Kathleen Akerley (she/her) is an actor, director, filmmaker, playwright, and teacher, and the Artistic Director of Longacre Lea. She has worked in one or more of these capacities at 1st Stage, Adventure Theatre, Catalyst Theatre, Constellation Theatre, DC Dog & Pony, DC FringeFest, eXtreme eXchange, Flying V, Forum Theatre, Keegan Theatre, Olney Theatre, Rorschach Theatre, Round House Theatre, Scena Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre, Sideshow Theatre (Chicago), Signature Theatre, Solas Nua, SourceFest, Studio Theatre, Theater Alliance, Washington Stage Guild, and Avant Bard when it was Washington Shakespeare Company.  She is a recipient of the Mary Goldwater Theater Lobby Award for Acting and Directing, a three-time recipient of the DCCAH Arts Fellowship for Playwriting and Directing, a Helen Hayes nominee for Outstanding Choreography for her Grotowski-inspired direction of #shksprprjct, and her play Something Past in Front of the Light was considered for the Steinberg Award.