Philip Markle is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Brooklyn Comedy Collective. Philip trained in improv in Chicago at The Annoyance, iO, and Second City before moving to NYC in 2013 to launch The Annoyance Theater NY, where he acted as its Director for four years before founding the BCC. He was named “Top 5 Queer Business Leaders” by Time Out NY in 2023 and a “Power Player in Arts in Culture” by AMNY in 2024 (amongst prominent leaders at arts organizations like Carnegie Hall and MOMA PS1). The New York Times wrote, “Philip Markle, who founded [the BCC] in 2018, has done creative work building an audience around a dizzying array of shows.”
Performance highlights include musically improvising with Baby Wants Candy in Chicago and BLANK: The Musical Off-Broadway. As a storyteller, he has performed at The Moth and The Paper Machete - and is a writer on Medium.com with 400k+ reads. He executive produced, wrote, and acted in the digital shorts series "The Annoyance Presents" on IFC's Comedy Crib. Philip first performed his show SPARKLE HOUR to rave reviews in the 2013 NY International Fringe Festival and has regularly produced it since, including multiple runs at Joe's Pub and as part of the 2021-2023 NY Comedy Festivals. You can listen to his queer comedy songs on your favorite streaming music platform under the name “Philip Sparkle.”
Follow him on socials @philipsparkle.
