New West Playwrights | estlosangeles

EST/LA’s New West Playwrights is dedicated to fostering and developing the work of Los Angeles area playwrights under 30 years of age through weekly meetings, readings, and workshop productions.

Program Administrators

Troy Loftin

Jacob Fiedler

Meet the New 2023 Cohort

Andrew Grace

Andrew Xiao Inouye Grace is a Los Angeles-based writer & actor whose work focuses on multi-racial experiences, queer identity, and creating understanding and compassion between people with contrasting views. His plays include the full length comedy, Cupid & the End of Love (Hollywood Fringe Festival 2019), Jessie Malone (Playhouse West 2019), and Permafrost, which placed in the Austin Film Festival's Play Writing Competition (2021) and is currently in production at Playhouse West (2023). He recently won the Austin Film Festival's Virtual Pitch Competition sponsored by UCLA with his TV Pilot, Hail To The Chief, and will be taking UCLA's Producer's graduate level intensive. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2015 with a BA in film and nearly three minors in music composition, theatre performance, and western philosophy—all disciplines that are known to be very lucrative.

Diego Lanao is a Peruvian American writer who has studied playwriting at HB Studio under Julie McKee and Eduardo Machado. His play Before We Focus on Others was selected for the A-Tipíco Latinx Play Festival at Teatro Chelsea in Boston & the First Fridays Festival at The Barrow Group Performing Arts in New York. Most recently, he was named a TV writer finalist for the 2022 NBC Writers on the Launch Program and a writer finalist for the 3rd Annual NOSOTROS & NBC Ya Tu Sabes Monologue Showcase. His work focuses on emotional relationships, underdog stories and amplifying diverse voices. He is a proud member of the Latinx Playwrights Circle and earned a B.A. in Biology with a Joint Minor in Computer Science and Mathematics from NYU.

Diego Lanao

Alicia Louzoun-Heisler is a Queer, Mizrahi North African, and formerly Orthodox Jewish playwright who harbors a deep affection for unlikeable women. A story editor on the upcoming James Patterson Audible series "Beach Road," Alicia is the winner of the Patty Abramson Emerging Playwright Award, the Goldberg Play Prize, the Elizabeth Cuthrell Prize at Fusion Film Festival, and a co-recipient of the Uprise Grant at Sundance Film Institute. Her plays have been developed by Theater J, Full Circle Theater Company, and in association with Crossroads Theater Company. Alicia holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch. She is represented by Story Driven.

Alicia Louzon-Heisler

Tahirih Moeller is a writer-doodler from Long Beach, California. She believes the most profound way to speak to audiences is through comedy and lyricism. When she’s not crafting sketches with her writing partner, she’s writing poetry filled plays about the everyday struggles and triumphs of being a Black woman in America. And on occasion, she does both.

Tahirih Moeller

Johanna Stone is a writer, director and actor based in Los Angeles. Her plays have been produced by The Brick Theater, The Blank Theatre, Offstage Works, The NoHo Actor's Studio, and Tisch School of the Arts. Her play Stick & Poke was adapted into a short film that premiered as part of the NewFilmmakers NY series at Anthology Film Archives. As a performer, she has worked with Half Straddle and The Million Underscores. She is a graduate of NYU's Experimental Theatre Wing.