Ito Aghayere is a Nigerian, Canadian, American actress and former White House intern who was never the kind of kid who wanted to grow up to become a ballerina or the President of the United States. All she wanted was to be able to use her big mouth without getting in trouble for it. full profile 

Tara Ahmadinejad is a NYC-based director, and co-founding member of the live arts collective Piehole. She has directed boundary-pushing live art works for theaters, galleries, and digital spaces.  full profile 

Courtney Baron is a New York-based playwright and television writer. Her play, When It’s You, premiered at the Keen Company in New York City and was part of Aspen Theater’s inaugural Solo Flight Festival. full profile 

Directed the original production of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change which ran for 12 years and 5,003 performances, (the second longest running musical in off-Broadway history) as well as productions in North America, London’s West End, Tokyo, and the Mandarin language production in Shanghai a full profile 

Renee is the Managing Director of Ars Nova, where she's produced award-winning new plays including Underground Railroad Game & Small Mouth Sounds, while growing the company by over 25% in just three years. Prior to Ars Nova, Renee was the Producing Director of the Playwrights Realm. full profile 

Jeremy Blocker is the Managing Director at New York Theatre Workshop where he has overseen more than 20 productions. Since his arrival, Jeremy has stewarded the growth of NYTW’s annual operating budget from $4.5 million to $7 million. full profile 

Sara Buffamanti is the Associate Director of Education and member of the Voice and Movement Faculty at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. Sara received her BFA in Acting from the University of California at Santa Barbara and her MFA in Acting from Columbia University in 2005. full profile 

Christopher Burney is the Artistic Director of New York Stage and Film. Previously, he was the Tony Nominated Artistic Producer of New York’s Second Stage Theatre where he worked since 1996. full profile 

Carrie Casselman is a partner at Davis Wright Tremaine, where her law practice focuses on media and entertainment transactions, including live stage, audio-visual content, music, sports, video games and publishing. full profile 

Steven runs the MFA Theatre Management & Producing Program. Through his company, Snug Harbor Productions, he produces and manages shows on and off Broadway, around the USA and internationally. full profile 

Hammaad Chaudry is a New York City based playwright from Edinburgh, Scotland. His work has been staged in both the U.K. and U.S. including the The Royal Court Theatre in London, The New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, The Pershing Square Signature Center and The Flea Theater. full profile 

Rachel Chavkin received the 2019 Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Director of a Musical for Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown. full profile 

Carl Cofield: Is a New York based director and actor. He directed the award winning world premiere of One Night In Miami (Huffingtion Post best of L.A. 2013, N.A.A.C.P., L.A. Drama Critics Circle and others) for Rogue Machine Theater. full profile 

Clarence Coo has served as Program Administrator of the Graduate Writing Program since 2010. He received his MFA in Playwriting from the Columbia University School of the Arts and is the recipient of the 2012 Yale Drama Series Prize. He is a member of New Dramatists and the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. full profile 

Kia Corthron's A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick premiered at Playwrights Horizons in spring 2010. full profile 

Kate Croasdale is a freelance stage manager based in New York City. Her Broadway credits include: Sunday in the Park with George, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Ghost The Musical, Relatively Speaking and Dead Accounts. full profile 

Migdalia Cruz is an award-winning playwright, lyricist, translator, & librettist of more than 55 works including: El Grito Del Bronx, Salt, Lucy Loves Me, Fur, Miriam’s Flowers, Frida, & Lolita de Lares; produced in the U.S. full profile 

Benita is a Columbia University MFA Directing candidate originally from Sydney, Australia. full profile 

Julie Dobrow is currently Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. In this position, she oversees admissions and financial aid strategy and implementation for the graduate Film, Theatre, Writing, and Visual Arts programs. full profile 

Bathsheba Doran’s play Parents’ Evening received its world premiere at The Flea Theater in April 2010, directed by Jim Simpson. Her play Ben and The Magic Paintbrush premiered at South Coast Repertory Theater in June 2010. full profile 

Julie Dubiner is the associate director of American Revolutions at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. American Revolutions is a commissioning project with the goal of creating 37 new plays concerning moments of great change in US history. full profile 

