Nkenna Akunna

Nkenna Akunna is an Igbo playwright and performer from London whose work primarily explores friendship, time, and various dimensions of Black femme life. Plays include Some Of Us Exist in the Future (2022 Bruntwood Prize longlist, 2021 Papatango Prize; 2021 Neukom Institute Literary Award for Playwriting second place; 2021 Women’s Prize in Playwriting shortlist; UK audio tour inc. Bush Theatre, Everyman Theatre Liverpool, Theatr Clwyd, Leeds Playhouse, Bristol Old Vic, Lyric Theatre Belfast), cheeky little brown (Bushwick Starr, Brown University), good god (VoxFest, Brown University), Good Fit (2020 Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, 2020 Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award second place, Theatre Renegade, The Dare Tactic), a meal (Polaroid Theatre).

Nkenna is a member of the 2022/23 Soho Rep Writer Director Lab cohort. Other honours include an upcoming residency at Hedgebrook, 2022/23 DGF finalist, and a Playwriting Fellowship at Sewanee Writers’ Conference. She has a BA in Economics and African Diaspora Studies from Dartmouth College and is completing an MFA in Playwriting from Brown University, where she is the recipient of the Lucille Lortel Playwriting Fellowship.  Nkenna is also co-director at Skin Deep, a collective that makes space for Black creatives and creatives of color through cultural production. nkennaakunna.com [nkennaakunna.com]