Arts

Actor/Writer

Rob Biesenbach

Biography

Rob Biesenbach is a Chicago-based actor and writer.

Since starting his acting career in the fall of 2002, Rob has performed in more than 150 theatrical and commercial productions. He has worked with Bailiwick Repertory Company, Factory Theater, the Side Project, Stage Left, Steep Theatre Company and the Silk Road Theatre Project, among others.

On camera, he appeared in a commercial spot for Assurant Health that aired nationally on cable stations such as CNN, a sponsorship ad for Wolf Kitchen/Sub-zero that ran nationwide on the PBS show "America's Test Kitchen," along with a handful of regional and local commercials, including one for Harris Bank. He has also acted in industrial videos for AC Nielsen, Citibank, Kraft Foods, GE Healthcare, Hyatt, Miller Brewing Company and others. If you're very attentive, you can catch his 10 seconds of screen time as a featured background player with Nicolas Cage in The Weather Man.

As a writer, he wrote a collection of one-act plays, The One-Eyed Cat & Other Tales of Need, which was directed by Rob Chambers and ran at Donny's Skybox Theater at Second City in the fall of 2005. The Chicago Reader called the plays "engaging" and "admirably honest."

Rob also wrote a sketch show, There's No "I" in Improv, which ran in Donny's Skybox in the Summer of 2004 and was directed by Joe Janes. The Reader said it was "brainier than most late-night fare." He also served as producer for both shows.

Rob has had other one-acts produced at Speaking Ring Theatre (full production) and Chicago Dramatists (staged reading), and one of his plays won an artistic merit award at a competition held by the Women's Theatre Alliance. You can read many of his works here.

Rob studied acting, improvisation and writing at Second City Training Center, Profiles Theatre, and in various workshops and individual coaching sessions.

You can watch samples of his work here, access his resume, and keep up with his daily struggles as an actor by reading his blog.

Rob has also written a book, Act Like You Mean Business: Essential Communication Lessons from Stage and Screen, published by Brigantine Media.