Liz Engelman is a member of the Playwriting and Directing faculty at UT Austin. full profile 

Kareem Fahmy is a Canadian-born director and playwright of Egyptian descent. full profile 

Stephen Fife's plays Savage World, Break of Day and This Is Not What I Ordered have been published by Samuel French. Other plays include Sizzle Sizzle, Blue Kiss, Mickey’s Home, Scattered Blossoms, FutureSex, The Shadow Man and The American Wife (with Ralph Pezzullo). full profile 

Shirley Fishman is the director of play development for the La Jolla Playhouse, where she has also served as dramaturg on Carmen, The Deception, Most Wanted, The Wiz, Culture Clash's Zorro in Hell, The Scottish Play, Palm Beach, Eden Lane, When Grace Comes In, Adoration of the Old Woman, The Collect full profile 

Jeff Fligelman is a playwright and screenwriter and the co-founder of Gotham Writers' Workshop. full profile 

Ashlin Halfnight’s plays include Second Life (2012 O’Neill Playwright’s Conference Finalist), A Hard Wall at High Speed (Directed by May Adrales, APAC, Nominated for Outstanding Premiere Production of 2011, NYITA), Balaton (Nominated for Best Play of 2009, NYITA), Good Pictures (Outstanding New Play full profile 

Michel Hausmann '14 is a Venezuelan-born theater director, producer and writer. He is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Miami New Drama, the resident company and operators of the historic Colony Theatre on Miami Beach. full profile 

Adam Hess the Executive General Manager and Associate Producer for Daryl Roth Productions and oversees its Venue, Management, and Advertising companies. Adam has a background that includes Broadway, Off-Broadway, immersive and international productions. Mr. Hess holds a B.F.A. full profile 

Her plays have been workshopped, produced, developed, and commissioned by The Hangar Theatre, NYTW, Woodshed Collective, Source Festival D.C.,Samuel French OOB Festival, Columbia University and The Great Plains Theatre Conference. full profile 

Rebecca Lingafelter is an actor, director and educator based in Portland, Oregon. full profile 

Pavol Liska, a native of Slovakia, began directing plays after he graduated from Dartmouth in 1995. During this time he cofounded the Nature Theater of Oklahoma, a theater company taking its name from Kafka’s Amerika. full profile 

Jessica Litwak, Ph.D, is a seasoned theatre arts professional focused specifically on theatre for social change and community engagement. She is a recognized leader in the Field with over 30 years experience. full profile 

Three-time Tony Award-winning producer Hal Luftig has worked in Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres for the past 20 years. His plays and musicals have garnered 23 Tony Awards, 6 Drama Desk Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. full profile 

Oliver Mayer is a playwright, poet, children's author and librettist, whose new opera 3 Paderewskis, composed by Jenni Brandon, received its world premiere at the Kennedy Center in November, 2020 and won The American Prize for opera composition. full profile 

Winter Miller is a founding member of the Obie-winning collective 13P. Her plays have been performed in New York City and nationwide. She leads writing workshops. Her new play is about the history of abortion. full profile 

A native of Malaysia and New Zealand, K.K. Moggie has worked in both Malaysia, New Zealand and now New York. She moved to New York to attend Columbia University School of the Arts Theatre Program. Since graduating in 2007 with her MFA in acting, she has performed in numerous theatre projects. full profile 

Daaimah Mubashshir is a playwright and theatre-maker. Her work has been commissioned by the Guthrie Theater and 3 Hole Press. full profile 

Nick Hadikwa Mwaluko's plays Waafrika, Waafrika 123 and several others are available in paperback. These are queer African plays set in Africa. full profile 

Tommy Nohilly made his playwriting debut Off-Broadway with Blood from a Stone for The New Group. The play, starring Ethan Hawke, was Nohilly’s first and his thesis play for Columbia. It opened to rave reviews from The New York Times, Slant, and others. full profile 

Michael Paller was resident dramaturg and Director of Humanities at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco from 2005-2018. He was the dramaturg for over 80 productions and workshops and also served as one of the Heads of Faculty in its esteemed MFA Program in Acting. full profile 

