ZAKIYYAH ALEXANDER is a bicoastal award winning writer, actor, and a native New Yorker raised in Queens and Brooklyn. Her plays include: YOU ARE HERE, the musical: GIRL SHAKES LOOSE (Penumbra Theater, O’Neill Musical Conference), 10 THINGS TO DO BEFORE I DIE (Second Stage Uptown), THE ETYMOLOGY OF BIRD (Central Park Summerstage, Hip Hop Theater Festival, Providence Black Repertory Theatre), BLURRING SHINE (Market Theater, Johannesburg, NY International Fringe Festival), SWEET MALADIES (Brava Arts Center, Rucker Theatre, Bay Area Playwrights Festival), and her newest play, HOW TO RAISE A FREEMAN recently read at Playwright’s Horizons and workshopped at Center Theater Group in Los Angeles. As a television writer her credits include: GREY’S ANATOMY and 24: LEGACY, and the upcoming Amazon show, THE HUNT. Education: MFA Yale School of Drama.
BEKAH BRUNSTETTER’s plays include The Cake (upcoming at The Echo Theater, La Jolla), Going to a Place Where you Already Are (SCR), The Oregon Trail (O’Neill Playwright’s Conference), Be A Good Little Widow (Ars Nova, The Old Globe) and Oohrah! (The Atlantic; Steppenwolf Garage). She has written for Switched at Birth and Starz’ American Gods and is currently a producer on NBC’s This is Us. MFA, the New School for Drama. http://blog.bekahbrunstetter.com/
SHEILA CALLAGHAN is an internationally produced, award-winning playwright whose work includes CRUMBLE (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake), DEAD CITY, THAT PRETTY PRETTY; OR, THE RAPE PLAY, ROADKILL CONFIDENTIAL, WOMEN LAUGHING ALONE WITH SALAD, and others. She’s an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb, a member of the Obie winning playwright’s organization 13P, and an alumni of New Dramatists. In 2010, Callaghan was profiled by Marie Claire as one of “18 Successful Women Who Are Changing the World.” She was a longtime writer/producer on the hit Showtime comedy Shameless and a founder of the feminist activist group The Kilroys. She was nominated for a 2016 Golden Globe for her work on the Hulu comedy series Casual and a 2017 WGA Award for her Shameless episode “I Am A Storm.”
CARLA CHING is a native Angeleno who fell into theater in New York. Her plays include Nomad Motel (forthcoming at City Theatre in Pittsburgh; O’Neill Playwrights Conference), The Two Kids That Blow Shit Up (Artists at Play; Mu Performing Arts; Huntington’s Breaking Ground), Fast Company (EST; South Coast Rep; Lyric Stage; Porkfilled Players), TBA (2g) and The Sugar House at the Edge of the Wilderness (Ma-Yi) among others. Alumna of the Women’s Project Lab, Lark Playwrights Workshop, CTG Writers’ Workshop and the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. Former Artistic Director of Asian American theater company, 2g. Proud member of New Dramatists. Carla has written on Amazon’s I Love Dick, USA’s Graceland, AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead and The First forthcoming from Hulu. http://carlaching.com/
ANNAH FEINBERG writes and draws, often at the very same time. She’s currently developing multiple TV and film projects, most of which are adult animation. Her humor writing and cartoons have been featured in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s and The Hairpin, and her short films enjoy floating around the internet. For two years, she drew self-portrait cartoons @memyselvesand. Now she turns shapes into humanoid creatures @shapelies. Before moving to LA to pursue screenwriting, Annah was a playwright and dramaturg in New York. She has an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University and a BFA in Theater Studies from the University of Illinois. Before all that, she was a child who wrote and drew, often at the very same time. https://www.annahfeinberg.com/
SARAH GUBBINS hails from Chicago. Her plays include The Kid Thing (Jeff Award and Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award), fml: how Carson McCullers saved my life, Fair Use, The Drinking Problem, and Cocked. She’s has been a Carl J. Djerassi Fellow and Jerome Fellow. Currently she’s a Core Writer of the Playwrights’ Center. She holds a M.F.A. from Northwestern University in Writing for the Screen + Stage. She lives in Los Angeles.
LAURA JACQMIN is a Los Angeles-based writer for television, video games, and the live theater. She’s currently a Writer-Supervising Producer on “Get Shorty” (MGM/Epix) and is a founding member of The Kilroys. Selected plays: Residence (40th Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville); January Joiner (Long Wharf Theatre); Ski Dubai (Steppenwolf Theatre); A Third (Finborough Theatre London); Dental Society Midwinter Meeting (Williamstown Theatre Festival; Chicago Dramatists/At Play, 16th Street Theater). Awards: Wasserstein Prize, two NEA Art Works Grants, ATHE-Kennedy Center David Mark Cohen Playwriting Award, two MacDowell Fellowships. Other television: “Grace and Frankie” (Netflix); “Lucky 7” (ABC). Video Games: “The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series – A New Frontier”, “Minecraft: Story Mode” (both with Telltale Games), and “Life 2.0” (Fogbank). She received her BA from Yale University, and earned an MFA in Playwriting from Ohio University.
