SEEMA SUEKO grew up in Honolulu with a Pakistani father and a third generation Kona-Japanese-American mother. She received her Master’s Degree in International Relations from the University of Chicago.

 

Between 2004 and 2020, Seema served as Deputy Artistic Director of Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., Associate Artistic Director of The Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California and Co-Founder and Executive Artistic Director at Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company in San Diego.

 

She received the TCG Alan Schneider Director Award in 2022 and balances work as a freelance theater artist and consultant with caregiving for her parents. She is a Co-Curator with DNAWORKS as well as an “Immortal” with Kaimera Productions, and she is adapting the novel Song of the Exile by Hawaiian writer Kiana Davenport into a play with jazz music.

 

For American Theatre magazine, Seema recently wrote Searching Opportunities, about the executive search process; and Lost to Fun, about artist Robert Karimi's residency at Shangri La.

 

Seema volunteers as board president of Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) and as a member of the executive board of the union, SDC.

 

Other recognition and awards include: Chicago Jeff Awards, NAACP San Diego Lorraine Hansberry Award, American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Artistic and Cultural Achievement Award, Asian Pacific American Friends of the Theater Artist of the Year, San Diego Craig Noel Awards, and the California State Assembly Shirley N. Weber Award.

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Seema is studying Solidarity Economy and exploring ways to make theater that maximizes social profit. She believes that in addition to having one’s basic needs met, art, exercise and love are daily essentials. 

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