Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD

Ayodele Nzinga is the founding producing director of the Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc., Oakland’s oldest North American Theater Company. Nzinga is a multi-disciplined creative force; a brilliant actress, producing director, playwright, poet, dramaturg, performance consultant, educator, and community advocate. She is the founder of Lower Bottom Playaz Summer Theater Day Camp, established in 2007, a performance-based Literacy through the Arts day camp that provides enrichment activity for youth 5-18.

She is the founding Director of the Black Arts Movement Business District Community Development Corporation, Oakland, (BAMBD CDC); and founding producer of BAMBDFEST an annual international month-long arts and cultural festival celebrating and hosted by the Black Arts Movement and Business District in Oakland CA.

Nzinga holds an MFA in Writing and Consciousness; a Ph.D. in Transformative Education & Change; is a Cal-Shakes Artist Investigator Alumni; a Helen Crocker Russell Arts Leadership Fellow; a member of the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame; recognized by Theater Bay Area as one of the 40 faces in the Bay Area that changed the face of theater in the Bay Area; is recognized by the August Wilson House as the only director in the world to direct the complete August Wilson Century Cycle in chronological order. Nzinga’s work for the stage has been reviewed internationally.