Lois “Lo” Abdelmalek (Leyla) is an actor, singer, director, voice artist, and photographer. She has worked with Philadelphia Artists’ Collective, Theatre Ariel, Hedgerow Theatre, Beacon Theatre Productions, and Delaware Shakespeare, among others. Most recently, she was in The Wilma’s production of KISS and the world premiere of 400 Barrels of Wine (Theatre Ariel & Theatre Company of Jerusalem) in Israel. Previously, she was the Director/Chair of Theatre at Eastern University where she created their first ever Theatre Major and Musical Theatre Concentration. Lo has an MFA in Performance and African American Theatre Certificate from the University of Louisville.

Raz Ayer (Taroon) is an actor who was born in Ankara, Turkey. He moved to New York City and completed a three-year conservatory program at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. Throughout his studies, he tackled challenging roles such as Macbeth in "Macbeth," Sebastian in "Twelfth Night," and Ross in "The Goat or Who is Sylvia"

Raz now resides in NYC, where he continues to pursue his acting career. He is thankful for his family’s continuous, unconditional love and their trust in him in his journey.

More about Raz: @razayernyc www.razayernyc.com

Ahsan Ali (Jawid) is a writer, actor, and filmmaker who grew up in Pakistan, and resides in NYC. Theater Credits include Amir in Disgraced By Ayad Akhtar, Ali in Friends with Amenities by Ahsan Ali and Lisa Jill Anderson, Natarajan in Mushroom by Eisa Davis. He won the Hilton Worldwide Award for best Actor in a Supporting Role in BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO (2014). TV and Film credits include: THE BLACKLIST (NBC) and NORA FROM QUEENS (Comedy Central). FAHIM (2020) (Best Actor GFF); COFFEE (2021) (Best Actor for Astoria FF), SASHA (2021), THIS IS AWKWARD (2022). BFA, CUNY Brooklyn College

Awesta Zarif (Afiya) is an actor, director, and singer based in NYC. Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, she was raised in San Diego and received a B.F.A. from Boston University’s School of Theatre. She has performed and trained internationally, including a performance residency with UNESCO’s International Theatre Institute. Recent stage credits include: Stephanie Rahn in Ink (Round House Theatre/Olney Theatre Center), Afiya in Selling Kabul (Seattle Rep, Signature Theatre), Blanche/Grace/Bessie in Jane Eyre (Geva Theatre Center) and Medium Alison in Fun Home (East West Theatre, China). Next, she will return to Geva Theatre Center as Margot in Dial M for Murder. Awesta is thrilled to be making her InterAct Theatre debut. She dedicates her performance to her parents, Faieq Zarif and Hilay Kamyar Zarif, and to the people of Afghanistan. #letafghangirlslearn. Awestazarif.com, @awestaz 

Sylvia Khoury (Playwright) is a New York-born writer of French and Lebanese descent. Her plays include Selling Kabul (Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theater Festival), Power Strip (LCT3), Against the Hillside (Ensemble Studio Theater) and The Place Women Go. She is currently under commission from Lincoln Center and Williamstown Theater Festival. Awards include the L. Arnold Weissberger Award and Jay Harris Commission and a Citation of Excellence from the Laurents/Hatcher Awards. She is a member of EST/ Youngblood and a previous member of the 2018-2019 Rita Goldberg Playwrights’ Workshop at The Lark and the 2016-2018 WP Lab. Her plays have been developed at Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theater Festival, Eugene O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference, Roundabout Theater Underground, Lark Playwrights’ Week, EST/Youngblood, and WP Theater. She holds a BA from Columbia University and an MFA from the New School for Drama. She obtained her MD from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in May 2021.

Jude Sandy (Director) is a Trinidad & Tobago-born, Philadelphia-based theater artist and teacher. Since 2016 he has been a company member with Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI, where he has directed or choreographed for nine productions and appeared in twelve. On broadway he was an original company member of the Tony Award-winning War Horse at Lincoln Center Theater, and has appeared off-broadway at The Pearl, Barrow Street and others. Regionally, he has movement- and associate-directed at Cleveland Play House and performed at Shakespeare Theatre Company, Guthrie Theater and others.

 Jude is an alumnus of Brown University (AB, MFA) and has been on faculty at Amherst College, Connecticut College, National Theater Institute and others. He is currently a visiting assistant professor at Swarthmore College, lead teaching artist with Beyond The Page at Middlebury College and co-creator of Denizen Arts Project, a performance collaboration alongside dance artist yaTande Whitney V. Hunter. www.judesandy.com

Hunter Smith (Stage Manager) is a Philadelphia based Stage Manager, Production Manager, Props Master, and all around theater lover who is from Medford Lakes, New Jersey. Hunter is so excited to be joining InterAct this season. Other previous stage management positions are from Azuka Theatre, Passage Theatre Company, Three Oaks Opera, Wolf Performing Arts Center, Philadelphia Artist Collective, and Woodstock Playhouse. He also is an Assistant Stage Manager for Opera Philadelphia and works full time as the Activities Director of Four Seasons Campground!

