BRANDON BOGLE (Facilitator)

Brandon Bogle is a multi-disciplinary artist based in NYC. He is a current MFA student for the Rita & Burton Playwriting Program at Hunter College and recent finalist of the 2024 O’Neill NPC. As the co-lead of the LIT Council, Brandon is excited about helping his cohort in developing their new work in this space. Having worked as a Technical Director for many years and now as a Production Manager at Baruch Performing Arts Center, Brandon hopes to bring all of his skills in to bolster up this group as much as he can.

PJ O’NEAL

PJ O’Neal is a playwright, educator, food writer, and former drag performer. A multi-hyphenated artist, he likes to approach writing from a multi-disciplinary approach. His solo show (written and performed by O’Neal himself) CODE RED had its world premier at the Borderlight Fringe Festival in 2023. In addition to his playwriting, his food writing has been featured in global publications such as Allrecipes, Bon Appetit, Food & Wine, and The Spruce Eats. He currently resides in New York City with his husband.

TYLER DOBIES

Tyler Dobies is a theater maker based in NYC originally from the Pacific Northwest. He is the product of evergreen trees, bumpy dirt roads, curiosity, homeschooling in the basement, and the feeling of not being good enough, among other things. Tyler is an inaugural recipient of Primary Stages' Creative Access Grant, nominated by Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. As a recipient, he wrote his play BARREL MEN and developed it with Pan Asian Repertory Theatre and Primary Stages. His solo show WE MUST SEE THESE THINGS was included in Pan Asian's NUWORKS 2021. Additionally, his plays and poetry have been performed and/or produced at Intiman Theatre, American Legacy Theatre, Theatre Crude Fringe Festival, Milwaukee Fringe Festival, as well as Fremont Abbey Arts Center. Recently, Tyler was a writer with The PlayGround Experiment's Voices of America Writers Workshop #10. He holds a BFA in Acting/Directing from Pacific Lutheran University and Master of Music from NYU. This is his first year with The Tank's LIT Council. www.tylerdobies.com

AL SIERRA

Al Sierra (he/they) is an Afro Puerto Rican-Jamaican, New York City born, and based playwright, writer and actor. He received a BSc. from Cornell University and worked in advertising as a copywriter and creative director before embarking on his journey as a storyteller. Al is a member of the Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group (2023-2025) and The LIT Council at The Tank. His work has received developmental support from The National Black Theatre and The National Queer Theater. When he’s not telling stories, Al spends an inordinate amount of time thinking about inequality, identity, NYC, blackholes, The 90s, and Rihanna.

www.alvinsierra.com

JESSE JAE HOON

Jesse Jae Hoon is a playwright, organizer, and actor – born in South Korea, raised in Chicago & Berlin, and based in Queens. Jesse is a hopeful cynic whose work combines raucous comedy with a deeply felt sense of urgency to investigate power, class, hope, and our responsibility to the collective good. 2024 Rattlestick Theater Terrence McNally New Works Incubator Fellow; 2022-2024 CRNY Resident Artist, Ma-Yi Theater Company; 2024 season, O’Neill NPC; 2023-2025 member, the Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group; 2024 MacDowell Fellow; 2023 Ollie New Play Award winner; 2022-2023 Writing Fellow at The Playwrights Realm; under commission from Theater J; inaugural Radio Roots fellow with The Parsnip Ship; an inaugural member of the Orchard Project Adaptation Lab; a member of The TANK NYC's LIT Council, Page Break. MFA in Playwriting from Hunter College, BFA in Drama from NYU Tisch. jessejaehoon.com

SAMUEL KANG

Samuel Kang (he/him) is an Asian-American actor and playwright born and raised in Queens, NY. He was awarded the National Undergraduate Playwriting Award and the Paul Stephen Lim Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for his full length “what we will be”. He is currently finishing up his BFA degree in Acting from Adelphi University and is based in Brooklyn, NY. He is honored to be among other brilliant artists within the Lit Council and looks forward to gaining a greater understanding of his craft through collaboration with his fellow playwrights!

PJ JOHNNIE JR.

PJ Johnnie Jr, is an NYC based multi hyphenate storyteller and curator from the Deep South. His extensive credits include serving as associate director on the 6time Tony nominated Broadway production of Ain’t No Mo’, the world premiere of one in two (Signature Theatre), and NY premiere of Black Odyssey (Classic Stage Company Theatre). Other AD credits include Callaloo and the Magic Quilt (Kennedy Center), Tis Pity She's a Whore (NYU Tisch), and Macbeth, Hamlet, and Julius Caesar (Stages on the Sound). In addition to his role as AD, he was the associate choreographer of BLACK ODYSSEY and the Choreographer of The Real Housewives of the Restoration (NYU Tisch) and Marriage or Made (Harvard TDM). His teaching credits include NYU Tisch, Harvard University, Canady Foundation for the Arts,the Stuttering Association for Youth, and Stages on the Sound. PJ is currently the Choreographer on the first regional tour of FATHAM( Huntington& Alliance (2023-24) . He holds a BA in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Directing (Grambling State) and an MFA in Acting (New School).

MYLAN GRAY (Facilitator)

Mylan Gray (they/he) is an Eagle Scout and debate champion turned Black absurdist playwright. They are a descendant of black educators and soldiers and are preoccupied with transforming Black suffering into Black joy, laughter and peace. They have received the Lorraine Hansberry Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival for their play, Buried in Blood. Their work has been developed by the Tank Theater, the Workshop Theater, the Kansas City Public Theater, the Whim Theater Company, the Mid-America Theater Conference, the Westmont Hive Festival and the Writing Downtown Residency in Las Vegas. They are a graduate of Stanford University, where they received the Kennell Jackson Jr. Award, the Braden Storytelling Grant, and a Chappell Lougee Scholarship. They are co-producer of the LIT Council of the Tank Theater, and have written a fiction podcast for LWC Studios. Their work draws on his deep reverence for Brazil and a penchant for spiritual journeying. When they are not writing, reading, or watching films, they are in the forest soaking up the songs of birds and listening to the world's oldest keeper of stories: the trees. He is currently a second-year MFA student in Playwriting at UC San Diego.

Maleek Rae

Maleek Rae (they/them) is a gender queer multidisciplinary Rapper/Writer/Actor hailing from the eastside of Detroit, MI. Maleek is a graduate of the SUNY Purchase BFA acting conservatory. Their credits include The Best Man: The Final Chapters(Peacock), Random Acts of Flyness(HBO), East New York(CBS), and their recurring role on Law & Order: Organized Crime(NBC). Maleek's work can also be seen on stages throughout NYC, national commercials, video games, and their own original multi media creations. Their plays include Ghetto Alchemy: A Lunchroom Survival Guide and Guttah. Maleek is a 2023-24' Institute fellow with Target Margin Theatre, a 2024 EMERGE cohort member at Brooklyn Art Exchange, a current member of LIT Council, a developmental intensive for playwrights at the Tank, and was a 2023 Greenhouse Resident at SPACE on Ryder Farm. Outside of their theatrical work, Rae exercises their pen through lyrical flows and hard hitting punch lines, which can be heard throughout their debut mixtape Ghetto Alchemy: Vol 1. All glory be to God, “Work Hard and Pray Harder.”