JESS MCLEOD (she/her) is a New York-based director specializing in risky new work about America. Recent/upcoming credits include D.A. Mindell’s On the Evolutionary Function of Shame (Second Stage); her original musical SAFE (songs by Brian Quijada, BAM); Larissa FastHorse’s The Thanksgiving Play (Steppenwolf); Lloyd Suh’s The Chinese Lady (Alliance, Cincy Playhouse); Isaac Gómez’s Radical or, are you gonna miss me (IAMA); Paola Lázaro’s There’s Always the Hudson (Woolly Mammoth); Keiko Green’s Prepared (EST); The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Little Island); Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice (Long Wharf), Idris Goodwin’s Hype Man (Actors Theatre of Louisville); and Hansol Jung’s Wolf Play (Jeff Nom, The Gift Theatre). She spent three years as Resident Director of HAMILTON Chicago and recently served as Woolly Mammoth’s BOLD Resident Director; Artist-In-Residence at the ACLU of New York (Creatives Rebuild NY grantee); Lead Curator for Roundabout’s 2023 Refocus Project; and Co-Chair, with Michael Korie, of the Dramatists Guild Foundation’s Musical Theatre Fellows Program. 

Other premieres include Stacy Osei-Kuffour’s Hang Man (The Gift); Frances Pollock & Jessica Murphy Moo’s Earth To Kenzie (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Suzan-Lori Parks’ Venus (Steppenwolf); Mara Nelson-Greenberg’s Do You Feel Anger? and Abe Koogler’s Fulfillment Center (A Red Orchid); Lauren Yee’s in a word (Strawdog); Goodwin’s How We Got On (Jeff Nom., Haven); Michael Gene Sullivan’s The Great Khan (San Diego Rep); Sharyn Rothstein’s Landladies (Northlight); Shawn Pfautsch’s Season on the Line (Jeff Nom., The House) and Kevin Coval’s L-vis Live! (Victory Gardens). Other Chicago credits include Short Shakes! Midsummer (CST); a rather socialist production of The Pajama Game, Chris Miller & Nathan Tysen’s Fugitive Songs and a reimagined Marry Me A Little (Jeff Nom., Porchlight).

Recent workshops include her own play The Deciders (Berkeley Rep Ground Floor); Dipika Guha’s Asilomar (MTC); Brandy Hoang Collier/Clare Fuyuko Bierman/Erika Ji’s Yoko’s Husband’s Killer’s Japanese Wife Gloria (O’Neill, NAMT); Sarah Schulman/ Anthony Davis/Michael Korie’s SHIMMER; Velina Hasu Houston’s Tea and Alex Lubischer’s You Deserve To Be Here (Roundabout); Max Yu’s Made In Chinatown (Atlantic, P73); Jay Adana’s The Jordan & Avery Show (Ars Nova, O’Neill); Rachel Lynnet’s Abortion Road Trip (WTF) and Keiko Green’s Young Dragon (Seattle Children’s Theatre). She has developed new work by Robert Askins, Antoinette Nwandu, Rachel Axler, Lauren Yee, Billy Corgan, Stefani Kuo, Christina Anderson, Joyce Carol Oates, Michael Mahler and Ben Folds at the Goodman, Victory Gardens, AMTP and NYMF.

Jess also works frequently at the intersection of art & activism, and has developed operas with community groups (Lyric), musicals with incarcerated teen Chicagoans (Storycatchers) and social justice walking tours (National Public Housing Museum). She curated Broadway Advocacy Coalition’s inaugural Arts In Action Festival and co-created the #STOPASIANHATE video campaign for NY Rep. Grace Meng’s 3/26 Day of Action & Healing. 2017 Goodman Theatre Michael Maggio Directing Fellow; Artistic Fellow (then Resident Director) at the bygone Victory Gardens. Currently under commission from La Jolla Playhouse. MFA, Northwestern. BA, Williams. Jess is a first-generation Korean-Filipina-Scottish American.