ANAND RAO A bi-lingual writer, cross-platform content producer, storyteller, communications strategist, and creative director, Anand found his calling for theatre from a very young age that eventually blossomed at the iconic National College in Bengaluru, India, an institution that has been alma mater for many famous theatre personalities over the decades. Several best actor awards in collegiate theatre festivals helped land roles with various theatre groups and on regional television. In the early 2000s, he was a regular on TV, playing prominent roles in popular series for Kannada channels. Anand has acted in over 50 theatre productions in India and the US.

A prolific writer, with a wide range of interests from business and technology, to travel, people, culture, and the arts, Anand has worked in media, advertising, and communications both in India and in the US. A Muslim in the Midst opened to sold-out audiences at New York’s Hudson Guild Theatre in 2016. The play has since been produced at Yale University, the South Asian Theatre Festival 2017, and the Actor’s Fund Theatre in Brooklyn, NY. In 2019, the play was successfully produced in 6 different theatres in Bangalore, India. The play was a finalist for the best play award at the NY Summerfest 2018, and at the 2020 Screencraft Stage play contest.

His other plays include a dialogue between faith and science – Deadlock and a modern take on the ancient tales of Panchatantra – The Spice Trail Scrolls. Recently, Law for the Entitled, a mythological story about caste, wealth, and privilege performed to full houses in NJ and DC at the multilingual festival, Natya Darpan 2023.

Equally proficient in English and his native Kannada, Anand also has adapted numerous screenplays and plays between the two languages. His adaptations include adapting Mahesh Dattani’s English Play Dance Like a Man to Kannada and directing its opening production in Bangalore in Sept. 2022. He is the writer of the English TV series “Vernacular” based on the 1931 India Press Act that is currently awaiting pre-production.

Anand has an M.B.A. from the Westminster College in Salt Lake City, UT, M.A., and B.A., in English Literature, and advanced studies in Journalism and Public Relations.