Kareem's plays include Dodi & Diana (O'Neill NPC finalist, world premiere at Colt Coeur), American Fast (Woodward/Newman Award Winner, NNPN Rolling World Premiere: Artists Repertory Theatre, City Theatre, InterAct), A Distinct Society (Co-World Premiere: TheatreWorks Silicon Valley/Pioneer Theatre, Writers Theatre), The Triumphant (Target Margin), Pareidolia, The In-Between (Noor Theatre), and an adaptation of the bestselling novel The Yacoubian Building. His work has been developed at Atlantic Theater Company, Denver Center, Northlight Theatre, New York Stage & Film, Citadel Theatre, and more.

 

Kareem has been a fellow or resident artist at the Sundance Theatre Lab, MacDowell, Yaddo, New Harmony Project, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Phil Killian Directing Fellow),The Old Globe (Classical Directing Fellow), Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center (National Directors Fellow), TCG (Rising Leaders of Color), Second Stage (Van Lier Directing Fellow), Soho Rep (Writer/Director Lab), Lincoln Center (Directors Lab), The New Museum (Artist-in-Residence), Stratford Festival, and New York Theater Workshop (Emerging Artist Fellow & Usual Suspect). He is a NYSCA/NYFA Playwriting Fellow.

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MFA (Directing): Columbia University.

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Kareem lives in New York City with his husband, acclaimed fiction writer John McManus, and their dog Kip.

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playwright portrait by Peter Bellamy