Grace Wilkerson is an LA based director, dramaturg, stage manager, and arts educator. She is passionate about creating accessible and joyful creative spaces for artists and audiences alike.

Her recent directorial team work includes “Into the Woods” and “Betrayal” for the Santa Cruz Shakespeare 2025 season, the award nominated, sold out world premiere folk musical "Where Within" at the 2024 Hollywood Fringe Festival, “The Wolves” with The Morgan-Wixson Theater, and a staged reading os Chelsea Sutton’s “I say running is like breathing” for Rogue Artists Ensemble’s Rough Draft Series. Grace also recently collaborated with Liza Sanaye Dring and Tova Katz as assistant director of their workshop production “Onward, Ruthless”, directed by Emil Weinstein. Grace is proud to have worked with The Blank Theatre’s Young Playwrights Festival, Rally Cat Theatre, Outside/In Theatre, Chalk Repertory, and the Los Angeles LGBTQ Center.

Currently, Grace is a Directing Apprentice at Playground-LA, where she will work on four productions in their Monday Night Playground series.

This summer, Grace was a Directing and Dramaturgy Apprentice at Santa Cruz Shakespeare. She assisted Artistic Director of Sonora Repertory Theater, Jerry Lee, on the company’s first musical in 32 years, “Into the Woods”. She also was an assistant dramaturg to Dr. Michael Chemers, founder of the Carnegie Mellon undergraduate dramaturgy program, for the production. Grace also assistant directed and provided dramaturgy for “Betrayal”, directed by Rebecca Clark.

Grace’s aesthetic is one of experimental, messy theater full of laughter and vulnerability. She loves working in heightened realism, satire, and dark comedies. Grace is also interested in physical theater, from dance to puppetry, and how scripts can convey the internal life of a character even beyond dialogue. Her background in improv, stand-up and sketch comedy helps her find the humor in every script.

Grace is a graduate of the University of Southern California with a BA in theater and a minor in occupational science. She spends her time outside of the theater dodging rogue balls while coaching kids soccer, seeing an improv show, and perfecting her matcha latte recipe. She works for Rogue Artists Ensemble, an immersive and experimental LA theater company, as a production and administrative assistant.