Jess McLeod [she/her] is a New York-based director and social justice advocate specializing in risky new work about America. NYCLU Artist-In-Residence (Creatives Rebuild) and BOLD Resident Director (Woolly Mammoth). She has directed and developed new plays, musicals and opera at theatres across the country and served as Resident Director of Hamilton Chicago, Co-Chair (with Michael Korie) of the Dramatists Guild Foundation’s Musical Theatre Fellows Program, and Refocus Project Lead Curator at Roundabout Theatre Company. Working frequently at the intersection of arts and activism, Jess has also created operas with community groups (Lyric Opera of Chicago), musicals with incarcerated teen Chicagoans (Storycatchers Theatre), the #STOPASIANHATE video campaign for NY Rep. Grace Meng’s 3/26 Day of Action & Healing (co-creator), and curated Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s inaugural Arts In Action Festival. Recent/upcoming work includes The Thanksgiving Play (Steppenwolf); The Family Album, a new musical commission for La Jolla Playhouse; and On the Evolutionary Function of Shame at Second Stage. MFA: Northwestern. 1st Gen Korean-Filipina-Scottish American. www.jess-mcleod.com | @mcjessmc
Jess McLeod
Jess McLeod [she/her] is a New York-based director and social justice advocate specializing in risky new work about America. NYCLU Artist-In-Residence (Creatives Rebuild) and BOLD Resident Director (Woolly Mammoth). She has directed and developed new plays, musicals and opera at theatres across the country and served as Resident Director of Hamilton Chicago, Co-Chair (with Michael Korie) of the Dramatists Guild Foundation’s Musical Theatre Fellows Program, and Refocus Project Lead Curator at Roundabout Theatre Company. Working frequently at the intersection of arts and activism, Jess has also created operas with community groups (Lyric Opera of Chicago), musicals with incarcerated teen Chicagoans (Storycatchers Theatre), the #STOPASIANHATE video campaign for NY Rep. Grace Meng’s 3/26 Day of Action & Healing (co-creator), and curated Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s inaugural Arts In Action Festival. Recent/upcoming work includes The Thanksgiving Play (Steppenwolf); The Family Album, a new musical commission for La Jolla Playhouse; and On the Evolutionary Function of Shame at Second Stage. MFA: Northwestern. 1st Gen Korean-Filipina-Scottish American. www.jess-mcleod.com | @mcjessmc