Christian Parker is a director, dramaturg, and former Chair of the graduate Theatre Program (2012-19) at Columbia  University, where he also heads the Dramaturgy concentration. full profile 

Diane Paulus is the Artistic Director of the A.R.T. at Harvard University and was selected for the 2014 TIME 100, TIME Magazine’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Paulus is the 2013 recipient of the Tony Award for Best Director of a Musical (Pippin).   full profile 

Ming Peiffer is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter from Columbus, Ohio. full profile 

Ken Rus Schmoll is a theater director who has achieved a string of Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway successes. Recently, he garnered positive reviews with Will Eno’s Middletown (Vineyard Theatre). full profile 

A 2011/12 Guggenheim Fellow, and 2012 OBIE Winner for best Direction, Scheib is a director, designer and author of plays, operas and live art events. full profile 

Margi Sharp Douglas is an MFA graduate of Columbia University’s Acting program, a Master Pilates instructor, and an ATI certified Alexander teacher through Chloe Wing. full profile 

Phumzile Sitole is is an actress and voice over artist from Johannesburg, South Africa with an MFA in acting from Columbia University School of the Arts. full profile 

Tony Speciale conceived, coauthored and directed the world premiere of Unnatural Acts: Harvard’s Secret Court of 1920 (Classic Stage Company—Drama Desk Award nomination, GLAAD Media Award nomination). full profile 

Michael Stotts is in his sixth season as Managing Director of Hartford Stage. Recent accomplishments include an $11 Million Capital and Endowment Campaign, and the renovation and expansion of the Stage’s theatre facility. full profile 

Ashley Tata makes multi-media works of theater, opera, performance, cyberformance and immersive experiences. full profile 

Mei Ann Teo (she/they) is a theatre/film maker who works at the intersection of artistic/civic/contemplative practice to shift culture towards justice and compassion. full profile 

Danielle has recently worked as an Entertainment Production Manager for Norwegian Cruise Lines on the Norwegian Star and as a freelance Equity Stage Manager in New York, working with such fabulous companies as LaMama, Waterwell, Off Stage Right Productions, Accidental Rep, PPAS and Musica Nuova full profile 

Darko Tresnjak was the Artistic Director of the Old Globe Shakespeare Festival in San Diego from 2004 to 2009.  His directing credits at the Old Globe include Cyrano de Bergerac, Coriolanus, The Women, The Pleasure of His Company, All’s Well That Ends Well, Bell, Book and Candle, Hamlet, T full profile 

After receiving an MFA in Theatre, Myra performed as an actress on Broadway, Off Broadway and in Regional theatres across the country. As a director, she has staged over 100 theatrical productions; as an acting coach she has worked with award winning actors both in the US and Hong Kong. full profile 

Barry Vigon is a television writer, producer and actor who teaches Television Writing at UCLA Extension. He has appeared on Broadway, television and film. His writing credits include Soap, Fame, Roseanne, Who's the Boss?, Martin, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and many more. full profile 

Alumni Spotlight Interview   Was there a specific faculty member or peer that especially inspired you while at the School of the Arts? If so, who and how? full profile 

Marce Walsh is an educator, writer and voice-over actress living in Houston, Texas. After completing her undergraduate work at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, she went directly to Columbia University's School of the Arts to study dramaturgy. full profile 

Kim Weild is a New York-based director, choreographer, performer, writer and teacher. For ten years she was a student at The School of American Ballet and performed with The New York City Ballet. full profile 

Beth Whitaker is Associate Artistic Director of Signature Theatre in New York. She has been with Signature since 1999, first as literary manager and production dramaturg, then as associate artistic director since 2006. full profile 

Barbara Whitman is a theatrical producer who made her Broadway debut producing A Raisin in the Sun, starring Sean Combs. full profile 

Beau Willimon is a screenwriter, playwright, producer.  He is the creator of Netflix’s original series House of Cards for which he serves as showrunner and executive producer.  House of Cards recently made television history, earning nine Emmy nominations, including Best Drama, the first o full profile 

David Wilson Barnes made his Broadway debut with The Lieutenant of Inishmore and starred in Fifth of July at the Bay Street Theatre. full profile