Lesley Tsina is a writer, improvisor and stand-up comic. Her boss once described her as "smart, bordering on weird." Originally from Palo Alto, CA, she moved to Los Angeles to do standup comedy. Since then, she has appeared on "Comedy Death-Ray," "See You Next Tuesday," "The Tomorrow Show," "Big News," and other shows in Los Angeles and New York City. Her writing has appeared in the comics and satire quarterly The Devastator.
Lesley can be seen in the series "Funny or Die Presents" on HBO as part of the mini-miniseries "Designated Driver" with Rob Riggle and Paul Scheer. She has also performed on NPR's Marketplace, various commercials and videos for Funny or Die and UCBComedy.com.
Lesley studied improv and sketch writing at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in LA and at IO West. She currently writes for the house sketch team Extreme Tamborine at the UCB Theatre and sketch group The Mopes. She has also written for the UCB house team Paddington and for Sketch Cram . She does longform improv with Slave Leia, I Can Haz Ringwurmz and Temper, Temper. She previously performed with UCB Harold Teams Hugboat and The Galleria and with independent teams Strangelet, New Fall Collection, Münchhausen and Sigourney Beaver.
At one point, Lesley was a serious theatre person. She received a B.A. in Theatre Studies from Swarthmore College, and interned in Literary Management at Actors Theatre of Louisville. She is proud to have worked on the national tour of 13 Dias/13 Days with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, even though it meant that her college alumni directory listed her occupation as "mime intern."
Lesley was a guest on Dork Forest Radio 12/21/07 You can download or listen to it here