2019/20 L.A. Writers' Workshop

The 2019/2020 L.A. Writers' Workshop participants include Adelina Anthony, Ngozi Anyanwu, Jonathan Caren, Dionna Michelle Daniel, Boo Killebrew, Kenneth Lin, and Kemp Powers.

Adelina Anthony

Adelina Anthony is a critically acclaimed and award-winning Two Spirit Xicana Lesbian writer-actor-director-producer working primarily in the mediums of film and theater. She is currently directing the solo play, To T, or not to T, written and performed by D’Lo and produced by Jon Imparato at The Village.

Ngozi Anyanwu

Ngozi Anyanwu's playwriting credits include: Good Grief (Kilroys List 2016, semi finalist Princess Grace, Humanitas Award) was produced at Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles in Spring 2017 and Off-Broadway at The Vineyard Theatre in the fall of 2018. Nike… (Kilroys List 2017) was recently workshopped at The New Black Fest in conjunction with The Lark and The Strand Festival, in conjunction with A.C.T and Space on Ryder Farm and New York Stage and Film. The Homecoming Queen recently premiered at Atlantic Theatre to a sold-out run. Anyanwu has received residencies from LCT3, Space on Ryder Farm, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, The New Harmony Project, New York Stage and Film, and Page 73.

Jonathan Caren

Jonathan Caren's plays include Canyon (IAMA / Latino Theater Company, directed by Whitney White), The Recommendation (Windy City Playhouse, The Flea, The Old Globe, IAMA, Craig Noel Award for Best New Play, Ovation Best Play, NAACP nomination), Need to Know (Rogue Machine) and Catch the Fish (Most Outstanding Play, NY Fringe). Four Woke Baes recently premiered at the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe. Dramatist Guild Fellow, MacDowell Fellow, SPACE Fellow, NYSAF Founder’s Award Winner, Lecomte De Nouy Winner, Theater Publicus Prize for Dramatic Fiction. TV: The Sinner, Gypsy, Rise, and a million little things. B.F.A, The Juilliard School.

Dionna Michelle Daniel

Dionna Michelle Daniel is a playwright, actress, and vocalist from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. She is a graduate of California Institute of the Arts with a BFA in Acting and a minor in Creative Writing. Daniel's plays investigate trauma and how it is passed down generationally, the black psyche, mysticism and ancient spirituality. Weaving song and poeticism throughout most of her plays, Daniel beautifully captures the soul of what it means to be Black in America.

Her plays include Gunshot Medley: Parts I & II, Rain, River, Ocean, and Homegoing Play. Her theatre acting credits include: BlackTop Sky (Ida), In The Red And Brown Water (Shun), Hamletmachine (Ensemble), Jackie (Ensemble), Gunshot Medley: Part I (High Priestess). Daniel currently serves as the Artistic Associate at the Pasadena Playhouse.

As an advocate for arts education, she has led acting and writing workshops at Boyle Heights Arts Conservatory, A Place Called Home, Great Books Summer Program, and Authoring Action Organization. Other accomplishments include: 2017-2018 Core Apprentice at The Playwright's Center & 2018 Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights Diversity Fellow.

Boo Killebrew

Boo Killebrew was a Lila Acheson Playwriting Fellow at The Juilliard School and the recipient of The Paula Vogel Award at The Vineyard Theater. She is an alumni of the Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater, a recipient of a NYFA Fellowship, a resident of The SPACE Working Farm, an Affiliated Artist with New Georges, and Usual Suspect with New York Theater Workshop. Her plays include Lettie (Jeff Award, Best New Play; Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, Victory Gardens Theater) Miller, Mississippi (The Leah Ryan Prize, Dallas Theatre Center, Long Wharf Theater); Romance Novels for Dummies (Edgerton Foundation New Play Award, Williamstown Theater Festival), Days Like Dimaonds, the Play About My Dad (59e59 Theaters, The Raven Theater, Jermyn Street Theatre), The d Life, Caveat Emptor and The Momentum (NYC Fringe Festival Excellence Award for Overall Production of a Play; GLAAD Media Award Nominee). Her work has been presented at The Roundabout Theatre, The Public Theater, Williamstown Theater Festival, The Atlantic, New York Theater Workshop, New York Stage and Film, Perry Mansfield, Portland Center Stage, New Georges, Clubbed Thumb, The Huntington Theatre Co., 59e59 Theaters, The New Ohio, The Labyrinth, The Alley Theatre, and Boston Playwright's Theatre. Boo was an Edward F. Albee Foundation Fellow, an Artist in Residence at NYFA, The MacDowell Colony, Robert Wilson's Watermill Center, New York Theater Workshop, Williamstown Theater Festival, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Boo was a writer / producer for the TV series Longmire (Netflix), Mrs. America (FX), A Teacher (FX), Queen (Hulu), and Aim High (AMC, creator, executive producer). She is currently developing an original series for Amazon.

Kenneth Lin

Kenneth Lin is the author of the plays Life On Paper, Kleptocracy, Warrior Class, Pancakes, Pancakes!, Po Boy Tango, said Saïd, Agency*, Intelligence-Slave, Genius in Love, and The Lynching of a White Man In Rural, CA. He is a member of the theater/music/film collective New Neighborhood. Upcoming theatrical works: Farewell My Concubine with composer Jason Robert Brown (Cinematic Productions), Life On Paper (Jackalope Theatre Company) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with music by Stew and the Negro Problem. Television: Star Trek Discovery (CBS All Access), The First (Hulu), House of Cards (Netflix, Emmy nomination, best dramatic series), Warrior (HBO/Cinemax), and Sweetbitter (Starz). Feature Film: Abacus directed by Justin Lin. Education: Yale School of Drama. Awards/Honors: Winner Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Competition, Princess Grace Award, L. Arnold Weissberger Award, Cole Porter Prize, Edgerton New Play Prize, Fulbright Scholarship.

Kemp Powers

Kemp Powers is a playwright, screenwriter and storyteller. His plays include One Night in Miami…, Little Black Shadows, Christa McAuliffe’s Eyes Were Blue, The Two Reds, and A Negro by Choice. He received the 2013 Ted Schmitt Award for Outstanding New Play for the world premiere of One Night in Miami... in Los Angeles. That production also won three LA Drama Critics Circle Awards and four NAACP Theatre Awards. One Night’s 2016 production at London’s Donmar Warehouse was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Play. Powers also wrote the adapted screenplay for One Night, which is currently being developed into a feature film, directed by Academy Award-winning actress Regina King. His work has been developed at South Coast Repertory, Denver Center Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and the Classical Theatre of Harlem. He is the co-director and co-writer of the upcoming Disney/Pixar animated feature Soul (2020). In television, he was a writer for Star Trek: Discovery (CBS All Access) and has also developed several other projects. He has toured nationally as a storyteller for the Peabody Award-winning series, The Moth, and was one of the storytellers published in the first edition of their New York Times-bestselling book, The Moth: 50 True Stories.