Bill D. Russell

Bill D Russell made his theatrical debut in Chicago in 1983 in a Second City children's theater show. In 1985 he joined the improv Olympics (now iO Theater) and worked with improv legend Del Close in the first Harold troupe "Barons Barracudas." A clip of him performing onstage appears in the documentary film "Thank You, Del" produced by Amy Pohler. Was part of the Peanut Gallery in Andy Kaufman's SoundStage show. A clip where Andy turns around and briefly interacts with Bill appears in the documentary film "I'm From Hollywood." In the 80s and 90s he worked on a variety of films and TV shows, most notably as a referee in "Wildcats" and as Irritated Bar Patron on "Americas Most Wanted" Was Tom Sizemore's stand-in for "The Relic" scenes at the Field Museum. He played the Dad in the iconic 90s Blockbuster Video commercial "The Perfect Store," which was featured in the documentary "The Last Blockbuster." (For those keeping score, that's THREE documentaries he's appeared in that have nothing to do with him.) Starred in Alaska Airlines commercial directed by infamous "Where's The Beef" director Joe Sedelmaier and featured on "World's Funniest Commercials". Two-time winner on "America's Funniest People" hosted by Dave Coullier and Tawny Kitaen . He performed improv comedy at The Comedy Shrine in Aurora, Illinois from 2016-2020 and during that same time period performed in several sketch comedy shows at Second City and iO Theater. He was a member of the iO Comedy Network's show "Secret Lawyer." He was in "Not The 1948 Show" show at iO Theater featuring sketches written by John Cleese prior to Monty Python's Flying Circus and a cast that included Cleese's daughter Camilla Cleese. Bill plays Maximillian Cuda in "Puppet Master Doktor Death," Rich Greene in "Evil Lurks," The Amazing Grimwell in "It Came From Somewhere" and Supreme Leader in the sequel "They Came Back From Somewhere," and Coach Hurley in the hit comedy "You're Out."