cheeky little brown | Cast & creative team

Nkenna Akunna, Writer

Nkenna is a writer, performer and lecturer from London. Work staged includes: Southwark Playhouse, London (Courting Drama, Polaroid Theatre); VAULT Festival, London; WOW Cafe Theatre, New York; Brown University, Rhode Island; Tamasha Theatre Company, London; VoxFest, New Hampshire. Audio tour: Bush Theatre, Everyman Theatre Liverpool, Theatr Clwyd, Leeds Playhouse, Laurels Whitley Bay, Chichester Festival Theatre, Stephen Joseph Theatre, an Tobar & Mull Theatre, Theatre Royal Plymouth, Bristol Old Vic, Southwark Playhouse, Oldham Coliseum, Trinity Theatre Tunbridge Wells, Lyric Theatre Belfast. MFA: Brown University. 

Commissions include: MTC Sloan awards: The Playwrights Realm 2021 International Theatermakers Award; 2021 KCACTF Rosa Parks Playwriting Award (1st); 2021 KCACTF Lorraine Hansberry Award (2nd); 2021 Neukom Institute Playwriting Award (2nd); 2018 VAULT Festival New Writers Award.  Fellowships/writers’ groups include: 2023 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab; 2023-24 Ars Nova Play Group; 2021 Playwriting Fellow at Sewanee Writers’ Conference; Lucille Lortel Fellowship at Brown University 2020-21; Soho Theatre Alumni Group 2018-19; Soho Writers’ Lab 2017-18. 

Fellowships/writers’ groups include: 2023 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab; 2023-24 Ars Nova Play Group; 2021 Playwriting Fellow at Sewanee Writers’ Conference; Lucille Lortel Fellowship at Brown University 2020-21; Soho Theatre Alumni Group 2018-19; Soho Writers’ Lab 2017-18. 

Residencies: 2023 Hedgebrook Writer-in-Residence, 2023 Macdowell Fellow.

Chino Odimba, Director and Artistic Director of tiata fahodzi

Chinonyerem Odimba is an award-winning British Nigerian playwright, screenwriter, and poet. Her work for theatre includes The Bird Woman of Lewisham at the Arcola; Rainy Season, and His Name is Ishmael for Bristol Old Vic; Joanne for Clean Break, and Amongst the Reeds for Clean Break and The Yard;  Medea at Bristol Old Vic, We Too, Are Giants for Kiln Theatre, Unknown Rivers at Hampstead Theatre, Prince and the Pauper at Watermill Theatre, and The Seven Ages of Patience at Kiln Theatre, and Princess & The Hustler’ which toured across the UK for Eclipse Theatre/Bristol Old Vic/HullTruck. 

She has written AI for Young Vic Theatre, London, two new plays for the Faith project as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company commissions for Coventry City of Culture and The Place at the Bridge for Shakespeare At Tobacco Factory.

Her work has been shortlisted for several awards including the Adrienne Benham and Alfred Fagon awards. In 2022, she won the Writers’ Guild Awards for Best Musical Theatre Bookwriting for Black Love and was nominated for The Prince and the Pauper. In 2015 her unproduced play Wild is De Wind was shortlisted to the final ten for the Bruntwood Playwriting Award. She is the winner for the 2018 Sonia Friedman Award (Channel 4 Playwright Bursary) for a new play How to Walk on the Moon. For Radio, credits include The Last flag, and Eve as part of This Is Your Country, Now series on BBC Radio 4.

As a director, Chinonyerem has worked for Bristol Old Vic, Theatre503 and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. She co-directed the 2021 tour of Black Love for Paines Plough touring eight venues nationally, as well as an audio drama for Live Theatre/BBC Radio 4 in March 2021. Chinonyerem also directed a new play by Morgan Lloyd Malcolm for HighTide Theatre in February 2022. 

Tiajna Amayo, Performer

Tiajna Amayo graduated from the National Youth Theatre REP company in 2021. Her theatre work has included Cinderella, the Awesome Truth at the Polka Theatre (Directed by Sarah Punshon), A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Orange tree theatre (Directed by Fiona Drummond) and Three Billy Goats Gruff at the Unicorn Theatre (Directed by Justin Audibert). She also workshopped Pericles at the National Theatre (Directed by Chris Bush), and I Am Tree for the Chichester Festival Theatre (Directed by Justin Audibert). She has recently made her television debut on BBC show Inside No.9 (Directed by Barbara Wiltshire).

Aldo Vazquez, Designer

Aldo is a Mexican set and costume designer based in the UK. He trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School with an MA in Theatre Design, and a BA in Visual Arts from the UNAM/ ENAP, México City. He has worked both in México and the UK collaborating with international directors and actors from Argentina, Canada, China, México, USA, UK, and Switzerland. UK Theatre credits include: Falkland Sound (Swan Theatre RSC); The boys are kissing (Theatre 503) Icarus (Tobacco Factory); Robin & Marian (Redgrave) Fefu and Friends (Tobacco Factory); Moreno (Theatre 503); Romeo and Juliet (Redgrave); Our House musical (Redgrave); Pigeon English (Tobacco factory); Caresses (Tobacco factory); The Tempest (Redgrave); King Lear (Bristol Old Vic). 

In Mexico: Swiss-Mexico Dramafest festival (El Granero), Festival Internacional Teatro Universitario (UNAM). As an international artist, he has collaborated with the following directors: Enrique Singer, Teatro ojo, Angélica Rogel, Paula Zelaya, Edurne Goded, Emiliano Dionisi, He Hao, Francine Alepin and Mathieu Bertolet.

