Raynah Joi Howard is an actor, playwright, spoken word poet, dungeons & dragons defender, and farmer’s market fiend. Her father sat her in front of her the original West Side Story as soon as she understood what all three of those words meant and, unbeknownst to him, unleashed a monster unto the world.
Born and raised in the Bronx, NYC, Raynah has an innate passion for building community, cooking (though she denies all picky eater allegations), and unearthing the beauty in the everyday. She prides herself on building work that asks us to focus on the fantastical, often freaky and uncomfortable, things that ride on the undercurrent of our lives. She also makes a lot of stuff about black women, politics, and bugs. Moreso the bugs.
She can typically be found reading a play instead of writing, writing instead of cooking, or cooking instead of practically anything else she has to do.