Rena M. Heinrich

RENA M. HEINRICH, raised in Anchorage, Alaska, is a theater director and actor who has been directing and performing professionally for over twenty years. Her theatrical work has been produced in Los Angeles by the John Anson Ford Theatre, The Latino Theater Company, East West Players, Company of Angels, Playwrights’ Arena, TeAda Productions, Artists at Play, Casa 0101, and Highways Performance Space, among others. She received her PhD in Theater Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, specializing in the shifting identities of mixed-race figures in American drama. Heinrich is an assistant professor of theater practice in critical studies at the USC School of Dramatic Arts and an affiliated professor of East Asian studies in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. She is also the co-creator and co-host of Hapa Happy Hour, a podcast dedicated to exploring and celebrating the mixed-race experience.