Nikki Brake-Sillá
Nikki Brake-Sillá (she/her) (playwright + filmmaker) is Southern to her core with a Northern patina and proudly calls Southwest Philadelphia home. She is the Founder of DrAW (Dramatists At War) and an inaugural member of Jouska Play Works. Nikki’s full-length plays include Trouble of the World, Finalist (Terrance McNally Award, Lark Apothetae, Space on Ryder - Family Residency), Semi-Finalist (Princess Grace, O’Neill, Bay Area Playwrights Festival), Dear Ann, Residency (The Mitten Lab), Semi-Finalist (Premiere Stages), In Defense of Ourselves, (MadCow Women's Voices Festival) Commission (Philadelphia Women’s Theater), GTFOH (The Kilroy's Web, Orlando Shakes PlayFest), Finalist (Bechdel Project Roo Residency) Semi-Finalist (Princess Grace, Ars Nova) and Say It Ain't So (Princess Grace Special Project Grant, Philly Fringe Festival), Finalist, (DGFellows), Semi-Finalist, (Irons in the Fire), and ReWombed, Baldwin Fellow, Map Fund 2022, Finalist (Bay Area Playwrights Festival, WP Lab), Semi-Finalist (ALP, Ars Nova). Her full-length narrative, A Weathering, was a Semi-Finalist (Middlebury Scriptlab) and Second Round Selection (Sundance Narrative Lab). The pilot, L&D, was a Semi-Finalist (The Orchard Lab and Middlebury Scriptlab).
Nikki’s film credits include Fast Times at West Philly High (director, Debbie Morton; Frontline), for which she was the Associate Producer, Run Granny Run (director, Marlo Poras; HBO Films), for which she was the Assistant Editor. She was the production manager for UNFever (director Andrea Weiss) and a segment producer for Emmy-winning director Greta Schiller’s No Dinosaurs in Heaven. Nikki is currently in post-production for her documentary feature, The Continent of Light.
Nikki’s film credits include Fast Times at West Philly High (director, Debbie Morton; Frontline), for which she was the Associate Producer, Run Granny Run (director, Marlo Poras; HBO Films), for which she was the Assistant Editor. She was the production manager for UNFever (director Andrea Weiss) and a segment producer for Emmy-winning director Greta Schiller’s No Dinosaurs in Heaven. Nikki is currently in post-production for her documentary feature, The Continent of Light.
She has been commissioned by EST/Sloan, Elevate Theatre, RECPhilly, Revolution Shakespeare, and Philadelphia Women’s Theater. She has received funding from The MAP Fund, The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation, RECPhilly, The Puffin Foundation, Jody Falco & Jeffrey Steinman, The Lark Foundation, The Princess Grace Foundation, the Leeway Foundation, and the Regional Center for Women Artists. Nikki received her M.F.A. from the City College of New York and her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild and Directors Gathering. 📸: Reginald Cunningham