Lori is an alumnus of The National Touring Company of the Second City, and was honored to perform with them in Iraq and Kuwait in 2004, as part of a joint venture with the USO. She works with Second City Business Communications as an actor and workshop facilitator, and has worked with the Second City Theatricals Division on shows at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, DC and in the national tour of “Sex and the Second City.”
She has understudied for the Mainstage and ETC theatres at Second City, and completed a summer-long run of the ETC show, “Immaculate Deception” in 2007. She is a founding member of the WNEP Theatre Foundation, creating and starring in many of their productions; most notably, the swinging 60’s musical, “The Wicked and the Sexed” which she adapted from a pulp novella (voted New City’s 1997 “Best Original Musical Production”).
You may have seen her improvise with “Sirens” (the longest running all-female improv troupe in the country), or with ComedySportz in their mainstage show, and their productions of “Whose Chorus Line Is It Anyway?” (director), “Blind Date” and “Trois.'”
One of Lori’s favorite scripted roles was “Xena, Warrior Princess” in “Xena Live!” (Theatre Bam! and greasyjoan). Lori can also be heard as the voice of Shiva in one of the Mortal Kombat video games and has narrated audio books as well as several other voice-over projects.
She can be heard as the lead vocalist in the jazz group, “Lori McClain Trio,” and seen in television commercials for “Meijer’s,” “Walmart,” “Aldi,” “Lyrica,” and “KFC.”
She created the role of Patti Blagojevich in Second City’s, “Rod Blagojevich, Superstar!” and most recently played Missy Brisco in “Lanyard Skynerd, The Musical” at Martyr’s Live in Chicago.
Each summer since 2005, one of her favorite jobs is as an acting and improv coach for the University of Chicago Summer Lab on Stage program.
