Bina Martin

Bina Martin is a teacher, director, actor, writer, corporate facilitator and learning designer with over 20 years of experience across these varied fields. She is dedicated to what she calls “Human 101,” teaching individuals and industries to improve relationships, civility and productivity through improvisation, agility and deeper, more empathic understanding.

Bina is a facilitator and design lead at Second City Works, the business arm of the world renowned Second City theater, where she helped create Improvising Radical Candor, a live and virtual event collaboration between SCW and Radical Candor, that uses improv tools to help enhance the practice piece of feedback conversations. She was also a consultant on the partnership’s most recent digital offering, a workplace comedy series called The Feedback Loop.

A longtime faculty member of the Second City Training Center, Bina has taught in its Conservatory, Improv, Sketch Writing, Music, Youth, Online and Wellness programs, as well as directed numerous shows in its theaters. She was an adjunct faculty member at DePaul University. As an actor, Bina has appeared Off-Broadway in Lifegame (a two-act improvised play) and been featured in sketches on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (the original on NBC), as well as in numerous plays at regional theaters across the country.

She is a co-author of the syndicated column, Miss Manners and the books, Miss Manners’ Guide to a Surprisingly Dignified Wedding and Placid Pregnancy: A Miss Manners Guide. She is also a contributor to The Second City Network, a website that consists of humorous essays and digital content. Bina is a graduate of Harvard and The Actors’ Studio Program at the New School and lives in Chicago with her husband and perfect child, Greta.