Lightning Bios

Facilitators

Zharia O’Neal (she/her/hers) is a poet, playwright, and multi-medium storyteller hailing from the British Virgin Islands. Her work, self-baptized B/black comedy, tends to explore chosen / unchosen families, the queerness of liminal space and memory, and has been recognized and commissioned by HUMANITAS. O’Neal is an International Artists’ Fellow and 2022 graduate of the MFA program in Dramatic Writing at the University of Southern California. She has worked in association with the Ojai Playwrights’ Conference, RealTime Productions, Playwrights’ Arena, City Hearts, and P.S. Arts. Her works include: the blood of a hibiscus, Seven Stage Circle (Pasadena Playhouse Reading 2022), and poetry collection rottincrop.

Janet Hayatshahi (she/her) is an actor, director, and educator. She served as Associate Artistic Director of San Diego’s Sledgehammer Theatre and was an ensemble member of the company. She was also a member of the ensemble of Chicago’s Eclipse Theatre Company. Select directing credits include: Launching Ships (Center Stage), Thirsting for Salt (Grüntaler9 in Berlin), A Vast Hoard (Chalk Rep and the LA Natural History Museum),  9 Parts of Desire (Mo’olelo Performing Arts Center – KPBS Patté Award for Outstanding Direction), The Turn of the Screw (Cygnet Theatre), and directing assistant for Robert Woodruff on Notes From Underground (La Jolla Playhouse). She is currently an assistant professor in the theatre program at Seattle University.

Playwrights

Kayla Brown (she/her) is a disabled activist and (sometimes) comedian from Seattle. She believes that art and other media forms are a way to break down stereotypes, build community, and transform people’s worlds. When not at work or school, Kayla co-produces the comedy show The Disabled List, plays video games, reads fanfiction, and eats snacks. 

Marcus Harrison Green is the publisher of the South Seattle Emerald, and a columnist with the Seattle Times. Growing up in South Seattle, he experienced first-hand the impact of one-dimensional stories on marginalized communities, which taught him the value of authentic narratives. This led him to become a writer and found the South Seattle Emerald. An award-winning journalist, he was awarded the Seattle Human Rights Commissions’ Individual Human Rights Leader Award for 2020, and named the inaugural James Baldwin Fellow by the Northwest African American Museum in 2022. His book Readying to Rise was named a 2022 Washington State Book Award Finalist.

Dan Hurwitz is a disabled, Black, and Jewish writer, comedian, and filmmaker. In 2018, he co-founded The Disabled List, an ever-growing collective of disabled comedians from the Pacific Northwest. Dan was a semi-finalist in both the Laughs Comedy Competition (2019) and the Stand-Up NBC comedy competition (2019). During the Covid-19 pandemic, Dan co-wrote, co-directed, and co-starred in “This Is Spinal Injury” (2021), a mockumentary about the trials of disabled artists during quarantine, which premiered at Northwest Film Forum’s Local Sightings Film Festival in September, 2021. The Disabled List is putting on their first ever comedy festival January 27-28, featuring 7 local comedians, a touring national headliner, and a special musical guest. Purchase tickets at: https://nwfilmforum.org/festivals/the-disabled-list-festival-2023-in-person-only/ 

Nick Kuntzman is a writer, comedian, and tradesman who cut his teeth performing all around the Chicagoland area. He hosted the Midwestern Hospitality Open Mic, was the opening act of The Human Extinction Comedy Tour, and was the sole producer of the Mouth Breathers Comedy Show at The Lincoln Lodge. His brash delivery, working class background, and philosophical fixations combine to create a critical yet affectionate view of modern society.

Clark Matthews is a filmmaker and producer based in Seattle.

NEVE (they/(s)he) is a Disabled,  multiracial, multidimensional dramatic terpsichorean non-binary femme artist. They are an Indigenous African living in Duwamish country and traveling wherever they have access/an invitation. (S)He is a 2020 Pina Bausch Fellow, a 2022 Arc Artist Fellow and a Disability Ford Futures Fellow! NEVE loves life, the delights and pains of love, the higher power inside us, the earth’s lullabies and war cries, drinking color, and dreaming with their queer family (especially their cat child Caravaggio). They collaborate with fellow Seattle multidisciplinary artist Saira Barbaric as MouthWater. Visit him online at nevebebad.com, and on social medias at @nevethoh.

ChrisTiana ObeySumner is a Black, queer, non-binary, and multiply disabled researcher, thought leader, storyteller, and activist. They are CEO and principal consultant of Epiphanies of Equity LLC, a social equity consulting firm specializing in change management, social and organizational psychology, intersectional equity and liberation, and disability justice. For two decades, they’ve dedicated their life and career to exploring and practicing innovative approaches to achieving social equity – in other words, how to sustainably and effectively bring parity to areas of disparity so “humans can human with other humans” equitably, collectively, and intersectionally.