Ashley Smiley
Resident Artist
Ashley Smiley is an interdisciplinary artist, doctoral student and cultural producer that has been an active participant in San Francisco’s theatre community since the age of 14. A displaced San Francisco native, Smiley uses her work to carve out space for a dwindling Black community however and wherever she can. As a cultural producer, Smiley currently serves as the Senior Programs Coordinator at the African American Art and Culture Complex located in the heart of the Fillmore/Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco. Academically, Smiley holds a B.A. in Performing Arts and Social Justice (double major in Theology/Religious Studies) from the University of San Francisco, a M.A. in Drama from San Francisco State University and is currently in the homestretch of her doctoral studies at the Graduate Theological Union in the department of Historical and Cultural Studies in Religion with a concentration on Art and Religion.
Smiley has been blessed to work with arts institutions across the Bay Area including but not limited to Berkeley Rep, BAMBD House, American Conservatory Theatre, Cal Shakes, African American Shakespeare Company, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Crowded Fire Theatre Company, the Bay Area Playwrights Foundation, Youth Speaks/Life is Living/Brave New Voices and many more as a Production Manager, Stage Manager, Sound Designer, Performer and Director…but nothing can compare to the personal and professional development she has received from her Campo Santo Familia for whom she is eternally grateful to be held, loved, seen and supported by.
Smiley is ecstatic to be holding her second world premiere at the Magic Theatre after the successful run of her first full length piece, Dirty White Teslas Make Me Sad. Catch her in the City or on the socials.
IG: @smileyfromthesco