Colleen Murray Peyton earned a BS in Marketing and Merchandising for the Apparel
Industry from the University of Missouri – Columbia after which she moved to Chicago
to pursue Retail Buying. While in Chicago, one of many fortuitous forks in the road
appeared and Colleen was offered an opportunity to learn the business of Commercial
Real Estate and become a licensed real estate salesperson. For seven years, she worked
for Equity Office; the largest publicly traded US Real Estate Investment Trust based in
Chicago’s West Loop. This experience yielded her a wealth of sales acumen and
professional poise. She was also mentored by several of Chicago’s top-performing real
estate professionals whose leadership principles continue to imprint her career today.

While cultivating a strong business background, Colleen was simultaneously pursuing
another passion in Chicago: improvisational and sketch comedy. Taking classes at The
Second City, IO Chicago and the Annoyance Theater, Colleen quickly saw the value of
performance training in her work in the business world. As she excelled on stage, she was
promoted in her organization, which was more than a coincidence. Finally in 2007 as
Equity Office was sold into parcels, another fortuitous fork in the road appeared and
Colleen was offered an opportunity to work for Second City Communications in their
corporate talent group, which allowed her to make the leap from a real estate professional
to a full time, freelance creative.

Her combination of stage presence and business experience has created the perfect blend
for Colleen to be a Lead Workshop Facilitator & Program Design Consultant delivering
training for specific areas of professional development including Creative Thinking,
Intuitive Leadership and Executive Presence Coaching. In addition, she has hosted
several annual corporate events, brainstorming sessions and Industrial trade shows.
Working in the world of business as an actor has provided opportunities to collaborate on
several projects with Second City Communications, including a series of commercial
campaigns for TBS, helping to create a live Facebook event for Seattle's Best Coffee and
writing industrial content for Old Navy. Colleen has worked with a range of clients
including, MXM, Accenture, GE Healthcare, Momentum, Sara Lee, Toastmasters,
Ogilvy, Urban Debate League, Farmers Insurance, Cigna, Biomet, Cartoon Network,
Discovery Channel, PepsiCo, Genentech, Pfizer and Family Dollar.

Performing highlights in Chicago include playing Ann Coulter & Hillary Clinton in
"Rush Limbaugh, The Musical" at the Second City, "Swear Jar" at The Annoyance
Theater and improvising weekly with the veteran teams Deep Schwa and Virgin Daiquiri
at IO Chicago. Colleen was also selected to go to the HBO Comedy Festival in Aspen
with her group the “Ragdolls.” In addition to several booking commercials and
industrials, Colleen co-created an original comedic Pilot called Darcy & Tess,
http://darcyandtess.com. She now lives in LA and pursues acting for television and film
as well as creative consulting in Training and Development.