JESS MCLEOD (she/her) is a New York-based director specializing in risky new work about America. She is Woolly Mammoth’s BOLD Resident Director; Artist-In-Residence at the NYCLU (Creatives Rebuild NY grantee); Lead Curator for Roundabout’s 2023 Refocus Project; and Co-Chair, with Michael Korie, of the Dramatists Guild Foundation’s Musical Theatre Fellows Program. Recent credits include Isaac Gómez’s Radical or, are you gonna miss me (world premiere, IAMA); Lloyd Suh’s The Chinese Lady (Cincy Playhouse); The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Little Island); Resident Director, Hamilton Chicago; Paola Lázaro’s There’s Always the Hudson and rapper O’Slice’s 19 (world premieres, Woolly); Ryan J. Haddad’s Hi, Are You Single? (Woolly, co-dir. w/ Laura Savia); Keiko Green’s Prepared (EST); Michael Gene Sullivan’s The Great Khan (San Diego REP); Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice (Long Wharf), Idris Goodwin’s Hype Man (Actors Theatre of Louisville); and Hansol Jung’s Wolf Play (Jeff Nom, The Gift Theatre).

Other premieres include Stacy Osei-Kuffour’s Hang Man (The Gift); Frances Pollock & Jessica Murphy Moo’s Earth To Kenzie (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Suzan-Lori Parks’ Venus (Steppenwolf); Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s Do You Feel Anger? and Abe Koogler’s Fulfillment Center (A Red Orchid); Lauren Yee’s in a word (Strawdog); Goodwin’s How We Got On (Jeff Nom., Haven); Sharyn Rothstein’s Landladies (Northlight); Shawn Pfautsch’s Season on the Line (Jeff Nom., The House) and Kevin Coval’s L-vis Live! (Victory Gardens). Other Chicago credits include Short Shakes! Midsummer (CST); a rather socialist production of The Pajama Game, Chris Miller & Nathan Tysen’s Fugitive Songs and a reimagined Marry Me A Little (Jeff Nom., Porchlight).

Recent workshops include her own play The Deciders (Berkeley Rep Ground Floor); Dipika Guha’s ASILOMAR (MTC); D.A. Mindell’s On the Evolutionary Function of Shame (2ST); Brandy Hoang Collier/Clare Fuyuko Bierman/Erika Ji’s Yoko’s Husband’s Killer’s Japanese Wife Gloria (O’Neill, NAMT); Sarah Schulman/Anthony Davis/Michael Korie’s SHIMMER (Midnight Oil Collective; NU); Alex Lubischer’s You Deserve To Be Here (Roundabout); Marvin González De León’s Too Close To Earth (P73); Jay Adana’s The Jordan & Avery Show (O’Neill); Keiko Green’s Exotic Deadly: or The MSG Play (Atlantic); and Rachel Lynnet’s Abortion Road Trip (WTF). She has developed new work by Robert Askins, Antoinette Nwandu, Rachel Axler, Lauren Yee, Billy Corgan, Stefani Kuo, Christina Anderson, Joyce Carol Oates, Hannah Kahlil, Michael Mahler and Ben Folds at the Goodman, Victory Gardens, AMTP and NYMF.

Jess also works frequently at the intersection of art & activism, and has developed operas with community groups (Lyric), musicals with incarcerated teen Chicagoans (Storycatchers), social justice walking tours (National Public Housing Museum) and is currently writing the book for SAFE, an original musical (music & lyrics by Brian Quijada) that defines school safety from the NYC public high school student’s perspective, commissioned by the NYCLU. She curated Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s inaugural Arts In Action Festival and co-created the #STOPASIANHATE video campaign for NY Rep. Grace Meng’s 3/26 Day of Action & Healing. 2017 Goodman Theatre Michael Maggio Directing Fellow; Artistic Fellow (then Resident Director) at the bygone Victory Gardens. Currently under commission from La Jolla Playhouse. MFA, Northwestern. BA, Williams. Jess is a first-generation Korean-Filipina-Scottish American. Up Next: Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play (Steppenwolf).