Patinkin has been part of The Second City family since the first seeds were planted at the University of Chicago in the early 1950s. He has been a theater director and teacher of improv in Chicago, Toronto, and New York. He earned an MA in English literature from the University of Chicago. He is now Chair of the Theater Department at Columbia College Chicago, the director of Steppenwolf Theater's summer workshops and the acting faculty of the Chicago Lyric Opera Center for American Artists.