Sarahjeen François is a performer and mythmaker whose creative work spans Afro-folkloric storytelling practices to contemporary theatre and avant-garde performance art.
She has performed at LACMA, Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, The Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens, REDCAT, Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, Autry Museum of the American West, Cutting Ball Theatre, Clamour Theatre Company, Horizon Theatre Company, and Spivey Hall, among others, and has had the pleasure of collaborating with renowned companies such as Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, CalArts Center for New Performance, Teatro Línea de Sombra, and Peach State Opera.
Her voice acting can be heard alongside Coco Jones as she plays the role of Harriet Verlice-Wilsonin in the acclaimed Audible podcast series Technically Speaking, directed by award-winning screenwriters Michael Elliot and Queen Latifah, and as Suzy in the Signal Award-winning suspense thriller podcast e Burned Photo, by QCODE Media amidst other exciting roles.
Sarahjeen is an affiliated writer at the Playwrights’ Center and her plays have been produced across the country at theatres including Center for the Arts at Kayenta, REDCAT, Atlantic Center for the Arts, The Broadwater, Zephyr Theatre, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, 7 Stages, and Out Front Theatre Company. Her work as a playwright has recently awarded her the esteemed California Arts Council Emerging Artist Fellowship in support of her artistic enterprises.
With the stage as her medium, Sarahjeen creates in celebration of Black femme personification and all of its complexities. She writes stories that place Black women at the center and are nuanced in a voice that is unique to her community. Drawing from her Haitian heritage, her works often feature traditional Djembe music and folkloric dance to help facilitate the movement of her plays.
Sarahjeen’s play, Sister, Braid My Hair, showcases her unique “Conversations in Poetry” style of writing and has received honors and awards from various play festivals including the Audience Choice Award for Best Ensemble in the 2022 Atlanta Fringe Festival and the awards for Best Production and Best Direction in the 2023 SheLA Theater Arts Festival.
Sarahjeen received her Master of Fine Arts in Acting from CalArts and her Bachelor of Arts in Performing Arts at Clayton State University.
