2022 Playwrights

Lameece Issaq is an actor, writer and Founding Artistic Director of the Obie-winning company Noor Theatre, dedicated to the work of theater artists of Middle Eastern descent. Lameece has appeared in several regional and off-Broadway theater productions, including The Fever Chart and Stuff Happens (Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Ensemble) at the Public Theatre, The Black Eyed at New York Theatre Workshop and Noura at The Old Globe, among several others. She recently appeared in Mike Mosallam’s critically acclaimed film Breaking Fast. Lameece is also an accomplished audiobook narrator having narrated Saudi Arabian author Manal Al-Sharif’s timely autobiography, Daring to Drive and most recently, The Magical Reality of Nadia, co- written by The Daily Show’s Bassem Youssef. As a playwright, she’s written various short plays produced in The New York Arab-American Comedy Festival; as well as Noor & Hadi Go to Hogwarts (Theater Breaking Through Barriers, Golden Thread Theater); and Nooha’s List, part of the compilation play, Motherhood Outloud (Hartford Stage, The Geffen and Primary Stages). Her full length play Food and Fadwa, 2011 recipient of the Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, premiered off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop, a production she co- produced and starred in, and in which Variety magazine praised her performance as “stunning.” Food and Fadwa was a part of the Arab Voices Festival in both Abu Dhabi and Beirut and was published in the anthology “Contemporary Plays By Women of Color,” second edition. She also co-wrote the feature film Abe, directed by Fernando Grostein Andrade, and starring Stranger Things’ Noah Schnapp, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. She is currently developing her solo play, A Good Day to Me, Not to You, a fictionalized story based on her time living in a woman’s rooming house run by nuns. Lameece is a member of AEA and SAG- AFTRA. 2016 NYFA Finalist in Playwriting/Screenwriting. www.lameeceissaq.com