Amber Wallin in Jacksonville

Every minor inconvenience is a possible sketch for Amber Wallin. She once said she tries to make "a video for every inconvenience that I face in my life," and that habit built her an audience online.

Comedy was not the first plan. Amber studied journalism at the University of Georgia, then joined Teach For America and spent five years in schools, teaching special education, sharing a geometry classroom and working as a college counselor. The urge to perform kept pulling at her, and she eventually left teaching.

She moved to Chicago and found her people on the improv and sketch scene at Second City, iO and the Annoyance Theater, and she spent a few years as an understudy for a Second City sketch show. Online, she started on Snapchat, moved to YouTube with original characters and joined TikTok in December 2020, which became her biggest platform. Her videos cover family, motherhood and everyday life.

On stage she leads with story. She often opens with the most dramatic moment and works from there, a habit she credits to improv, and bold, theatrical outfits are part of the show.