Leah Nanako Winkler

Leah Nanako Winkler (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter from Kamakura, Japan and Lexington, Kentucky. Her plays include Kentucky, God Said This, Two Mile Hollow, Hot Asian Doctor Husband, Thirty-Six, The Brightest Thing in the World, and You Seem Sad. She has received the Yale Drama Series Prize, Mark O’Donnell Award, Jerome New York Fellowship, Francesca Primus Prize, Steinberg Playwright Award,  Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award, Will Glickman Award, Peabody Award. TV credits include Ramy, Love Life, The Summer I Turned Pretty, Schmigadoon! and Elsbeth.  Her short film, Get Her Back, which she also directed, was produced by Indian Paintbrush/LuckyChap Entertainment and recently premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. With lyricist and composer Duncan Sheik, she wrote the musical adaptation of Anno Moyoco’s graphic novel,  Memoirs of Amorous Gentleman, which will premiere off-broadway Fall 2027 at The Night Egg, a brand-new venue built inside the Culture Club (the former home of Sleep No More). She is an alumni of Youngblood , Ma Yi Theater Lab, Dorothy Streslin New American Playwrights Group and Ucross/Sundance fellow, WP Lab 2018.  She is currently writing the book for Crazy Rich Asians: The Musical! MFA Brooklyn College.