Philana Imade Omorotionmwan (o-more-o-tune-wha) was born and raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her plays include Before Evening Comes, Fireflies, Strong Face, and The Defiance of Dandelions. She appears on the 2019 Kilroys List, was a 2018-19 Playwrights’ Center Jerome Fellow, and the recipient of Marin Theatre Company's 2018 David Calicchio Emerging American Playwright Prize. Her work has been developed and/or presented by the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Br!nk New Play Festival, La MaMa, Athena Project, Geva Theatre Center, and TDPS at UC Berkeley. Her short plays have been commissioned and/or produced at Pillsbury House + Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Ohlone College, Manhattan Theatre Source, and 20% Theatre Chicago, while her poems have been published in New Delta Review and African American Review. She has been a semi-finalist for the Relentless Award, P73 Fellowship, and Many Voices Fellowship; a finalist for the Theatre503 Award, Princess Grace Award, and Playwrights Realm Scratchpad Series; and a two-time finalist for the Heideman Award. She has also been a recipient of residencies at Djerassi and the Atlantic Center for the Arts and received scholarships from the Fine Arts Work Center and Naropa University. Philana holds a BA in English from Stanford University. She completed an MFA in Playwriting elsewhere in May 2018 and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and the Writers' Guild of Great Britain.