Antu Yacob is Ethiopian a professional actress, playwright, and philanthropist.
Antu Yacob was born in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia and raised in California and Minnesota. She received her MFA in Acting from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and her BA in Communication from the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Her play Mourning Sun set in Ethiopia and the US was featured in the 2016 Kampala International Theatre Festival in Uganda. The play received its world premiere as part of Theatre 167’s 2015-2016 season at the West End Theater in New York last November. This past July, Antu’s autobiographic solo show In the Gray premiered in Project Y Theatre’s inaugural Women In Theater Festival at StudioTheatre@ TheatreRow in New York.
Antu’s two-woman play The Firsts, a historical piece about six women who overcame adversity premiered in Project Y Theatre’s 2013 New York New Playwrights Festival.
Her work has been featured in readings at the inaugural NowAfrica Playwrights Festival at Tisch-NYU, Crossroads Theatre’s CommonGround Festival, CoLAB Arts the Orphanage series and Project Y Theatre’s Racey Plays Series. As an actor, Antu’s theater credits include Risen from the Dough (Sam French OOB Short Play Festival-Winner) Mourning Sun (KITF and Theatre 167), In the Continuum original national tour (Primary Stages), Stepping out of the River at Dawn, Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World and A Jew on Ethiopia Street (Mixed Blood Theatre), Holiday Jubilee (Crossroads Theatre), Crowns (The Theater Project), The House That Crack Built (Pillsbury House Theatre) and No Longer at Ease (Pangea World Theater). Her film & television credits include Law & Order: SVU, Eminent Domain, Conjure, Fine Art, Walking in Circles and Gypsy (2017).
She is Founder of Shaggae’s Song Performing Arts Collective, a nonprofit organization that develops works focused on international women’s issues as well as providing performing arts education to grades 4-12. She teaches Acting at Rutgers University in New Jersey. www.antuyacob.com