Priyanka Shetty is an award-winning actor, playwright, and director based in Philadelphia. As a creator of original works, Priyanka is focused on making art that is a reflection of our times. With humor, insight, and raw energy, her plays pose critical questions about contemporary issues, engender dialogue, and are a call for solidarity and collective action.

 

Her critically acclaimed one-woman show The Elephant in the Room has performed at numerous venues across the US and internationally, including The John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington DC and the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe at the Assembly Festival which was followed by a Scotland Tour. She also made her Off-Broadway debut with this play at the Drama Desk award-winning 59E59 Theaters in NYC. Priyanka is premiering her much-anticipated solo show #CHARLOTTESVILLE in 2025 at the multiple Helen Hayes award-winning Keegan Theatre in Washington DC. She has been awarded a generous grant by the National Endowment of the Arts for the development of The Wall, the third and final play in her Triptych of Solos. Priyanka's Triptych of Solos will have a coordinated nationwide premiere across multiple cities in 2025/26. 

 

Priyanka is an alumna of the prestigious Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive and was a semi-finalist for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwriting Conference. She has served on the jury of Open Screenplay's MFilm Lab in Canada and as a mentor for emerging screenwriters of South Asian descent, and most recently on the jury for the 2024 Atlanta Indian Film Festival. Priyanka earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting from the University of Virginia and has served on the faculty of the University of Virginia’s Department of Drama.