"The Chapel Hill Players" (CHiPs) is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...

 premiere improv and sketch comedy team. The group is unique among college improv

Improvisational theatre

Improvisational theatre takes many forms. It is best known as improv or impro, which is often comedic, and sometimes poignant or dramatic. In this popular, often topical art form improvisational actors/improvisers use improvisational acting techniques to perform spontaneously...

 teams for its employment of a training program (The Incubator). Before auditioning for CHiPs' performance group, UNC students must audition for The Incubator program, and undergo at least one semester of basic improv training.

CHiPs performs two big shows a semester for 400-600 person audiences. Additionally, CHiPs appears in front of a number of smaller audiences every semester, for events like the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival. The group was created in 1995 by DSI Comedy Theater founder, Zach Ward, and Upright Citizens Brigade

Upright Citizens Brigade

The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational comedy and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The most recent incarnation consists of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh...

 member Megan Grano.

Prominent former members of the group include television and film actors Jeff Richards

Jeff Richards (comedian)

Jeffrey Hanson "Jeff" Richards is an American actor, stand-up comedian and impressionist. Richards was the first actor to have been a cast member on both Saturday Night Live and MADtv...

 (Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

, MadTV

MADtv

MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series. It licensed the name and logo of Mad, but otherwise had no connection with the humor magazine outside the animated Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoon shorts and images of Alfred E. Neuman that the show featured during the late 1990s. Its first...

) and Maddy Curley (Stick It

Stick It

Stick It is an American teen comedy-drama film starring Jeff Bridges, Missy Peregrym, and Vanessa Lengies. It was written and directed by Jessica Bendinger, writer of Bring It On; the film marks her directorial debut...

, Cold Case).
In 2011 CHiPs won the INNY Award for best college improv group.