About Marcos Nájera

Marcos Nájera is a hybrid storyteller: actor/director/journalist. A recipient of CTG’s Dana Fellowship and an Oregon Shakespeare Festival Directing Assistantship, he’s a rebel performance artist for Guillermo Gomez Peña's La Pocha Nostra troupe and a long time artistic associate of playwright Anna Deavere Smith. He describes himself artistically as Marcos Deavere Peña: the imagined bastard offspring of Gomez-Peña and Smith.  Marcos is currently crafting curriculum with Smith at NYU’s Institute on the Arts & Civic Dialogue. His one-man show about mental health in communities of color is called “Neuroplasticity: The Brown Brain.” As a reporter, he’s filed stories for NPR, the BBC, CNN and NPR’s Latino USA.  You can hear him these days on KPCC’s (NPR Los Angeles) daily arts show called “The Frame” as well as the upcoming podcasts for the new PBS documentary chronicling the life of the Brown Buffalo: Oscar Zeta Acosta.  Directing credits include ¡SER! at The Los Angeles Theater Center, Cornerstone Theater/Teatro Jornalero’s collaborative show Sueños Sin Fronteras by Bernardo Solano, and projects at Occidental College’s New Play Festival.  Marcos is a Center Theatre Group Teaching Artist Faculty member who believes glitter, confetti and sushi make the world a better place.  He holds two degrees from Stanford University and a Certificate from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education’s “Mind, Brain & Education Institute.”  Representation by Brady, Brannon & Rich in Los Angeles and the Leighton Agency in Arizona.