Carissa Lee Pinckney is an artist, educator and MFA candidate based in Chicago, Illinois

Armed with a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, I began acting professionally in 2010. I have appeared in several short films, and been featured on Key and Peele (Comedy Central) and The Crazy Ones (Fox). I created and produced the web series Living With Strangers (LWS) through my production company, Apartment 12 Productions, together with my co-creator and friend, Tracy Ofosuhene. LWS has screened around the regional and international film festival circuit. During this time while working as an actor, I was lucky enough to join the team that workshopped Aleshea Harris' "What to Send Up When It Goes Down" performing the work at Boston Court Performing Arts Center and at A.C.T. in San Francisco. After those performances I began to understand that I needed to break free of the conventions of theater and film. My passion for storytelling drove me to create through acting, directing, writing and producing. Now my desire for change and connection drives me to push past the rules of any one genre and make art that blurs the lines between theater, film, intervention, craft and event. Now during my pursuit of a MFA in performance from the School of the Art institute Chicago I am exploring themes of generational trauma and healing, community building and empathy.

In addition to creating art myself, I love to help others create! I began my teaching artist career in 2016 and have worked with several organizations in Los Angeles dedicated to the advancement of young minds, including The Geffen Playhouse, The Unusual Suspects, Center Theater Group, About Productions, Arts For Healing Justice, and A Noise Within. I feel my calling is to share my theatrical and artistic knowledge with our youth and disenfranchised communities so they develop their voices and gain the confidence to express themselves, on- and off-stage.

Always looking forward,

Carissa