Ano Okera

Scriptwriter  ·  Director  ·  Performer  ·  Afro-Surrealist Storyteller

Ano
Okera

Building performance systems where the body, music, and language function as a live archive.

Theatre Film / TV Audio Immersive Forms Cultural Strategy
Scroll

In Development  —  Theatre / Audio / Film

Finding Harlem:
Black Shadows
Inna Red Smoke

A one-man jazz–dub musical theater ritual built as a concussion-based performance system, exploring diaspora, trauma, and Black queer identity across a 100-year conversation in the Afro-diaspora.

In active development

Finding Harlem: Harlem Dream

"I'm building performance systems where memory moves through the body so it can speak again."

My work is grounded in a diasporic theory of remix shaped by Jamaican sound system culture. A remix is not an adaptation — it takes something that already exists and moves it through your body, your time, and your lived experience, so it can speak again under new conditions.

Across theatre, film, audio, and immersive forms, I treat the body, voice, and sound as a living archive. I'm exploring what happens when history is not held at a distance but embodied — so that memory becomes something we can witness together in real time.

My current work sits inside a 100-year conversation across the Afro-diaspora, where literature, music, and performance meet. I'm going beyond preserving archive — I'm remixing it, so it can live.

Ano Okera portrait

Ano Okera

Jamaican / American  ·  New York / London

Ano Okera is a Jamaican/American scriptwriter, director, and performer working across theatre, film, audio, and immersive forms. Rooted in Afro-surrealism and Jamaican dub culture, his work blends jazz, poetry, and movement to explore Black diasporic memory, migration, and survival. He builds performance systems where remix transforms archive into lived, embodied experience.

Education  —  MA Scriptwriting (Distinction), Goldsmiths  ·  NYU  ·  Wharton
Commissions  —  Black Cultural Archives  ·  AMC Networks / 10 Palm Pictures  ·  Gold Dust / Spotify
Awards  —  Best Documentary Short NYIFA  ·  NYxDesign Award  ·  HollyShorts Selection
Performance  —  Rent (National Tour)  ·  The Public Theater  ·  30 Rock (NBC)  ·  Alabama Shakespeare Festival
Press  —  New York Times  ·  Wall Street Journal  ·  Architectural Digest  ·  Gothamist

2024

Call Me Back

Showrunner · Director · Writer · Co-EP  —  Gold Dust / Spotify

Audio Drama Series

2023

Pocomania by Una Marson

Director · Movement Director · Dramaturge  —  Theatre Peckham, London

Commissioned — Black Cultural Archives & DTA

2022

The Maroons

Screenwriter — AMC / 10 Palm Pictures

Drama Series — Writers Room

2021

An American Street Mural in Harlem

Writer · Director · Producer

Best Documentary Short — NYIFA

2022

Finding Harlem: The Savoy

Writer — Musical Short Script

Finalist — Harlem Int'l Film Festival

2019

For Little Girls Who Are Afraid to Speak

Writer — Short Script

Finalist — Creative Screenwriting Unique Voices
Brand Identity & Guidelines  ·  Brand Strategy  ·  Creative Direction  ·  Content Strategy  ·  Video  ·  Web/Mobile Design  ·  Campaigns  ·  Partnerships
Brand Media Production  ·  Creative Direction  ·  Video  ·  Photography  ·  Media Strategy  ·  Campaigns  ·  Community Partnerships  ·  NYxDesign Award Winner
Creative Strategy  ·  Social Impact Campaign  ·  Storytelling  ·  Partnerships  ·  Community Activation
Creative & Content Strategy  ·  Video  ·  Campaigns  ·  Brand Partnerships
Brand Strategy  ·  Brand Identity Re-Design  ·  Web/Mobile Design  ·  Content Strategy  ·  Video  ·  Campaigns
Brand Media Production  ·  Creative Direction  ·  Video  ·  Photography  ·  Media Strategy  ·  Exhibited: Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum
Editor  ·  Brand Identity & Guidelines  ·  Brand Strategy  ·  Content Strategy  ·  Video  ·  Web & Mobile Design  ·  Multi-channel Campaigns
New York Times
Architectural Digest
Wall Street Journal
Gothamist
Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum

Grants  ·  Fellowships  ·  Commissions  ·  Collaborations

Let's make
something
that lives.

anookera.com  ·  New York / London

anookera@gmail.com