Abby, Normaled

Abigail (Abby) Head is an actor, writer, storyteller and filmmaker based in the Charlotte area since 1998. In 2013, as a break from the seriousness of her IT consulting business, she took a weekend improv course. Abby's weekend hobby quickly evolved into a new full-time pursuit of creative ventures. She founded independent film company The Queen's Miscreants, got involved in several improv teams and local theater, and (of course) co-founded the Comedy Arts Theater of Charlotte with Kevin Shimko in 2017. She currently performs with Dear Diary, The A-Team, & on Game Night, and is often teaching & coaching various teams throughout the Charlotte community. When Abby has some free time, she enjoys playing board games with her three boys, extolling the virtues of banana & mayo sandwiches, and railing against non-serial comma lists.

Unconscious Bias in Improv

March 5, 2025•1,074 words

There's a scene in the stellar 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse where one of the Spider characters is looking to steal data from the head scientist. He's told that the it's the woman who's the head scientist, not the man at the computer. Peter B. Parker then moves forward with his plan, saying, "Cool, step three, I re-examine my personal biases." Bias in scenes It's deceptively easy how unconscious biases creep into our everyday (or superhero) life, including improv. The...