Ryan Wesley Gilreath (he/him) returns to Ensemble Theatre, where he was last seen in Queen. His TV and film credits include The Bikeriders with Austin Butler; Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile on Netflix; Forrest Mars in The Food That Built America; Jack Miller in TURN: Washington’s Spies; Oppenheimer in American Genius; Doc Robinson in Gold Fever; and the pilot of Guilty on Fox. His theatre credits include Ripcord, Tribes, Other Desert Cities, Next Fall, 33 Variations, and Mary’s Wedding, Ensemble Theatre; A Christmas Carol, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; Ears on a Beatle, Human Race Theatre; and Burning Desire, Seven Angels, and Deathtrap, Florida Repertory Theatre. Recently, he completed writing for the feature film Sourland, as well as The Toys That Built America and The Food That Built America on the History Channel.

Shonita Joshi (she/her) is excited to be back with her Ensemble Theatre family after performing in The Dancing Princesses and Queen. She has a degree in Banking, Finance, & Journalism and graduated in 2019 from Stella Adler School of Acting in New York. Some of her credits include Antony & Cleopatra, Pericles, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night with Hip to Hip Theater’s “Shakespeare in the Park” in NYC and A Christmas Carol, Stuart Little, and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.

Saiyam makes his Ensemble Theatre debut with Queen! Saiyam is a graduate of NYU and an actor based in New York City. He’s appeared on several television shows such as The Sinner, Blue Bloods, FBI: Most Wanted, and The Hunt with John Walsh and has worked on many short films. Saiyam is also a dancer with a background in hip-hop, Bollywood fusion, and bhangra. He’s passionate about diverse storytelling that highlights the voices of immigrants and people of color.

Jordan is an actor based in Covington, Kentucky—the endpoint of her southerly drift from her home state of Michigan. Her recent theatre credits include All’s Faire (Johnson) and The Absentee (The Operator) with Know Theatre of Cincinnati and You Will Live Under the Sea with Queen City Flash at the 2021 Cincinnati Fringe Festival. Some of her favorite credits include Puffs (Susie Bones track), Know Theatre; Zoinks! (Nolan), Queen City Flash; and Baskerville (Actress), Falcon Theater. Jordan is a member of SAG/AFTRA and has performed in various films and television shows, such as The Old Man and the Gun, My Days of Mercy, and Comedy Central’s Detroiters. She is one half of the pair of proprietors of a mysterious magic shop in Covington, is a freelance illustrator, and used to be in a cover band.

Madhuri Shekar is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. She was born in California and grew up in India, and is currently based in Jersey City. She is an alum of the Juilliard Playwriting program, a fellow at New Dramatists, and the 2020 winner of the Lanford Wilson Playwriting Award.

Her audio play Evil Eye debuted on the Audible best-seller list in May 2019 and won the 2020 Audie Award for Best Original Work. Her play House of Joy received its world premiere at Cal Shakes in August 2019. Her new play Dhaba on Devon Avenue was slated to premiere at Victory Gardens in April 2020 and is postponed till we emerge into a new post-pandemic life.

Her other plays include Queen (2019 New York Innovative Theatre Awards, Outstanding Original Full Length Script; Edgerton New Play Award), In Love and Warcraft (Kendeda Graduate Playwriting Award), A Nice Indian Boy, Antigone: Presented by the Girls of St. Catherine’s, and the TYA play Bucket of Blessings (Suzi Bass Award for Outstanding Original Work–TYA).

Her plays have also been developed or showcased at Center Theatre Group, the Old Globe, the Kennedy Center, the Hedgebrook Playwrights Festival, South Coast Repertory, the Movement Theater Company, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ma-Yi Theatre, NY Stage & Film, and Juilliard.

She has an MFA in Dramatic Writing from USC and a dual Master’s degree in Global Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and USC. She is an alumna of the Ma-Yi writers lab and the Center Theatre Group Writers Workshop and a co-creator of the Shakespearean web series, Titus and Dronicus.

She was a staff writer for the upcoming HBO show The Nevers. She wrote the feature film adaptation of Evil Eye, produced by Blumhouse, and now streaming on Amazon Prime.

Bridget Leak (she/her) returns to Ensemble Theatre, having previously directed Queen in 2022. Her previous Cincinnati directing credits include Actually with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Playhouse’s Off the Hill Series, and the current production of RUH-Roh! at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival. Her previous honors include People’s Liberty Grant recipient, Cincinnati Art Ambassador Fellowship, Lincoln Center Directors Lab alum, Artist in Residence at Robert Wilson’s The Watermill Center, Directing Fellow at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and an SDCF Observer (Cleveland Play House and Round House Theatre). Bridget has an MFA in directing from the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University.

