Fiona Selmi is a theater artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY. She is primarily a dramaturg and director of new works, as well as a producer and a writer. Currently, she is a theatrical literary assistant at United Talent Agency. She is the founder and co-artistic director of a devised theater company, Live Animals Onstage! 

Fiona’s work often centers gender performance and feminist practices, most notably her recent thesis work entitled “Teenage Girls and Femme Futurities: A Investigation into Contemporary Feminist Theater.” Culminating in a workshop production of Clare Barron’s Dance Nation and Lyndsey Bourne’s Spitfire: a space femme fantasia (world premiere), this work cemented Fiona’s long held belief that the best theater makers are, at their core, community organizers. 

Fiona is also the co-artistic director of a devised theater that embraces a rock and roll ethos to create theater that is joyous, experimental and surprising. The name of her theatre company — Live Animals Onstage! — is a reference to the common theatrical phrase, “nothing is as exciting on stage as a child or a live animal.” Fiona’s work dares to be as enthralling and unpredictable as a pack of wild animals set loose onstage. 

Previously, Fiona was the Artistic Fellow at Playwrights Horizons, the Manager of the Emerging Playwrights Fund at Audible Theater and the literary intern at Studio Theatre. She owes much of her dramaturgy ethos and worldview to the plethora of mentors she has been beyond lucky to work with: Sarah Lunnie, Amy Holzaphel, Lizzie Stern, Emilia LaPenta, Lauren Halvorsen and Adrien-Alice Hansel.

Fiona is originally from Chevy Chase, Maryland. She holds a BA from Williams College in Theatre and Political Science. While at Williams she was awarded the Ruth Sanford Prize in Theatre, The Russell H. Bostert Fellowship, and the Ruth Scott Sanford fellowship in theater.