Jocelyn Bioh

Tony nominee Jocelyn Bioh is an award winning Ghanaian-American playwright and actress. The multi-hyphenate made her Broadway playwriting debut in the fall of 2023 at Manhattan Theater Club with “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” which received five Tony nominations, including one for Bioh herself. The dazzling world premiere was twice extended, and the extraordinarily reviewed run received critical acclaim. The NYT Critics Pick was hailed as “Hot and hilarious” (The New York Times), “Generous and forceful” (New York Magazine), and “Wickedly entertaining” (The Washington Post). The play was recognized by the Drama Desks for “Outstanding Best Play,” the Drama League for “Outstanding Production of a Play,” and the Outer Critics Circle for “Outstanding New Broadway Play,” in addition to earning Bioh her second Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award.

Jocelyn’s work can be seen across screen and stage. Her play “School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play”, premiered with MCC and won the 2018 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, The Outer Critics Circle John Gassner Award for New American Playwright, and the Dramatists Guild Hull-Warriner Award. The piece received additional nominations for an Off Broadway Alliance Award and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play. Other works for theater include: “Merry Wives” (PBS Great Performances, 2022 Drama Desk Award Winner), “Nollywood Dreams” (Kilroy List 2015), “African Americans” (Ruby Prize Finalist 2011), and the Broadway bound musical “Goddess,” which premiered at Berkeley Rep last year. She is a former TOW playwriting fellow (2017) and has been commissioned by MTC, Atlantic Theater Co, Williamstown Theatre Festival and Second Stage. She was the 2022 recipient of the Outstanding Adaptation Drama Desk Award. Bioh’s writing earned her a place on The Kilroys’ List in both 2015 and 2016.

As an actress, Bioh has appeared on Broadway and numerous Off-Broadway productions throughout her career. In 2014, she was an original ensemble member of the Broadway production of “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” (2014) and has performed in the original productions of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' plays “An Octoroon” (2014) and “Everybody,” (2017) for which she received a Lortel nomination.

On screen, Bioh’s writing can be seen in the upcoming Star Wars series “The Acolyte.” She is also writing the live screen film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical ONCE ON THIS ISLAND for Disney. Jocelyn has written for TV on “Russian Doll,” Spike Lee's “She’s Gotta Have It,” and “Tiny Beautiful Things.”

When Bioh isn’t writing or starring in the next hit play, she runs Black Women on Broadway, an organization founded alongside Danielle Brooks and Amber Iman in 2020. Through events, mentorship, fellowship, and awards, the group serves, celebrates, and uplifts women in the theater industry while aiding up-and-coming artists. The project has since expanded to include the Black Women on Broadway Awards, which is one of the few places in the theater community that not only explicitly celebrates the talents of Black women in the New York industry, but that elevates those who work onstage and off.

Bioh graduated with a B.A. in English and Theater from Ohio State University and an M.F.A. in Playwriting from Columbia University.

Nkechi Okoro Carroll

Nkechi Okoro Carroll is creator, executive producer and showrunner on the NBC drama “Found.”

In addition to “Found,” Okoro Carroll is also currently executive producer and showrunner on the CW/WBTV shows “All American” and “All American: Homecoming.”

Previously, Okoro Carroll served as co-executive producer on the drama series “The Resident” and “Rosewood.” Her other television producing credits include “Bones” and “The Finder.” She currently has an exclusive, multiyear overall deal with Warner Bros. Television Group.

Born in New York, raised in Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire and England, Okoro Carroll earned a B.A. in Economics and French from the University of Pennsylvania and a master’s in international economics from New York University.

Prior to her television writing career, Okoro Carroll worked for the Federal Reserve where her responsibilities included managing the reserve position for the U.S. banking system and analyzing the impact of monetary policy decisions on the domestic money markets. All of which she did while still writing and producing plays in New York.

Okoro Carroll currently resides in Los Angeles.

Taryn Finley

Taryn Finley is an award-winning Brooklyn-based journalist, host and producer who highlights stories about race and culture. As HuffPost's Black Voices Editor and Senior Culture Reporter, the Dayton, Ohio native creates content that informs, empowers and amplifies Black audiences. For the past decade, Taryn has produced written, visual and audible works that resonate with the pulse of the culture and speaks to the multifaceted range of the Black experience, including a weekly interview series “I Run This,” HuffPost's "I Know That's Right" podcast and various other projects. For two seasons, she co-hosted MadameNoire’s digital show “Listen to Black Women.” She's a proud alum of the Howard University School of Communications and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Taryn's intimate approach to having nuanced conversations with her sources makes it easy for her to prioritize amplifying stories from underrepresented voices. In 2019, she won the NABJ Salute to Excellence Award for Best Interactive Feature. Taryn’s work has been featured on MSNBC, ESPN, Refinery29, Yahoo and BuzzFeed. She's also contributed to the New York Times, The Root, Essence, NBC and Radio One.