Ed Herbstman

Biography

Ed Herbstman is an actor and writer as well as the co-founder of Magnet Theater in Manhattan, where he currently performs and teaches improvisation and comedy writing.

Herbstman grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. After graduating from Northwestern University, he began working at The Second City as a member of their national touring company. Also while in Chicago he studied under Del Close at the ImprovOlympic Theater (now iO Chicago), where he was a performer and instructor. Along with his sketch comedy group from Chicago, Bitter Noah, he moved to Los Angeles, where he helped start the IO West.

After following his girlfriend to New York, Herbstman became a police officer for three years, assigned to the 70th Precinct in Flatbush, Brooklyn, where he once arrested a gun-toting drug dealer for kidnapping a prostitute. After that, he married his girlfriend and worked as a contributing writer on season two of HBO’s “Da Ali G Show.” He was also head writer for the branded entertainment company Dandelion, where he created award-winning online content sponsored by such brands as P&G, Lincoln, Ford, Cadbury, L’Oreal and Sun Life Financial. 

You can see Herbstman in commercials for Orbit Gum, FedEx, Chase, Net10 Wireless, Got Milk, Royal Caribbean, Kit Kat, GE and Fuddruckers. You can hear his work on “The Truth Podcast.”

Education

• B.S., Northwestern University