Temidayo Amay

Moriamo Temidayo Onisemo Akibu (they/he), credited professionally as Temidayo Amay, is an American writer, actor, director, and creative producer. Amay first garnered attention for their performance at Symone in “She a Gem” at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Since 2018, Amay has continued to perform, write, and direct theatrical works, which feature stories primarily written by, for, and about Black people, queer people, and people of culture.

Amay achieved wider recognition as the breakout star of the Round House Theatre’s production of Jocelyn Bioh’s “School Girls, or: The African Mean Girls Play” (2019), for which they were awarded the inaugural non-gendered Helen Hayes Award for their performance as Gifty. Their 2020 article, “Tẹmídayọ Amay: Being, among other things, a nonbinary actor” became a DC Theatre Scene viral article. In 2021, Amay was included in the annual American Theatre Magazine People to Watch: 19 theatre workers you should know. Amay has starred in several premiere’s including Rajiv Joseph’s “Describe the Night” with Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Mona Prinot’s “Private” with Mosaic Theatre Company, and Marcus Gardley’s “black odyssey with Classic Stage Company.

Amay has also starred in films, with roles in the drama The Know (2022), the fantasy comedy She Speaks to the Trees (2021). Amay associate produced the film with Longacre Lea Productions. She speaks to the Trees is the 2021 Los Angeles International Film Festival Award Winner.

Early Life

Temidayo Amay was born in Silver Spring, Maryland. Their parents are Yoruba natives who met in Lagos, Nigeria.

The family lived in Washington, DC during some of their childhood. They were raised mostly in Prince George’s County, Maryland, where they grew up in predominantly Black African neighborhoods with summers at the pool, playing double dutch, and making up dances with friends. Amay was raised Muslim, his mother's faith.

After leaving Glendaren Woods magnet school, Amay’s family moved to Montgomery County, Maryland. Amay graduated from Watkins Mill High School, where they started acting and directing. Amay is fluent in Spanish and Yoruba.

In 2021, after the success of the Salon, Amay launched PILOT’s first fully produced creative endeavor, “The Cookout” (2021), a short-form “tik-topera” chronically the quintessential Black family cookout and the characters that frequent them. Season one of The Cookout aired Monday, September 6, 2021 on Tik Tok and Instagram. The cast featured Temidayo Amay, Vaughn Ryan Midder, Renea Brown, Agyeiwaa Asante, Ian Anthony Coleman. This was Amay’s first series that they wrote, produced, and starred in. It remains a pivotal moment in Amay’s career as a writer, actor, and creative producer.

Amay was the 2020-1 Quadrant Playwright in Residence for their play “POOL” at the Theatre Alliance. 

(R-L): Temidayo Amay, Yesenia Iglesias, and Teresa Spencer

Career

In 2015, Amay graduated from The University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies. As a college student, they were the producing Artistic Director of Kreativity Diversity Troupe. Kreativity began as a group called Voices of Color in 1995, and provided a way for Black students in the University of Maryland’s school of theatre, dance and performance studies to express their creativity and showcase their talents in writing, self-producing, and directing. The club has since expanded to include any student who is interested in performing. During Amay’s tenure at Maryland, they wrote and directed plays, starred in University performances, and choreographed dance-theatre pieces.

Amay has always been a multi-hyphenate artist, and during their time at the University of Maryland, took time to pursue their interests in dance and design in addition to performing and directing. Amay choreographed their self-titled dance piece for the Clarice Smith: NextNow Festival. In 2013, they became an apprentice member of PearsonWidrig DanceTheatre, performing notably at the opening festival of Governor’s Island in “A Curious Invasion.” They utilized their love of fashion to costume design “For Colored Folks” and “For and In Behalf Of” while maintaining a Dean’s List GPA and a Creative and Performing Arts Scholarship at UMD.

The Smithsonian’s Discovery Theatre

After college, Amay took a summer abroad to study sea turtle populations in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. They worked odd jobs and at one point was struggling to decide between continuing work in property management, and returning to Costa Rica to study sea turtle migration, but abandoned both prospects when they gained wider popularity in 2016 in their performances at the Smithsonian's Discovery Theatre. During their five years with the Smithsonian, Amay helped Discovery Theatre co-produced, performed, and co-directed for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the National Museum of American History, the Air and Space Museum, and the Natural History Museum.

Amay joined the Keegan Theater as director for the Womxn on Fire Festival in both 2019 and 2020. They directed with the Athena Project, and made their off-Broadway debut with MCC Theater’s “On Love” by Mfoniso Udofia, directed by Awoye Timpo.

The PILOT Project

During the Pandemic shutdown, Amay founded The Pilot Project DC, a creation studio and producers collective dedicated to uplifting Black queer stories on screen and supported Black artistic multi-hyphenates. The collective was born of a week-long intensive Amay co-produced a alongside The Reclamation Project DC, in which actors were given time to experiment with the medium of film. Amay sourced camera equipment, photographers and videographers, and theatrical space to “give Black artists a room to make mistakes, and fail upwards in.” Following the success of PILOT week, the Pilot Project DC was born.

In 2021, Amay began hosting a monthly writer’s meeting aptly named “The New Moon Playwrights Salon” where writers were given incubation and accountability space to share work while theaters remained closed. Participants to the New Moon Writers salon included Agyeiwaa Asante, Renea Brown, Dani Stoller, Deb Sivigny, Rebecca Dzida, and Vaughn Ryan Midder.

Once theaters began reopening their doors, Amay returned to the stage as performer. In 2022, they starred in Mona Pirnot’s world premiere “Private,” directed by Knud Adams. They went on to co-star in “The Color Purple” produced by The Signature Theatre, directed by Timothy Douglas, where they received the Helen Hayes Award for best ensemble and best production.

Present

In 2023, Amay moved to New York City to pursue their career as playwright and producer. Temidayo is a 2023 Breaking the Binary New Works Program Playwriting Fellow, 2023 Theatre Producers of Color Producing Fellow, 2023-4 Musical Theatre Factory Makers Cohort III Playwriting Fellow, Harriet Tubman Effect’s inaugural Lantern Executive Coaching Program award recipient, and 2023-4 Obie Award-winning MAESTRA Music Musical Theatre Writing Mentee.

Amay began working with Breaking the Binary during its festival premiere in 2022 as a performer in Mara Velez’s “Thelma and Louise and the Time Machine.” They began working with BTB as a playwright in the organization’s inaugural, Obie-Award winning season. During that time Amay began their fellowship with Theatre Producer’s of Color, taking classes from Miranda Gohh, Sammy Lopez, and other members of The Industry Standard Group. 

They look forward to continuing their creative pursuits as a writer, performer, and creative producing director. Amay currently resides in New York City.