Seth Rozin (Producing Artistic Director) co-founded InterAct in 1988 and has directed over 60 productions for InterAct, including Eureka Day, The Great Leap, How to Use a Knife, The Nether, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety, Permanent Collection, It’s All True, Lebensraum, and 6221. He has also directed at the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles, Blue Heron & 45th Street Theaters in New York, and at theatres across the Philadelphia region. Seth is the author of more than a dozen plays, including Settlements, Human Rites, Two Jews Walk into a War... and Black Gold, which have been produced at 28 theatres across the country and in Australia. Seth is the recipient of two playwriting fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the National New Play Network’s 2007 Smith Prize, a commission from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, and two Barrymore Award nominations. He co-founded Philadelphia Scenic Works (PhiladelphiaScenicWorks.org), a nonprofit scenic fabrication shop, and MusiCoLab (MusiCoLab.org), dedicated to the development of new musical theatre works.  Seth has twice served as President of the Board of National New Play Network, as well as Philadelphia Artists Collective, Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia and New Paradise Laboratories.

Humaira Ghilzai (Cultural Consultant & Dramaturg) is a sought-after cultural expert, speaker, and writer with a mission to unveil the beauty, poetry, and humanity of the Afghan people through stories. Humaira made her Broadway debut in 2022 with the production of the Kite Runner. Theatre Credits: US and UK tours of the theatrical adaptations of Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner; J.T. Roger’s Blood and Gifts (La Jolla Playhouse); Gabriel Jason Dean’s Heartland (off-Broadway); Sylvia Khoury’s Selling Kabul (Seattle Rep, Signature Theatre, Northern Stage); Seth Rozin's Two Jews Walk Into a War (Theatre J), Kevin Artigue’s The Most Dangerous Highway in the World (Golden Thread Productions). Film & TV Credits: Little America, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, and Merry Friggin Christmas.  Website: www.humairaghilzai.com

LeVonne Lindsay (Costume Designer) is a Barrymore award-winning costume designer from Philadelphia, PA. After receiving her MFA in Costume Design from the University of Maryland, College Part, Ms. Lindsay was awarded a two-year Allen Lee Hughes Fellowship at Arena Stage in Washington DC. While living in DC, she became the Resident Designer for the African Continuum Theatre, designed several shows for The Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences, The Everyman Theatre in Baltimore MD, and then returned to Arena Stage as the costume designer for their production of Yellowman directed by Tazewell Thompson. 

​Before returning to her hometown of Philadelphia, Ms. Lindsay pursued a career in academia at Valdosta State University, James Madison University, and Stevenson University. She continued to freelance as both a costume designer and with various staff positions at regional theaters, schools, and festivals across the country. 

Lindsay Alayne Stevens (Lighting Designer) is excited to a returning to InterAct for a second show as the lighting designer of Selling Kabul. A multidisciplinary designer, artist, and writer, She holds an MFA in Theater Design from UCSD ('21) and BFAs with High Honors from Marlboro College in Theater, Photography, and Writing ('17). She has designed for La Jolla Playhouse (PopTour and WOW Festival), Scripps Ranch Theatre Company, Snowy Range Summer Theatre Festival, InterAct Theatre Company, terraNOVA Collective, Milburn Stone Theater, Surflight Theatre, SheNYC Theatre Festival, and Universities/ Colleges across the country. She has been the resident lighting designer at her hometown theater, Bootless Stageworks, since 2017. More information can be found at lastevensdesign.com.

John Kolbinski (Audio Engineer) Past Sound Design Work: The Winter Wonderettes (Hampton Arts, The American Theatre); Always…Patsy Cline, Civil War Voices, The Winter Wonderettes, Baskerville, Souvenir, The Gift, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, (Walnut); The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare in Clark Park); Basic Witches (Robert Hager); Behold Her (FringeArts/Half Key Theatre Co); Mort (New Paradise Laboratories); Every Brilliant Thing (Arden). Sound Supervisor at Arden Theatre Company and Chautauqua Theater Company. Audio Engineer at InterAct Theatre Company, Azuka Theatre and Lantern Theater Company. Sound Systems Designer, InterAct’s Drake Theater.

Cole Zwilling (Props Coordinator) is excited to be working with InterAct Theatre Company as the Props Coordinator for Selling Kabul. As a props artisan and manager, they were lucky enough to have been recognized by USITT with the 2023 Bernhard R. Works Master Crafts Award. Recent work includes Associate Props Manager for The Hunchback of Notre Dame at DeSales University and props artisan for The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's 2023 season. You can find more of their work on their website: https://colezwilling.wixsite.com/portfolio

Brayden Stallman (Production Assistant) is excited to be a 23-24 Season Apprentice at InterAct Theatre Company. Recent work includes his dance-theatre adaptation of Sheridan le Fanu’s “Carmilla” …even in another time (Director and Playwright), and productions of Tick, Tick… BOOM! (Director) and Medea (Director) at Muhlenberg College, as well as the feature length documentary Ars Mordeni: The Art of Dying. Stallman has worked with FringeArts producing the podcast FringeFiles: An Incomplete Oral History and currently produces the podcast Return to Camp Half-Blood. While working at Interact, Stallman also serves as an Administrative Assistant for Starlight’s Youth Theatre in Sunderland, MA. He is a graduate of Muhlenberg College with a BA in Theatre and Media-Communications. You can find more of his work here.

Philadelphia Scenic Works (Scenic Fabrication) are the nation's only independent, non-profit (501c3) scene shop. We work with arts organizations all over the Greater Philadelphia area to build projects that advance their missions. At the same time, we are investing in building a healthy, sustainable workforce, and innovative resource sharing.

Actors' Equity Association (“Equity"), founded in 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers. Equity fosters the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, improving working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors' Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions.

Equity is governed by its own members through an elected Council, representing principal actors, chorus actors and stage managers living in three regions: Eastern, Central and Western. Members at large participate in Equity’s governance through a system of Regional Boards and committees. Equity has 28 designated Geographically Based Communities, metropolitan areas with a concentration of more than 100 members.