photo by Julian Mesri

Leah Nanako Winkler grew up in between Kamakura Japan and Lexington, Kentucky. She attended college in Indianapolis and  immediately after, she began assisting playwright and director Young Jean Lee and worked with her company until 2009.    Leah’s plays has been seen at the  Ontological Hysteric Theater ( Pale Horse…6Speed-cowriter, Sintesi Dogpile), The Brick Theater (Big Girls Club- Happy Dance Dance Princess Show),  HERE Arts Center (The Formula Play, Bieber Bug),  The Incubator Arts Project (THE INTERNET.), 3LD Technology Center ( DEAD PEOPLE cowritten and co-directed with Teddy Nicholas ), Little Theatre @ Dixon Place, The Ensemble Studio Theatre and her latest play, FLYING SNAKES IN 3-D!!!, created by Everywhere Theatre Group and cowritten with Teddy Nicholas, has been seen at Ars Nova, The Brick Theater, and is upcoming at the 2012 Ice Factory Fest at the New Ohio Theater.  Leah has had various readings and workshops around town including Asian And… at The Cherry Lane Theater,  The Food Play at New York Theatre Workshop, New Georges, as well as  venues   in  Philly,  Florida, Washington, DC’s and Indianapolis.  She was a  2008-2009 short form resident at the Ontological Hysteric Theater with Everywhere Theatre Group,  a 2010-2011 member of Terra Nova Theater Collective’s Groundbreakers Playwright Group,  a current member of Youngblood, a  founding member of th Everywhere Theatre Group, and an affiliated artist at New Georges. In addition to her plays, Leah’s essays on hapa identity have been seen on Discover Nikkei through an A/P/A commission for the Japanese American National Museum in California. English is her second language.