KATIE PEÑA-VAN ZILE

Playwright, Producer, Disabled Baddie

A close-up portrait of a woman with curly brown hair, wearing a black blazer and a dark top. She has a warm smile and is set against a blurred background with soft lighting.

Katie Peña-Van Zile is a Latina-Lachian playwright from nowhere in particular. Her friends call her KVZ.

She doesn’t take herself terribly seriously, leading to vague and brief bios like this one.

Her work has been produced here and there because people think she has a “unique voice.”

She used to write educational puppet shows, but these days she is healing her inner child via being a semi-successful TYA playwright.

Big thanks to every underfunded drama club across the world that has felt seen in The Sisters Grimm and to her hometown theatre The Hardin County Playhouse for trusting the vision and producing the world premiere.

When she’s not agonizing over how to market her writing via self-important website copy, she is a Line Producer at Actors Theatre of Louisville where she is the lead producer on a very gay musical theatre cabaret hosted by drag superstars Dusty Ray Bottoms and May O’Nays, and works closely with the Learning and Creative Engagement department to bring playwriting and theatre to the disabled community, which makes a lot of sense if you know her.

An army brat, KVZ is convinced that finding theatre late in life has helped heal her relationship with impermanence. She is proudly community college and state school educated, (AA: Bluegrass Community and Technical College, BA Theatre and Performing Arts Admnistration: Western Kentucky University) She went to school in her late twenties, mid-pandemic, and has an army of Gen Z theatre artists willing to fight for her, so watch what you say.

Leo Sun / Sag Moon / Cancer Rising, thx for asking.

Her parents insist they are not disappointed in her.

Two audience members in flamboyant costumes are interacting in a colorful backstage setting decorated with lights and theatrical props. — *Gender Play, or what you Will*
at **Actors Theatre of Louisville**
photo by Audrey Cecil

Two drag performers on stage, one in a pink dress and curly blonde wig, the other in a black outfit with green face paint, both singing into microphones. — *The After Show Show* with **Dusty Ray Bottoms** and **May O’Nays**,
at **Actors Theatre of Louisvile**

A confident individual posing playfully on a rural road, wearing a black oversized blazer over a red top and black shorts, with natural scenery in the background. — Wearing a blazer because she **is a professional**.