Biography
Ben Kass is a Chicago-based actor and writer. In 2020, he received a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by Cast in a Motion Picture (The Trial of the Chicago 7). Other recent film/TV credits include The Bear (Hulu), The Chair (Netflix), Chicago PD (NBC), Fargo (Fx), Empire (Fox), Soul Sessions, and Up on the Wooftop.
After growing up on a farm in Iowa, Ben earned a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Performance from the University of Northern Iowa. There he acted in several plays, including Our Town, for which he received an Irene Ryan (Performance) nomination to the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival (KCACTF). He was also a cast member of the campus improv troupe, Half-Masted, directed and founded by Dr. Doug Shaw. During his college years he also toured as a musician with the reggae-rock band, Blue Island Tribe (Back-up vocals, trumpet, tambourine, egg, & cowbell). You're gonna want more cowbell!
Ben moved to Chicago in 2007 to study improvisation and sketch comedy at iO Theater and The Second City. Since graduating from both, he has performed countless live improv and sketch shows, and been featured in several improv festivals across the United States. He was a founding member of the iO Theater improv team Michael Pizza, which was awarded Chicago Magazine's Best New Improv Show in 2010. Ben's original written works have been presented at The Moth, Paper Machete, Write Club, Chicago Sketch Festival, and StoryLab. His years of voice over experience include several national radio and TV commercials, playing such niche roles as "Man 1" and "Guy". He has also narrated and produced several audiobooks available on Audible.
More recently Ben has become a character actor for film and television, often cast as a scientist or tech guy. It's probably the glasses, but he actually does hold a Master of Science degree in Health Informatics from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and is a published co-author of several health care research articles. He has also worked extensively at UIC in the field of medical simulation and standardized patients, including a nationwide collaborative project with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
