Velani Dibba is an LA-based director and multidisciplinary artist of Tongan and Gambian descent. Her work focuses on the collision of cultures through design-focused and ensemble-driven pieces.

She is an Inaugural Fellow at the Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics in Washington D.C., a former Global Cultural Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, and a former SITI Company Artistic Associate. She has a thorough background in immersive theatre, devised work, ensemble building, experimental circus, and new and classical plays. Her work has been reported on by The New York Times, Vulture Magazine, The Scotsman, The LA Times, and various other outlets.

Select directing credits include Don’t Touch My Hair (IAMA Theatre Company), Pride and Prejudice (The Dramat at Yale Repertory Theatre), we need your listening (New Ohio Theatre Ice Factory Festival), Apologies to the Bengali Lady (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Tank NYC, The Gathering), I Pledge Allegiance (UNESCO International Theatre Festival and World Congress, TCG National Conference), and Space Odyssey (Columbia School of the Arts). She has assisted under Anne Bogart, Darko Tresnjak, Tinashe Kajese Bolden, and Judy Hagerty Lovett, among others. This winter, Velani will be directing a Turner prize as a lecturer at UCLA.

Velani studied International Relations with a focus in Culture & Politics at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, before becoming the youngest person ever to receive an MFA in Directing from Columbia University.