Danielle Stagger
Danielle Stagger is a playwright and performer from Queens, NY. Her plays largely engage questions of authenticity, respectability, and shame as they intersect with identity and performance. She prioritizes the authentic presence of Blackness, queerness, and womanhood both on and off stage. Danielle is the inaugural recipient of the Lily’s Lorraine Hansberry Fellowship, a two-time Eugene O’Neill NPC Finalist, and was a nominee for the 2024 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Danielle’s plays have been finalists for the SoHo Rep Writer/Director Lab, the Ollie New Play Award, and the Lark’s Venturous Playwrights Fellowship. She is a member of the 2024-2026 WP Theater Lab and the 2025 Page 73 Writer's group, and has developed work at Second Stage Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theater Workshop, Life Jacket Theater, and Macdowell. Danielle holds a B.A. in Theater and Performance Studies from Stanford University and an MFA in Playwriting from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale.
Tomas Moniz
Tomas Moniz is a latinx writer living in East Oakland, CA. His debut novel, Big Familia, was a finalist for the 2020 PEN/ Hemingway and the LAMBDA. His second novel, All Friends Are Necessary, won the 2024 California Golden Poppy Award. His new novel, The King of Aloe Vera, will be published on September 29th, 2026 from Algonquin Books. He edited the popular Rad Dad and Rad Families anthologies, and he teaches at Berkeley City College, the Antioch MFA, and St Mary's College USF.
Karan Menon
Karan Menon is a New Jersey-born stand-up, actor, writer, and filmmaker best known for his Internet sketches breaking down complex political issues through humor. Menon has amassed 30M+ views across platforms, with work featured in The New York Times, More Perfect Union, TIME, CNN, and cited by a UK parliament member. His documentary on AI chatbots and the loneliness crisis was spotlighted in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. He continues to partner with lawyers and organizers to explain stuff – most recently Nithya Raman's mayoral campaign in LA. His upcoming sci-fi short REVISION will premiere next year.
Paul Loper
Paul Loper’s artistry started early: drawing his own comics, then theatre, then dancing professionally for 17 years across 15 countries. Highlights: Twyla Tharp Dance, the American Dancemachine, two Olympic Games Opening Ceremonies; assistant to Broadway choreographers Ron Field and Lynn Taylor-Corbett, original one-man shows in Seattle, Paris, San Francisco. Since earning his Ph.D., Paul innovatively facilitates adult learning, often incorporating movement. He was faculty in the Master’s in Leadership Program at St. Mary’s College of CA, and has taught or presented at 15 other colleges and universities. He is a facilitator for the renowned “Interpersonal Dynamics” course at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, and served as a 2017 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Fellow.
Isabella Howell Tagliati
Isabella Howell Tagliati is an Italian-American comedian, filmmaker, actor, and writer. She made her television debut as Ella in Amazon Prime's “Cruel Intentions” and starred in the title role of Teen Mary, an AFI thesis film that won Best Comedy at the Bend Film Festival, the 50/50 Festival, and the Crystal Palace Film Festival, and was selected for the 2025 Just For Laughs Pilot Competition. She also co-created and appeared in the absurdist comedy series The Hobby Horse Girlz and wrote and directed the Vimeo Staff Pick short film Burraco, which screened at festivals internationally. Isabella lives in Brooklyn with her cat, Mango.
Gerald Cypert
Gerald Cypert is a fellow with FIPPP, the Formerly Incarcerated Peoples Performance Project. While serving a 28-year prison sentence, he played a crucial role in helping thousands of men turn their lives around through his work as an addiction counselor and youth mentor. Gerald took on various leadership roles, earned an Addiction Treatment Counselor II certification, delivered a TEDx talk, earned four college degrees, and was Chairman of the Addiction Counseling Program for years. He led the Toastmasters International group and initiated a college program within the prison. Since his release, Gerald has worked for a Bay Area nonprofit as a Grant Specialist, providing services and a safety net for people transitioning from prison back into the community. His dedication to service and personal transformation continues to inspire those around him.
Harriett Jernigan
Harriett Jernigan is a writer and live-story maven who splits her time between the Bay Area and Berlin. She’s been featured on the Moth Radio Hour and has performed at Naked Truth, Radium Runway, Story Roulette, Bawdy Storytelling, and Redwood Nights. She teaches writing and rhetoric at Stanford University and is the founder and producer of First Person, a storytelling workshop and series that platforms underrepresented storytellers. When she’s not doing any of that, she’s either baking or fencing.
Daisy Tichenor
Daisy Tichenor is an actor, comedian, and teaching artist based in LA & Chicago. She works across industries, from neurorehabilitation to arts programming in prisons and juvies. She’s performed at theatres across the country including Rogue Machine, Independent Shakespeare Company, Elysian’s Spaghetti Fest, Thyleum Arts, iO Improv, Open Fist, Stidley Productions, Brooklyn Comedy Collective, Hollywood and Edinburgh Fringe festivals, and more.
Jake Montano
a.k.a. Imelda Glucose
Jake Montano (aka Imelda Glucose) was born in Dallas but is now a San Francisco lifer going on 17 years in the city. They’re also an educator with 15 years of designing exhibits and experiences at the Exploratorium, building afterschool programs, and co-founding an all-queer affinity summer camp for teens entering its sixth year of programs. As Imelda, they’ve also been a performing drag queen for 12 years, and have been on stages across the Bay and across the country. Imelda is a longtime member of the Rice Rockettes, one of the country’s longest-running all-Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) drag troupes. Their work can be found online, in leading LBGTQ culture mag, THEM, in Beacon Press-published anthology, “Living, Together,” in-person, and in the nightmares of their enemies.
Nora Stein
Nora Stein (they/them) is a therapist, writer, line dancer, former educator, and recovering girlboss. They’ve participated in multiple storytelling shows around the Bay Area. Their current research and writing is focused on queer women and AFAB people, including themself, who made big changes in their 30s or 40s to acknowledge and embody their queerness. Nora is based in Berkeley.