Jennifer Chang

Jennifer Chang is a director, actor and writer. Select directing credits: Yankee Dawg You Die by Philip Kan Gotanda at East West Players, A Doll’s House, Part 2 by Lucas Hnath at Pasadena Playhouse, What Became of Us by Shayan Lotfi at The Atlantic Theatre Company (World Premiere starring Tony Shalhoub, Shohreh Aghdashloo, BD Wong, Rosalind Chao), Putlizer-winning Primary Trust by Eboni Booth at Barrington Stage Company (Berkshire Theatre Critics Circle Award for Direction) also at Theaterworks Hartford (Connecticut Critics Circle Award Outstanding Production), The Far Country by Lloyd Suh at Berkeley Rep (10 SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award Nominations including Best Direction, Best Ensemble, Production), King of The Yees by Lauren Yee at Signature Theatre DC (Helen Hayes Award Nom Best Production and Best Ensemble) The Heart Sellers by Lloyd Suh at Milwaukee Rep (World Premiere), South Coast Rep, and the three theatre co-production at Theatreworks Silicon Valley, Aurora Theatre, and Capital Stage; American Fast by Kareem Fahmy at City Theatre; Everybody by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins at Antaeus Theatre Company, On Gold Mountain by Nathan Wang and Lisa See with LA Opera at The Huntington, The Great Leap by Lauren Yee at The Round House Theatre; Undo the Sea by Inda Craig-Galván with Primary Stages, Vietgone by Qui Nguyen at East West Players (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award in Direction).   

She has developed new work at Ojai Playwrights Conference, Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Mercury Store, Pasadena Playhouse, O’Neill Playwrights Conference, Geffen Playhouse, New Harmony Project, Center Theatre Group, Sông Collective, Black and Latino Playwrights’ Conference, Theatre Mu, Chance Theater, Boston Court, Ashland New Plays Festival, PlayOn!, East West Players, and Artists at Play, among others. She is a founding member of the award-winning Chalk Repertory Theatre where she has served as Artistic Producing Director. Her play The Devil Is a Lie directed by Kyle Haden, premiered at Quantum Theatre in Pittsburgh. She received the Beatrice Terry Residency at The Drama League in New York City for her play Matter and was a member of The 23-24 Geffen Playhouse Writers Room, writing the book for the musical BEER! with composer/ lyricist Inara George.  She and Inara George have also been semi-finalists for the O’Neill National Musical Theatre Conference for their musical Dear Margaret Sanger.

Select acting credits: Theatre: (upcoming) Pasadena Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, South Coast Rep, National Asian American Theatre Company, East West Players, Mixed Blood Theatre; Film and TV: Mom, 2 ½ Men, Parenthood, NCIS: LA, Medium, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Medium, Numb3rs Days of Our Lives, In the Dark, numerous national commercials and development workshops and readings.

She is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographer’s Society (SDC), Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) and Actor’s Equity Association (AEA). She was a 2021 Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDCF) Fichandler Award finalist and received an Asian Pacific American Friends of the Theater (APAFT) Outstanding Director award in 2019.

Chang received her BFA in drama and psychology from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts (ETW and Playwrights Horizons) and her MFA in acting from UCSD/ La Jolla Playhouse. She was a 2022 Classical Directing Fellow at the Old Globe and is an alum of Director’s Lab West and the Drama League (New York Fellowship). She was previously acting faculty at UCSD and a visiting professor at Pomona College.