A LITTLE BIT ABOUT OUR TEACHERS
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT OUR TEACHERS
Helaine has been the artistic director of the Harvey Lembeck
Comedy Workshop for nearly 22 years now.
After her father Harvey’s passing, Helaine, along with Emmy winning
brother Michael, took over the classes which their father started 40 years
ago. Helaine was a member of the Workshop
for many years, and assisted
Helaine began her career in television, where she starred opposite Sweathog John Travolta, in the ABC hit series, Welcome Back Kotter. She played the girl the Sweathogs loved to hate, Judy Borden, for 3 seasons. The years after that show were filled with a variety of guest roles for Helaine including stints on Everybody Loves Raymond, Suddenly Susan, Malcolm in the Middle, a series regular on the Saturday morning hit The Krofft Supershow, several movies, pilots, and many television movies. She also had the pleasure of working with Gary Shandling on his special.
As a result of Helaine’s success and experience as both an actress and teacher, she has found herself very much in demand as a private coach. Her expertise in comedy has led to many of today’s stars and working actors actively seeking her out to prepare them for auditions or an upcoming role. The Workshop has thrived under her direction, and as brother Michael says, “I can’t imagine being in a better place, or with a better more qualified person, then at our Workshop, with Helaine as your teacher.”
Lembeck is a veteran of television comedy. As an actor, he appeared in over 200 episodes of half-hour comedy television. As a Director he helmed nearly 300 episodes of television during his career. Among the awards for directing he has received is the Emmy Award in 1996 for the Best Direction of a Comedy Series for his work on Friends, one of three Emmy nominations he has received for his work on that show. He lists as some of his directing credits multiple episodes of Mad About You, with Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser, and the pilot and episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond .
Lembeck has had the good fortune of working with some of the
world’s greatest comedy players – Carol Burnett, Carol O’Conner,
Lembeck comes from a very strong comedy tradition and followed his father, Harvey, into the theater. Harvey Lembeck starred in both the Broadway play and movie Stalag 17 as Harry Shapiro, and had a long and illustrious career as one of Broadway’s and Hollywood’s best-known character men, perhaps remembered best for his work as Corporal Rocco Barbella on The Phil Silvers Show and as Eric Von Zipper in the Beach Party series of movies for AIP.
Michael appeared in many plays in
Michael Lembeck made his feature film directing debut with the hit Tim Allen comedy, The Santa Clause 2, and followed that up with the Nia Vardalos, Toni Colette Universal Studios Comedy, Connie and Carla. Michael directed the 3rd installment of the Santa Clause Trilogy, and has recently directed an episode of Showtime's Californication.
Cal is also a television veteran. Working primarily as a
character actor, Cal has guest starred on many of television’s most popular
shows including:
ER, NYPD BLUE, L.A. Dragnet, 10-8,
The Shield, Suddenly Susan, Fresh Prince of BelAir, Sister Sister,
Family Matters, L.A. Law, and Murphy Brown. Cal was a series regular
on Park Place and has a recurring role on DiResta. Cal has also
guest starred on classic programs like Hill Street Blues, Barney Miller,
and Sanford and Son. Cal’s feature film credits include
Scrooged with Bill Murray, Someone to Watch Over Me with Tom
Berrenger and Best Men starring Drew Barrymore.
Cal has also been a successful stand-up comedian and toured the country for over 15 years including spending time on the road with country music legend Waylon Jennings as his opening act. In addition, Cal is the founder of Mixxed Nutts, an improv troupe which has played many of Los Angeles’ comedy clubs.
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