Syeda Davidson

Planet Ant
Board of Directors

  • Syeda Davidson is an attorney, activist, and aerialist. She brings experience from multiple nonprofit boards to Planet Ant, and believes that improv classes are the reason that she is able to capably and confidently wear multiple hats.

  • Dave Davies is a professional improviser/actor/instructor with over 25 years of experience. He has performed professionally on several stages throughout the Detroit Metro area, and internationally from Canada to Puerto Rico.

    He also has extensive experience teaching improv at several different venues. His teaching has additionally extended to include several corporate workshops throughout the United States and to many Detroit Public School children through the YMCA and the Detroit Creativity Project.

    Additionally, he is an adjunct instructor at WSU, where he teaches different theatre and acting classes. Dave is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA and can be seen in movies including A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas, Restitution, Needlestick, Detroiters, and Lifetime channel’s Last Man Standing.

Chris Fortin

  • Secretary

    Chris Fortin has been a member of the Detroit Improv Community since August 2014, and from then has been a dedicated member of the scene.

    He has written and directed several shows on the Go Comedy! stage, as well as being a member of Go’s Resident Company and the Director of the All-Star Showdown. Chris graduated from the University of Michigan with a BSE in Electrical Engineering and from Wayne State University with a master’s in Alternative Energy Technology, currently working as a high voltage battery engineer for electric vehicles.

    He is excited to serve on the board of Planet Ant and bring its unique mission to life, letting people know it's normal to be weird.

Jen Horne

  • Jen is an actor and communications professional and has been a part of the Planet Ant community since 2017. She is a graduate of the Second City Chicago sketch writing program and serves on the Board of the Detroit Women of Comedy Festival.

Daniel Jackson

  • President

    Daniel Jackson is an artist, writer, producer, and improviser born and raised in Detroit, MI. Professionally, he’s held various management and communications positions at non-profit organizations across metro Detroit and currently serves as the Digital Strategist for the ACLU of Michigan. Daniel is also an avid participant in the local arts community, whether as a performer, producer, or director. He’s passionate about playing an integral role in the growth of the resurgent arts scene here in Detroit and Hamtramck.

    Daniel holds a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from Central Michigan University.

  • Treasurer

    Andi grew up in Hamtramck, MI just a few blocks from Planet Ant Theatre, and now resides in Midtown Detroit. She is an actor, writer, director, producer, and art educator.

    Andi has completed training programs at the renowned Improv Olympic (iO) and Annoyance theaters in Chicago, and locally at Go Comedy and Planet Ant. She teaches improvisation at Michigan Actors Studio and the Planet Ant Training Center. She is a mainstage cast member of Comedy Sportz Detroit and a co-founder of the Detroit Women of Comedy Festival.

    Andi is also a small-business owner, entrepreneur, and attorney. She holds degrees from Michigan State University Detroit College of Law (JD), Pepperdine University School of Law (Straus Institute Master of Dispute Resolution), University of Santa Monica (Master of Psychology), and MSU James Madison College (Bachelor of Arts in International Relations).

Ericka Warmack

  • Executive Committee

    Ericka is a Certified Public Accountant, Six Sigma Green Belt and an experienced Malcolm Baldrige Award Examiner. She is the National Lending Director at First Children’s Finance, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), with a mission to lend money to low-income and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) child care providers. She has over 28 years of experience in finance and business operations. Ericka's most recent roles were Chief Financial Officer (CFO), V.P. of Transformation, Interim V.P. of Corporate and MBE Services and V.P. of Events at a multi-million-dollar, minority-focused economic development organization.

    Prior to those roles, Ericka was a Malcolm Baldrige Award Examiner, with a focus on leadership and strategy. The Malcolm Baldrige Award assessment is a highly collaborative consensus-driven team approach to assessing and improving world class and aspiring world class organizations based on current business best practices. She was the Director at DWH, a business advisory firm, guided by a full-stakeholder/community-based approach to distressed business consulting, company liquidation management and turnarounds, working with banks, investors, funders, business owners and communities. Ericka began her career at Arthur Andersen. In her public accounting career, she worked with publicly and privately held companies, high-net-worth families, and nonprofits. She received her B.S. in Accounting from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.

    She is currently on the Board of Directors of Planet Ant, a nonprofit professional and community theatre, in Hamtramck, MI and on the loan credit committee of ProsperUs, a Detroit-based CDFI, with a mission to lend to low-and-moderate income business owners. She’s been a Board Chairperson, Treasurer and Quality Committee Chairperson for a Detroit-based community health center and a Board member of a Detroit-based community mental health center.

    Ericka loves Michigan, especially Detroit, its people, architecture and river. Ericka has a passion for old and historic buildings, structurally and aesthetically. She came to Detroit to rebuild, restore and improve the City through her professional and volunteer work. She appreciates Nature and is enjoying living on the Detroit River.

Our Mission

Planet Ant Theatre, Inc is a 501(c)(3) non-profit professional theater and performance organization that seeks to foster interest in the performing arts through the production and presentation of artistic works both in-person and digital; to build community by facilitating artistic expression and collaboration in theater, comedy, music, film and other visual and performing arts; to promote artistic freedom and expand stage access; and to enrich individual artists through training, coaching and networking.