JESS MCLEOD (she/her) is a New York-based director specializing in risky new work about America. Recent credits include D.A. Mindell’s On the Evolutionary Function of Shame (Second Stage); Keiko Green’s Young Dragon: A Bruce Lee Story (Seattle Children’s Theatre); her original musical SAFE (songs by Brian Quijada, BAM); Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play (Steppenwolf); Lloyd Suh’s The Chinese Lady (Alliance, Cincy Playhouse); Isaac Gómez’s Radical or, are you gonna miss me (IAMA); Paola Lázaro’s There’s Always the Hudson (Woolly Mammoth); The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Little Island); 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). She spent three years as Resident Director of HAMILTON Chicago and recently served as Woolly Mammoth’s BOLD Resident Director; Artist-In-Residence at the NYCLU (Creatives Rebuild 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. Proud SDC Executive Board Member and Drama League TV/Film Fellow (Fire Country).

Other premieres include Hang Man (The Gift); Earth To Kenzie (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Venus (Steppenwolf); Do You Feel Anger? and Fulfillment Center (A Red Orchid);  in a word (Strawdog); How We Got On (Jeff Nom., Haven); The Great Khan (San Diego Rep); Landladies (Northlight); 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, Fugitive Songs and a reimagined Marry Me A Little (Jeff Nom., Porchlight).

Recent workshops include her own play The Deciders and new work by Dipika Guha, Jake Brasch, Sarah Schulman, Anthony Davis, Michael Korie, Seayoung Yim, Velina Hasu Houston, Alex Lubischer, Max Yu, Jay Adana, Rachel Lynnet, Robert Askins, Antoinette Nwandu, Rachel Axler, Lauren Yee, Billy Corgan, Stefani Kuo, Christina Anderson, Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Mahler and Ben Folds at MTC, Atlantic, Roundabout, P73, Ars Nova, Ma-Yi, Clubbed Thumb, the O’Neill, NYSAF, NAMT, WTF, Berkeley Rep Ground Floor, the Old Globe, the Goodman and NYMF.

A second-generation Korean-Filipina-Scottish American, Jess also works frequently at the intersection of art & activism, and has developed operas with community groups (Lyric), musicals with incarcerated teen Chicagoans (Storycatchers) and social justice walking tours (National Public Housing Museum). 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. MFA, Northwestern; BA, Williams. Upcoming: Yoko’s Husband’s Killer’s Japanese Wife (Book by Brandy Hoang Collier; Music by Erika Ji; Lyrics by Clare Fuyuko Bierman) at Joe’s Pub; The Family Album (Book by Sam Chanse; Music & Lyrics by MILCK & AG) at La Jolla Playhouse; and Kimberly Belflower’s John Proctor Is the Villain at ACT, Seattle Rep and CTG.