JOY MEADS is Director of Dramaturgy and New Works at American Conservatory Theater. ACT credits include Communion by Christopher Chen, Gloria by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Wakey Wakey by Will Eno, Testmatch by Kate Attwell, Sweat by Lynn Nottage, Men on Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus, Seascape by Edward Albee, Her Portmanteau by Mfoniso Udofia, The Great Leap by Lauren Yee, and Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco. Prior to ACT, she was Literary Manager/Artistic Engagement Strategist at Center Theatre Group. CTG credits include Archduke by Rajiv Joseph, Good Grief by Ngozi Anyanwu, Approp
Kelly Miller is the Founder of Luminosity Management, a boutique management and production company representing playwrights in TV and Film. Over the last decade, she’s worked as a TV Lit Manager, Agent, Producer, and the Director of Development for New Neighborhood (Rolin Jones’ former production company). Her writers have worked on prestigious shows including GASLIT, THE DROPOUT, THE BEAR, and NEW AMSTERDAM and developed projects with Higher Ground, Bassett Vance, Scott Free, Broadway Video, Showtime, AMC, Paramount, NBC Universal and Audible, among others. Prior to her work in TV, Miller served as South Coast Repertory’s Literary Director and the Co-Director of the Pacific Playwrights Festival from 2009-2015, commissioning and developing over 40 new plays and championing hundreds of other playwrights. She’s worked at Actors Theatre of Louisville, Williamstown and Long Wharf Theatre and consulted for the O’Neill, Berkeley Rep, the Kennedy Center, Public Theater, the Playwrights Center, New Harmony Project, and Native Voices at the Autry. Recent residencies include Lake Tofte Center and SPACE on Ryder Farm. She served on the board of WP Theater and as an Ambassador-at-Large for the National New Play Network for many years. Kelly continues to develop new work for TV, Film and Theater, including past development at AMC.
MEG MIROSHNIK is an LA-based, Minneapolis-bred playwright who writes heightened language. Plays include The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls (Yale Rep; Alliance), The Tall Girls (Alliance; O’Neill; La Jolla Playhouse DNA Series), The Droll (Pacific Playwrights Festival; Undermain) and Lady Tattoo (Pacific Playwrights Festival, Rattlestick F*cking Good Plays Festival). Awards: Whiting Award, Susan Smith Blackburn finalist, Alliance/Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Award. Publications: Samuel French. MFA: Yale School of Drama under Paula Vogel. Affiliation: Core Writer at the Playwrights’ Center. Upcoming: Sonnet: A Play, a Shakespeare-inspired commission for the Acting Company.
DARIA POLATIN is an award-winning playwright, TV writer-producer and author. Daria’s plays include Palmyra, In Tandem, Guidance, That First Fall, D.C., and The Luxor Express, inspired by her father’s life growing up in Egypt. Her work has been produced at The Kennedy Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Cherry Lane Theater, Primary Stages, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Golden Thread Productions, Noor Theatre, Cape Cod Theatre Project, in London, Los Angeles and Hong Kong. She is an alumna of Center Theatre Group Writers Workshop, Echo Theater Writer’s Lab, Youngblood and a residency with London’s Royal Court Theatre. Daria has directed plays and her short film, “Till It Gets Weird.” In TV Daria’s writer-producer credits include Jack Ryanstarring John Krasinski (Amazon), Stephen King’s Castle Rock, Condor (MGM) and Shut Eye (Hulu). Daria’s debut novel Devil in Ohio is published by Macmillan and in development as a TV series with Netflix. Awards: Kennedy Center/A.C.T.F. Best One-Act Play, Middle East America Playwriting Prize Honorable Mention, Wasserstein Prize Nominee, Princess Grace Award Finalist; MFA Columbia University. www.dariapolatin.com
TANYA SARACHO was born in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, México. She is a playwright and Television Writer who’s worked on How To Get Away With Murder, HBO’s Looking, & Girls, and Devious Maids. She is creating and has been tapped as showrunner by Starz for “Pour Vida,” a series in development. Named “Best New Playwright” by Chicago Magazine, Saracho has had plays produced at: Primary Stages in NYC, 2nd Stage in NYC, Denver Theatre Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Goodman Theater, Steppenwolf Theater, Teatro Vista, Teatro Luna, Fountain Theater, Clubbed Thumb, NEXT Theater and 16th Street Theater. Saracho was named one of nine national Latino “Luminarios” by Café magazine and given the first “Revolucionario” Award in Theater by the National Museum of Mexican Art. She is the founder of Teatro Luna (the first all-Latina Theatre Company in the nation, now defunct) as well as the founder of ALTA (Alliance of Latino Theatre Artists). Saracho is currently in development with Big Beach Films for a project about brujería and under commission with: South Coast Repertory Theatre and Two Rivers Theatre.
MARISA WEGRZYN Chicago playwright working in LA. Writer of Mud Blue Sky, The Butcher of Baraboo, Hickorydickory, Killing Women, Ten Cent Night, other stuff. Gigs at Steppenwolf, Second Stage NYC, Baltimore Center Stage, A Red Orchid Theatre, Chicago Dramatists, Theatre Seven, Moxie Theatre, other places. Winner of the Wendy Wasserstein Playwriting Prize. Writer on TV shows Mind Games (ABC), The Mentalist (CBS), and Feed the Beast (AMC). Enjoys weather.