Irielle Wesley

Irielle's story kicks off in Wichita Falls, Texas, where things were pretty quiet and, honestly, a little isolating for someone secretly dreaming of making people laugh. As a fellow small north Texas town childhood alum myself, I know how isolating it can feel to be different from everyone else. She’ll be the first to tell you she grew up “living more in my head ... than anything and kind of being scared of the world all the time.”

But even as a shy kid, Irielle felt a pull toward comedy and performance—even if that felt totally at odds with her introverted side. And that's part of the fun of watching Irielle perform. She's relatable because she seems introverted, but if you watch closely, some of the things she does on stage are what you'd expect of an extrovert. She admits, “I don't consider myself an extroverted person. Definitely feel more introverted, but have just, like, learned skills of how to connect with people over the years.”

Once college started, Irielle jumped feet-first into comedy, even though she knew almost nothing about improv. She grew up on sketch comedy. Jumping into improv was not at all what she expected--it felt like being tossed into the deep end of a fun wave pool. She soaked it all up and felt like she had found her people. And even while she tackled improv and sketch, she started eyeing stand-up, seeing it as the ticket to building a career as a comedy writer. Irielle doesn’t romanticize it like most starry-eyed comedy newbies might: “I want to be a writer more than anything. I want to be like a head writer on something one day… So it's kind of like, well, this is what they did. They did do stand up to get booked on shows, and then someone saw them do stand up and then asked them to write some stuff.” That's a classic introvert for you - figuring out how to get things done.

Irielle's all about community—real friendships that spark big, creative ideas. She’s a proud part of improv troupes like Garage and Crush Hour, But Big Fart (can we all pause to appreciate what a hysterical name that is??), is her sketch group, and it's where she learned that just hanging out can turn into something hilarious.

Being with fellow female improvisers gave way to collaboration. “We started hanging out weekly, doing fun stuff, to just goof and gab, because we were all on separate troupes but never on things together.” Rather than getting together to complete a specific objective, the women of Big Fart socialized and celebrated each other and content became a happy byproduct. Which is exactly how the ColdTony Award Winning Best Sketch "Boy Mom" came to be. I was lucky enough to see a version of the sketch at the 2025 ATX Sketch Fest and it was evident how in tune with each other the women of Big Fart were.

And for the final art form: improv, for Irielle, is freedom—an escape from all the social rules and worries, where she can let loose: “I see improv is really an outlet for the way I would want to react to things in my normal civilian life." The beauty of improv, as she sees it is "in improv… all of the rules don't matter here.”

Whether you watch Irielle performing standup, improv, or sketch, you're bound to get a mix of that introvert making things work in an extroverted form. Don't be fooled into thinking she'll stay quiet for long. She's about to make something wonderful happen on stage that no one could predict.