Khalia Davis (she/her), a San Francisco/Bay Area native, graduated from the University of Southern California with honors in Theatre Arts and a minor in musical theater. Recently named Artistic Director of Bay Area Children’s Theatre where she led the premiere of A Kids Play About Racism, based on a kids book about racism by Jelani Memory, creating a new hybrid between live theatrical storytelling and film. This work brought together over 40 theater producing partners and was viewed on Broadway on Demand nearly 80,000 times during its limited run. Now it lives on as a free resource for educators and their students. Directed and devised other new works like the award nominated world premiere, She Persisted the Musical, based on the popular children’s book by Chelsea Clinton with Bay Area Children’s Theatre as well as with other prominent theaters: Atlantic Theater Company’s Atlantic for Kids, New York City Children’s Theater, Disney Theatrical Group, Spellbound Theatre and more. As a producer, Ms. Davis has helped organizations reach hundreds of thousands of young people through, interactive “edu-tainment” with the nationally known Story Pirates, generating new digital pre-school content with Spellbound at Home, and a new children’s web series chronicling the experiences of a little black puppet girl named Nia living through the COVID-19 pandemic with her personal web-based company, Kids at Heart Productions. Before assuming her new role as Artistic Director, Ms. Davis served as the Director of Inclusion and Education with Brooklyn Children’s Theatre restructuring their children’s musical theater programming through an anti-racism lens. While in New York, Ms. Davis taught in the Atlantic Acting School as a director and choreographer and assisted senior faculty member Renee Redding Jones in Movement for first year NYU students. She also worked with the Disney Theatrical Group leading music and movement workshops and facilitating audience and community engagement. As a professional movement coordinator and director, she has devised new works with Bay Area Children’s Theater, New York City Children’s Theater and Atlantic acting school’s teen conservatory and high school residency program, Staging Success. In California, she has also worked with companies such as Berkeley Rep School of Theatre, 24th Street Theater, Kids on Stage and more. A 2021 Corey Medallion Award recipient with the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America, 2019 Emerging Leader Fellowship with TYA/USA and the NYCCT Leader Fellowship for 2019/2020.
To learn more about Ms. Davis, check her out at www.khaliadavis.com!