Fareeda is passionate about creating inclusive theater, for artists and for audiences of diverse backgrounds and abilities. She focuses on elusive types of inclusivity, like foreign languages, subaltern historical perspectives, and subversions of accepted political correctness. Her aim is to create work tailor-made for the body and voice of the actor, and to create roles for those who live at the unmapped intersections of society - beyond the margins.

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WRITER. Fareeda's written work spans film, TV, radio, poetry, op-eds, and the stage. She has written four one-acts on commission for TBTB’s intensives since 2020 (The New York Times mention of TBTB’s intensives and their impact on the disabled community during the pandemic, April 2023). Her plays include MISS/CONCEPTION (Fresh Lime Soda Productions) and A THING OF BEAUTY (Dramatists Guild Footlights, ScreenCraft quarter-finalist). Her latest one-act THE OLYMPIANS (a satire of woke culture, featured in Time Out New York) was produced by TBTB at Theatre Row in New York in May 2022. Her bi-lingual satire THE CASTING PARTY was produced in Japan in the Fall of 2022 as part of the 15th Annual BIRD Theatre Festival. She has participated in multiple playwriting workshops at The New Group. She has also written 300 poems and counting. She teaches poetry writing weekly to high-schoolers with challenged access to education (refugee organization, name withheld for security purposes).

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PERFORMER (SAG-AFTRA, AEA). Recent acting projects include theater (BRECHT ON BRECHT at ART New York, review here), film (STITCHED, dir. Lorena Lorencou; LOOSE THREADS dir. Elif Fatima), and audiobooks (Ausma Zehanat Khan’s detective thriller “Blackwater Falls,” NY Times and AudioFile mentions; Samira K. Mehta’s The Racism of People Who Love You, Penguin Random House). She is currently collaborating with playwright Neena Beber, director Maria Mileaf, and actor Jessica Hecht on an adaptation of Brecht’s “The Mother,” as dramaturg and performer, through a residency at Baryshnikov Arts Center (Click here for a short documentary about this collaboration). She continues to study acting at HB Studio, and voice at the Juilliard School.

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THEATER ADVISOR. Fareeda serves on the boards of two New York Off-Broadway theatre companies: Theatre Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB) which aims to integrate artists with disabilities in groundbreaking stage work, and the Gingold Theatrical Group, dedicated to the work of George Bernard Shaw and the activism he continues to inspire.

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Fareeda holds a BA from Barnard College (Summa Cum Laude) in English Literature, and Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures - Thesis of Distinction; Gerard Prize Nominee; Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize Winner for original poetry.

She holds an MBA from Stanford University.

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Fareeda founded SightLeap to advise creative teams and individuals, drawing on 15+ years’ experience advising clients on innovation.