Sweet Tea and the Southern Jew (Live on Zoom)

MARISSA TIAMFOOK GEE (Writer) grew up in Brooklyn, NY. She has always been active in her Jewish community, from being on the board of the Jewish Multiracial Network (JMN) to the board of IKAR, her current spiritual home. Marissa is a personal trainer, running coach and owns a corporate wellness company, helping companies keep their employees fit and healthy. She is also a former lawyer, teacher, runner, coach, and an outdoor adventure enthusiast. She runs, climbs, and explores every mountain and hidden trail she can find. She has traveled the world, worked in Uganda (volunteering through American Jewish World Service), taught English in Asia, worked at the UN in Geneva, studied abroad in Jerusalem and Amsterdam, and backpacked through the Pacific Rim, Australia, and Europe. She now has a more conventional life (although no less active!) and lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters.

RONI GEVA (Actor) is honored to be included in this production. An actor, writer, and produc- er born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel, and College Station, Texas, Roni spent much stage time in Chicago, where she was nominated for a Joseph Jefferson Award for best supporting actress in a musical (Urinetown). Other theatre work includes The Clean House, Pride and Prejudice, Love Loss, and What I Wore, Grease, and others. Television/film work includes roles on Atypical, Bosch, This Is Us, Jane the Virgin, and Andi Mack, as well as co-creating the Emmy-nominated comedy CTRL ALT DELETE. Wanna know more? ronigeva.com.

KIMBERLY GREEN (Actor), an actress and dancer, was born in Seoul, Korea, and is a graduate of Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. Her most recent virtual stage productions include True Colors with The Braid, Piano in the Dark with the Group Repertory Theatre, Snowflake with the Road Theatre and 5 live virtual performances with Smartphone Theater: Woman No. 6, Sophie-Alexander-Lisboa, So that Happened, Finding the Way and Checkmate. Her notable past theater credits include It’s Just Sex, LA’s longest-running comedy, for which she won the 2017 Valley Theatre award for Best Featured Actress and was nominated at the 2018 NAACP Theatre Awards for Best Ensemble Cast. In 2017 she played Trina in B.L.A.C. Mail Productions’ seven-year anniversary show, Can God’s Love, which was nominated for Best Musical and Best Director for the 2019 NAACP Theatre Awards. Some of her TV and film credits include Lucifer (Fox), The Young and the Restless (CBS), and The Hot Chick, a Happy Madison Production. Kimberly is converting to Judaism through the Judaism by Choice Program. She is also a Barre instructor and the creator and owner of Barre Fit, an on-line, ballet fitness class, www.thebarrefit.com.

MELISSA FAY GREENE (Writer), an award-winning author of six books of nonfiction, was born in Macon, Georgia. She spent most of her childhood in Dayton, Ohio, and returned to Georgia in 1975, where she and her husband raised their nine children. A recent Guggenheim Fellow and inductee into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame, Melissa is a contributor to The Atlantic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and other periodicals, and is a two-time National Book Award finalist. Her work has been translated into 15 languages and has been honored with the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award, the ACLU Civil Liberties Award, and the Hadassah Myrtle Wreath Award. Her first book, Praying for Sheetrock, was included on the list of 100 outstanding works of English-language journalism of the 20th century. Melissa is the Kirk Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Agnes Scott College and a Distinguished Visiting Professor at UGA’s Grady College of Journalism.

AMANDA HOROWITZ (Stage Manager) wants to spend her life organizing and creating new theater. She recently graduated with bachelor’s degrees in theater and math from the University of Alabama, where she stage-managed and assistant stage-managed eight shows in the theater department. She most recently directed a thirty-minute play as part of a new-works play festival in North Hollywood. She hopes someday to be able to run her own theater company dedicated to producing emerging theater and providing other young adults with their first paid opportunities in the arts. She is thankful to The Braid for providing her first step toward her professional career.

JODI MARCUS (Community Partnership Lead) first came to The Braid as a patron, and now helps bring people together to laugh, cry, and share in the human experience by booking Braid shows across the country. Prior to joining The Braid team, Jodi worked for 18 years in the non- profit sector as a fundraiser and consultant. In a younger iteration of her life, Jodi saw half of the world as a dancer. She’s now traded in her tap shoes for tapping on the computer, writing short stories, and working on a novel for tweens. Jodi holds a BA in communications, public relations from Cal State Fullerton and a MPA from Cal State Northridge.

IZZY SALANT (Writer) is a native Marylander who, after traveling up the East Coast to study theater and journalism at UMass Amherst, got tired of humidity, cold, and being allergic to going outside and relocated to Los Angeles, where he currently resides. His work has been featured
by Punctuate 4, Bema Productions, The Braid, Arena Civic Theater, Ghost Light Theater, and the UMass Amherst Department of Theater. He was a member of the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive Class of 2019 and was a two-time NEXT artist fellow at The Braid in Santa Monica. He is also a practicing magician.