2024-2025 Cohort
Noa Gardner
Noa Gardner is a Native Hawaiian poet and playwright born and raised in Kaimuki on the island of O’ahu. He recently graduated from the University of Southern California with an MFA Dramatic Writing. Noa investigates different aspects of Hawaiian culture, people, as well as his own family, through his writing. Much of his work centers on family dramas, specifically Hawaiian families in Hawaiian homes. He was a national finalist for the Gary Garrison Ten Minute play award (2016) and has had his plays read in collaboration with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Son of Semele Ensemble, Los Angeles Theatre Company, and Pasadena Playhouse.
Sean Dunnington
Sean Dunnington is a queer/jewish playwright from Hawai’i Island. His work has been presented in Off-Broadway and regional theatres across the country, as well as local libraries and galleries, state museums, old attics, public radio stations, international/national film festivals, and LGBTQ+ centers. He’s been in artistic residence with the East-West Center, Waiwai Collective, and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Campus Center. He’s been a fellow with the Dramatists Guild Foundation, Orchard Project, Magic Theatre, Creative Labs Hawai’i, National Collaborative for Health Equity, California Arts Council, The Asia Foundation, and Henry Luce Foundation. He is the Founding Director of Tree Moss (est. 2021). Sean received his MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2024 and his (self-designed) BA in Applied Playwriting from the University of Redlands’ Johnston Center for Integrative Studies in 2019. Sean is currently in Singapore as a 2024-2025 Henry Luce Scholar, with a placement at Centre 42 as a Visiting Resident Playwright.
Keali'iwahine
Hokoana-Gormley
Kealiʻiwahine Hokoana (she, her) is a Native Hawaiian dramatist from the island of Maui. She received her BA in Hawaiian Studies from the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, her AA in Liberal Arts from University of Maui College and her high school degree from the Kamehameha Schools. In 2003 she co-founded a local 501(c) 3 non-profit theater company in Hawaiʻi called Talking Stories, where she wrote and produced many of the productions. Keaʻs plays have shown all over Hawaiʻi and even at The Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Her play “The Legend of Kaululaʻau” was housed at the Ritz-Carlton-Kapalua for about a year. Her play “Koi, Like the Fish” was made into a film and shown all across Maui by the Office on Aging as an impetus for discussion about elder abuse. She is in her third year of being a member of Tree Moss.
Mākena Miller
Mākena Miller (She/They/Mak) grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii. Mak moved to New York City and experienced her first winter (yikes!) when she attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and as a result Mak now has a proper winter coat. Soon after Mak dove into improv at UCB (advanced study), as well as other comedy theaters in New York. Mākena has an MFA in Acting from American Conservatory Theater and recently trained with Philippe Gaulier, CLOWN ALERT!
Mak co-wrote, produced, and performed in her play, 3HAMS. After touring 3HAMS in Brooklyn, they brought it to The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024!
Daniel Akiyama
Daniel Akiyama is the author of the full-length plays A Cage of Fireflies (Sundance Institute Theatre Lab selection; O’Neill finalist) and Games for Boys (Sundance and O’Neill finalist). His short plays include Udder Paradise, The Bitter Fury and Magnificent Vengeance of Don Clown, and an adaptation of The Yellow Wallpaper. Daniel has worked with members of the Keakalehua Playwrights Hui on Searching for Keaka and Waiau, two experiments in linked collaborative writing. A graduate of the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Daniel studied playwriting with Dennis Carroll, Y York, Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl, and Daniel A. Kelin II. He’s a member of the Dramatists Guild, New Play Exchange, and Tree Moss Playwrights, is honored to serve on the board of directors of Keakalehua and on the community advisory board for the Edward Sakamoto Collection at UH Mānoa, and was a nominee for the 2023 United States Artists Fellowship.
Hannah Ii-Epstein
Hannah Ii-Epstein (she/her/hers) was born and raised on the North Shore of ʻOahu and received her MFA at Northwestern University. She is a creative writer, award winning dramatist, and Artistic Director of Nothing Without a Company. Hannah is a founding member of BearCat Productions, a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists, a 50th season writer at Kumu Kahua Theatre, a board member at Aloha Center Chicago, and a member of the Ke Aliʻi Victoria Kaʻiulani Hawaiian Civic Club, Ke Kula Kupaa O Ka Pakipika hālau, and Tree Moss a professional collective for Hawaiʻi playwrights. Hannah is a 2021 recipient of 3Arts Make a Wave grant and About Face Theatre’s Playwright Artist Grant. In 2023, Hannah worked as a Co-Curator on "Chicago’s Legacy Hula” exhibit at The Field Museum (closing March 9, 2025) as well as a panelist and playwright at the first ever APIDA Arts Festival in Chicago, IL.
Kelsie Pualoa
Kelsie Pualoa is Native Hawaiian playwright from Honolulu, Hawai’i. She has a BA and MA in English from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Her full-length play, A Dance with Abandon, won the Playbuilder’s Festival “Best Play” award in 2014, and she has also won the Myrle Clark and Abernethy Writing awards. She has a passion for English Language Arts education, having taught English for over five years. She now works with the Hawai’i Department of Education as an English assessment specialist.