SAMANTHA TOY OZEAS
ABOUT SAMANTHA TOY OZEAS
Samantha Toy Ozeas (she/they) is a Brooklyn-based director and playwright and recent graduate from the John Wells Directing Program at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Directing credits include The Chinese Lady (Southern Plains Productions), Athena (Carnegie Mellon University), One Day Down (SheNYC), Park Song (Frank-Ratchye Studio for Creative Inquiry Grant), Nannyville (Grassroots Artist Collective), r/TheRedPill (Back in Blacks), God Has Retired (Carnegie Mellon University), and Major Minor (The Complex). Samantha spent a summer assisting Paul Mullins on Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s production of Pride and Prejudice, and recently assisted Chay Yew on the world premiere of Good Enemy, presented by Audible Theatre. Their film directing credits include Can We Pretend (Hollyshorts), SCHEJ (Miami Webfest), STICKY, and Think.
During her time at university, Samantha served four years as Student Representative for the Carnegie Directing department. They also dedicated much of their time to ZAPI Artists, writing publications relating to Asian/Pacific Islander history, theory, and culture.
Her original work explores mixed race identities, the connection of nature to humanity, solidarity, exploitation, PTSD, internet anonymity, the intersections of race and sexual violence, alt-right hatred, and racial bias in academic institutions.
CURRENTLY:
-I’ll Be The Brightest Someday by Dena Igusti (The Motor Company, September 2023)
-Bad Things by Shara Feit (Workshop, September 2023)
-Chinatown, My Chinatown by Shirley Chen (Ma-Yi, Fall 2023)
“I use fantasy to ask questions about civic engagement and believe that storytelling's most important power is to lead audiences into reimagine futures. I create character-centric work that shows both the dream and the nightmare. I make excuses to work with the people I love and admire. I am drawn to site-specific work that interacts with its environment, world-building, and leaving questions unanswered. I make work I can cry to.”
