Rammel Chan headshot

Rammel Chan

Actor and Playwright

Rammel Chan (he/him) is an actor, comedian, game developer, science fiction writer, and playwright proud to call Chicago his home. The eldest of Filipino immigrants, Rammel grew up on military bases in Germany before moving to Michigan where he fell in love with theater in high school.

In 2007, Rammel moved to Chicago to finish school at Columbia College where he received a Bachelor of Arts in Theater. He found a home with the improv and sketch comedy community performing at iO and Second City with various independent comedy troupes including, Robot vs. Dinosaur and Stir Friday Night. In 2015 he received a Bob Curry Fellowship from Second City and NBCUniversal and in 2016 he was added as a replacement to the Second City e.t.c. stage.

Rammel wandered his way onto other Chicago stages performing in plays such as Oblivion (Steppenwolf Theatre Company), the world premiere of King of the Yees (Goodman Theatre), Cambodian Rock Band (Victory Gardens) Vietgone, Tiger Style! (Writers Theater), and Lucy and Charlie’s Honeymoon (Lookingglass Theater Company), as well as toiling in readings and workshops for new works by Bess Wohl, Lauren Yee, Don X. Nguyen, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Charlie Oh, Karissa Murrell Myers, and Martin Yousif Zebari.

Onscreen, Rammel has appeared in The Red Line (CBS)Crisis, Chicago JusticeChicago Med (NBC) Somebody Somewhere (HBO), The Big LeapAPB (FOX), and Patriot, Utopia and The Jamz (Amazon). He recently appeared opposite Gillian Jacobs in the Kris Rey directed indie comedy I Used To Go Here, a role for which Richard Roeper described him as “fantastically funny”.

As a writer, Rammel’s plays have been performed at The Gift Theatre as part of TEN and the In The Works reading series. Through APIDA Arts, his family dramedy Tomato Tattoo received a development grant from Chicago DCASE as part of their inaugural Studio Residency at the Chicago Cultural Center. In 2023-2024 he was a playwright in the cohort for the New Stages Residency at Goodman Theatre writing The Leftover Men, a dystopian dark comedic musical with Matthew C. Yee. His corporate-Faustian play Rona Fortunae was the winner of the Bramble Theater Festival of Unfinished Work in 2025. He is a recipient of a Kundiman Fellowship for Fiction, his science fiction short stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science FictionRiksha, Empyrean Literary Magazine and The Tiger Moth Review.

Rammel’s comedic sensibilities also serve the world of game development. He was a staff writer for Cards Against Humanity before moving to Chicago’s own Jackbox Games. His original game concepts, Hypnotorious and Let Me Finish, are featured in the Jackbox Party Pack 10 and the Jackbox Naughty Pack, respectively.

He is a proud union member of SAG-AFTRA and Actors Equity. 

Featured Artworks

  •  A still of a Filipino-Chinese cis male with short dark hair and olive skin standing on a blue stage. He is wearing a black suit. Cambodian Rock Band, 2019 Victory Gardens Theater Image by Liz Lauren
  •  Three performers stand on stage. They are dressed in fun patterned button down shirts with loose khaki pants. All of them are posed humorously. King of the Yees, 2017 Kirk Douglas Theater, Los Angeles
  •  Seven people stand on a stage. Behind them are blue lit windows. Some people are clapping. Second City's Bob Curry Fellowship, 2015 UP Comedy Club, The Second City
  •  Two performers are on stage. One is sitting in a chair in a white button down shirt while the other is standing up about to run forward. Rona Fortunae, Bramble Theater Festival of Unfinished Work, 2025 Image by Jenn Udoni
  •  A  Filipino-Chinese cis male with short dark hair and olive skin sits on stage. He is wearing a green bomber jacket and brown pants. he holds a black cowboy hat and is speaking into a phone. Lucy and Charlie's Honeymoon, Lookingglass Theater Company, 2023 Image by Liz Lauren
  •  A Filipino-Chinese cis male with short dark hair and olive skin smiles in the mirror in a black and white photograph backstage. Behind the Scenes - Writers Theater, 2022 Image by joe mazza brave.lux