Credit: Darren Cox

Aya Ogawa (they/them) is a Tokyo-born, Brooklyn-based theater-maker, playwright, director, performer, and translator whose work reflects an international viewpoint, centers women/non-binary perspectives, and utilizes the stage as a space for exploring cultural identity and the immigrant experience.

They have written and directed many plays including oph3lia (HERE), Journey to the Ocean (Foundry Theatre), and Ludic Proxy (The Play Company). Most recently, they wrote, directed, and performed in The Nosebleed (Japan Society & The Chocolate Factory Theater, 2021; Lincoln Center Theater, 2022; Woolly Mammoth Theatre, 2023; national tour to Walker Art Center, REDCAT, Wexner Center for the Arts, 2024). In 2023, Aya received an Obie Award for the creation, writing, and direction of The Nosebleed, whose cast was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Ensemble. Aya is currently developing Meat Suit: the shitshow that is motherhood.

Aya directed Haruna Lee’s Obie Award-winning Suicide Forest (The Bushwick Starr & Ma-Yi Theater Company), Maiko Kikuchi and Spencer Lott’s 9000 Paper Balloons (HERE & Japan Society), and Dan Fishback Is Alive and Unwell in His Apartment (Joe’s Pub). They have translated innumerable contemporary Japanese plays into English, including works by Toshiki Okada, Satoko Ichihara, and Yudai Kamisato; many of these have been published and produced in the U.S. and U.K.

A current resident playwright at New Dramatists and a Usual Suspect at NYTW, they were the recipient of the 2025 Doris Duke Award, 2023–24 Playwrights’ Center McKnight National Residency and Commission, 2023 Helen Merrill Playwriting Award, 2023 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants for Artists, 2023 MacDowell Fellowship, 2022–23 Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity at Lincoln Center Theater, and the 2015 President’s Award in Performing Arts from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.