Maha Chehlaoui

Maha Chehlaoui most recently performed in the Barrow Street Theater's production of Girl Blog from Iraq: Baghdad Burning (dir. Kim Kefgen) at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (nom. Best Ensemble).

She also played "Maryam Rahnavard" in Gardening Leave (dir. Michael Goldfried) at the Summer Play Festival. Other credits include: "Dr. Keira Banks" in The God Committee, (dir. Kevin Moriarty), "Leila Khaled" in The Female Terrorist Project, (dir. Lear de Bessonet), "The Woman" in Woman on a Threshold Beckoning, (dir. Michael Wilson), and "Bianca" in The Taming of the Shrew (dir. Andrei Serban). She can also be seen in the documentary In My Own Skin-Growing up Arab in America.

Directing credits include: Sajjil, Nibras (Best Ensemble, NYC Fringefest 2002), Live! With Pascal and Chantal, P&C Productions, Macklubeh, or Saved by the Bell, Nibras/Al-Jisser co-production, Ventoforze 5, Teatroabenzina, and The Kitchen God, for the Women of Color Festival. She has also served as an actor, director, and theater night coordinator and consultant for the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival from 2003 until the present.

As an active member of the Arab-American performing arts community, Maha has played an important role in founding Nibras, New York's first ever Arab-American theater collective. Through Nibras, she led workshops on creating work through improvisation, composition and viewpoints. She also has worked independantly with members of the community to further develop the voices of this oft misrepresented community.