Brian c. Mehring (he/him) has designed more than 100 productions at Ensemble Theatre. His favorite productions include Thom Pain (based on nothing), Next to Normal, 33 Variations, Freud’s Last Session, and I Am My Own Wife. Mr. Mehring’s regional favorites for set design include The Last 5 Years and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; Henry IV, Part 1, The Georgia Shakespeare Festival; and I Am My Own Wife, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Peterborough Players, and Florida Studio Theatre.

Niki Hernandez-Adams (she/her) is a costume designer for theatre and dance. Her recent theatre designs include Queen, Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati; The House on Mango Street, Bless Me Ultima, and Blood Wedding, Cara Mía Theatre Company; WET: A DACAmented Journey, Cara Mía Theatre & Ignite/Arts Dallas; Deferred Action, Dallas Theatre Center/Cara Mía Theatre; Elliot: A Soldier’s Fugue, Water Tower Theatre; Seven Spots on the Sun, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; Rosmersholm, Pearl Theatre Company; The Glass Menagerie and Mere Mortals, Two River Theatre. Her past assisting credits include The Little Mermaid on Broadway, Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular, and Jack Goes Boating at The Public Theatre. Her dance design credits include several years of collaborative work with Peter Kyle Dance, as well as projects with Theatre Lila.

Matt Callahan (he/him) was the Resident Sound Designer for Actors Theatre of Louisville for seven seasons. Some of his most recent designs for Ensemble Theatre include Queen, Pipeline, Fortune, Fun Home, and Ripcord. He was also a co-creator/designer of Rock n’ Roll: The Reunion Tour. He spent two seasons as the Resident Sound Designer at The Eugene O’Neil Center for their National Playwrights Conference. He was formerly the sound engineer for Steppenwolf Theatre, the Assistant Engineer for Blue Man Chicago, and a member of the disbanded Defiant Theatre. He received a Jeff Citation for Red Dragon, a nomination for Fortinbras, and a Kevin Kline nomination for Sherlock Holmes.

Shannon Rae Lutz  (she/her) earned her Master’s degree from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music in 1996 and became Properties Master at Ensemble Theatre. Trained as a performer, she first appeared on ETC’s stage during the 1988-1989 New Works Festival. In 1991, she was granted an ETC internship. Now the Director of Apprentice Programming, she is honored to guide ETC’s essential ensemble: The Professional Acting Apprentice Company. Shannon would like to thank D. Lynn Meyers, Ruth Sawyer, and the Cincinnati theatre community and patrons for their generous, supportive, and tenacious spirit.

Jack Murphy (he/him) grew up in the Cincinnati area and studied technical theatre at Hanover College. While there, he spent his summers at several different summer stock theatres including Georgia Shakespeare Company and the Brevard Music Center’s Janiec Opera Company as a carpenter. After graduation, he moved to Bellport, NY to work for The Gateway Playhouse as a carpenter and rigger, and he went on to work for Norwegian Cruise Line. After another summer at the Janiec Opera Company, he came full circle and returned home to Cincinnati. Jack is eager to continue to do the cutting edge work ETC is known for and has enjoyed working on such productions as An Iliad, Grounded, and The Humans.

Margot Whitney (she/her) is thrilled to be a part of the Ensemble Theatre family! Her previous credits include Sweat on Broadway and the first national tours of Mean Girls, Come From Away, Bright Star, The King & I, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella, and War Horse. She has worked with The Public Theatre, Signature Theatre Company, New York Stage and Film, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, La Jolla Playhouse, Virginia Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati during the 2012-2013 Season, and Cincinnati Ballet. Margot received her BFA from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music.

Lexi Muller (she/her) is delighted to be back at Ensemble Theatre, where some of her credits include include Fun Home, The Wolves, Skeleton Crew, and Fly by Night. Other regional credits include Sex with Strangers, The House, Legendale, and 26 Pebbles with the Human Race Theatre. She is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and a graduate of Wright State University, where she received her BFA in Stage Management.

Erin Carr is currently working as a professional actor, physical theatre creator & movement coach out of Cincinnati, OH. She has studied physical theatre at NYU-Tisch’s Experimental Theatre Wing, ArtsOasis – International Residency for Performers in Italy, Acrobatics of the Heart in MA, among other programs throughout the states.

She works as a teaching artist, director of educational theatre, and advanced physical theatre practitioner with multiple theatre companies in the tri-state area, along with working as a Body Language Consultant focusing on kinesthetics and non-verbal communication.