Naima Dawson

Founder of All Hype City, Naima Dawson is more than just a playwright, author, and director, she's an innovator of entertainment. She has over 20 years of professional experience in theater and creative writing. Naima has created a movement of funky art collectives, such as Art-Trusion the Living Art Gallery and Your Call Sketch Comedy. She's the writer and director of Living Room Secrets, the first theatrical soap opera production to unfold one episode at a time on stage. She's the writer behind, YourCall Sketch Comedy & Improv where, music and poetry come together with sketch comedy and Improv.

Naima has her Master of Fine Arts from Columbia College, Chicago and is also an established poet, with her first book published in 2005, HotWater Pancakes. Her vision for theater started in 1998 with And Then There was Poetry, a comedy play analyzing how much people didn't know about the history of African American poetry during the Love Jones poetry era. Her career took off with the production of, Living Room Secrets & Your Call Call Sketch Comedy. In 2010 she wrote and directed her first short film, Balance which premiered at the Festival of the Hearts in 2011. Today, Naima has a several new works in production and a new book to soon be released.