Jodie Underwood, Lighting Designer

Jodie Underwood is a lighting designer with work spanning theatre, opera and dance. She graduated from RADA in 2021 with first class honours and is particularly interested in new writing and more unconventional theatrical forms. 

Their recent credits include: The Life Sporadic of Jess Wildgoose (Pleasance, Islington and Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh); Ride (Associate to Jamie Platt, Leicester Curve and Southwark Playhouse); Pigs Might Fly (Associate to Aaron Dootson, Theatre Peckham); When Darkness Falls (Associate to Bethany Gupwell – UK Tour); DNA (Tara Theatre); After The Act (New Diorama Theatre and Traverse, Edinburgh); Blow Down (Theatre Royal Wakefield and Leeds Playhouse); The Boys Are Kissing (Theatre 503); and Horse-Play (Riverside Studios).

Esther Kehinde Ajayi, Sound Designer 

Esther Kehinde Ajayi (EKAS) is a West London-based sound artist. Esther enjoys exploring the nuances of the human condition, particularly the internal politics of self-revelation and authenticity. After returning from Berlin, where she created and completed her two-season-long audio comic, Dana Is Her Name, Esther has returned to her London home where she is currently serving London theatre scene sonically alongside studying Sound Arts at the University of Arts London and is excited to begin incorporating technology, theatrical performance and spatial design into her practice. Esther attributes much of her inspiration to the West London sound of the broken beat, the rhythms and harmonies of her Nigerian heritage, and the raw grittiness of London Grime. Esther was an associate artist at theatre company Tiata Fahodzi from 2022 -2023  and is excited to continue contributing to British art culture through sonic tone, texture, SFX, melody, performance and words.

Theatre credits:

Sound Design Credits include: Pitch (November theatre),  Possession (Arcola Theatre 2023), Hot In Here (The Gate Theatre, Pigfoot co 2023), The Dry House  (Marylebone theatre, Dir Eugene O'hare ), My Brother's Keeper (Relentless Productions) Theatre 503; Cash Money (The Big House); Talking About A Revolution (Tiata Fahodzi theatre company); Hot in here (Pigfoot Theatre Company); Yellowman (Orange Tree Theatre, Dir Diane Page); Would You Bet Against Us (Told by An Idiot); When The Long Trick's Over (Dir. Chinonyerem Odimba); All of the conversations/Another fucking play about Race (ArtsEd, Dir Denzel Westley Sanderson); Athena (The Yard, Dir Grace Gummer); STATEMENTS AFTER AN ARREST UNDER THE IMMORALITY (Orange Tree Theatre, Dir Diane Page); Alice (Landor_Space Dir. Or Benezra-Segal, Devised by Three Tree Theatre); Invisible Light (Tristan Bates Theatre, Dir Kwame Asiedu) Sad Girls (Edinburgh Fringe, Dir Or Benezra-Segal); Dana is her name (audio comic, produced by Todd Bell & Stephanie Cotter).

Published Works: EKAS Poetry Pamphlet designed in collaboration with Reference Point and published by Reference PRESS .

Rafay Rashid & Dennis Ryan, Songwriting

Rafay Rashid and Dennis Ryan work together as a songwriting and composition team in Providence, Rhode Island. They are part of the bands Ravi Shavi and Deer Tick respectively and have produced several records together via NYC based labels ATO records and Almost Ready Records. Rashid’s solo work has been performed at the 2017 Whitney Biennial, the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai for Displace 2018, and recently at Galerie Forest D’Vonne in Brussels. Ryan is currently on an extensive national tour with Deer Tick and has performed three times on The Late Show with David Letterman and recently on television on “CBS This Morning”. This year, they collaborated on “Kitchen Weapons”, a solo album focused on themes of addiction, Islamophobia, and break-ups. They compose for theatre, film, and television and are interested in making experimental pop music as a form of artistic and philosophical inquiry.

Social Media: @ravishavi @deertickmusic

Shaelee Rooke, Producer 

Shaelee Rooke is an Australian theatre maker based in the UK. Across all her work, as a performer, writer and producer, she uses play as a means of self-exploration, expression and connection. 

Shaelee is co-founder and co-producer for the Bristol-based family theatre company, Roustabout. Since formation in 2018, Shae has devised and produced a number of shows for Roustabout including: Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish, This Island’s Mine, The Great Big Story Mix Up and Luna: a Play about the Moon – productions that have toured nationally to venues including the Southbank Centre, the egg/Bath Theatre Royal, The Lowry, The Lyric and the Oxford Playhouse. 

Freelance producing credits include: The Dark Room (Theatre503), Cockamamy (The Hope), This is Where We Live (Edinburgh and New York Fringe), Toucan: Have a Party (2NorthDown and Brighton Fringe).

Heather Basten CDG, Casting Director 

Heather Basten is an English casting director based in London. She has been recognised as a Screen International ‘Star of Tomorrow’, a BAFTA Breakthrough Artist, CDG Award Winner and CSA Artios Nominee. Heather has most recently cast Dreaming Whilst Black, the first UK TV series commissioned from A24 (Euphoria, Ladybird and Moonlight Helmers) airing from July on BBC.

Theatre includes:Beneatha’s Place (Young Vic); Red Pitch (Bush Theatre); God of Carnage (Lyric Hammersmith), Every Leaf A Hallelujah (Regent's Park Open Air). 

Film / TV includes: Dreaming Whilst Black (A24 / BBC), The Guests (Universal Pictures / Blumhouse), Hoard (BBC Film), and Jungle (Amazon Studios).