Jessica a unique understanding of mind, body and intuition learning, which then offers fantastic integrative learning. Jessica believes this is the best way to learn (research proves its the best way as well).

Her goal is for the world to learn improv skills to improve their lives. It may take some time, but she's willing to try. She is an advocate for civil discourse and believes "if we can sit and talk with someone who's views are different from our own, and sit through the discomfort, and actively listen, we will be on our way to creating a better world of understanding". This ability requires us to be able to be present, curious, empathetic, kind, and comfortable with the unknown; all skills that can be developed through improv exercises and skills.

She has been asked by some leaders to "turn their introvert staff into extroverts"; now that would be a magic trick. Jessica tells them, "Developing your human/soft skills is not about 'becoming' someone else, it's about learning SKILLS". Skills are something humans are great at learning and developing and you can do that while still being yourself!"

Jessica was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta in 1974. She loves the prairies, foothills and mountains that greet her everyday. An avid reader, she was delighted to learn she could get library books on her phone during the pandemic. And she hasn't looked back, reading several books a week. She also talks to everyone and anyone, you can find Jessica in lines at the grocery store, out running errands, going for a walk saying a simple hello to a stranger and end up having a wonderful, in-depth conversation about their life.