His plays, which include Fountains of Youth, Dodi & Diana, American Fast, A Distinct Society,The Triumphant, Pareidolia, The In-Between, and an adaptation of the novel The Yacoubian Building, have been produced at Colt Coeur, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Pioneer Theatre, Writers Theatre, City Theatre, Artists Repertory Theatre, InterAct Theatre, Capital Stage, Constellation Stage, Noor Theatre, Target Margin Theatre, and the Human Race Theatre Company (forthcoming). He's been an O'Neill finalist, a two-time winner of the Capital Rep New Play Award, and received the Woodward/Newman award (for American Fast). His work has been developed at Atlantic Theater Company, Denver Center, Northlight Theatre, New York Stage & Film, Citadel Theatre, and more.

 

Kareem received fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Sundance Theatre Lab, Stratford Festival, New Harmony Project, Hermitage Artists Retreat, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Phil Killian Directing Fellow),The Old Globe (Classical Directing Fellow), Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center (National Directors Fellow), Second Stage (Van Lier Directing Fellow), Soho Rep (Writer/Director Lab), Lincoln Center (Directors Lab), The New Museum (Artist-in-Residence), and New York Theater Workshop (Emerging Artist Fellow). He is a NYSCA/NYFA Playwriting Fellow.

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As a screenwriter, he was in the inaugural cohort of Warner Media's Access Writers Program. His TV pilots have been finalists for the episodic labs at Sundance, Orchard Project, and Austin Film Festival.

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MFA (Theatre 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