Mary Nisi

Founder, Toast & Jam DJs and Ampersand Cowork

Chicago

Following a successful, decade-long run in improv comedy, Mary Nisi made her foray into entrepreneurship when she founded Toast & Jam DJs in 2005. Since then, the company has provided the soundtrack to thousands of weddings and corporate events—including a birthday party for Barack Obama.

Today, she operates Toast & Jam from the upper level of her latest venture, Ampersand Cowork, a shared office space she launched in Logan Square in 2017. When she’s not tending to one of her businesses, you may find Mary hosting a function on the building’s 2,000 square-foot rooftop deck. She co- founded one such event, a recurring pop-up called Ladies of Logan, to showcase the neighborhood’s outstanding crop of female entrepreneurs.

Mary fills the rest of her time with a weekly deejaying stint on longstanding local indie station CHIRP Radio (she is a founding member); beekeeping in her Logan Square backyard; and bicycling around the neighborhood with her husband, John, and son Sebastian.