KAREN OLIVO (she/they) is a television, film, and stage actor who most recently played âSatineâ in Moulin Rouge, The Musical on Broadway. Olivo is also recognized for her Tony Award winning performance as âAnitaâ in the acclaimed 2009 Broadway revival of West Side Story, a role for which she also earned Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle, and Astaire Award nominations. Some of her Broadway theater credits include originating the role of âVanessaâ in the Tony Award-winning musical, In the Heights (2008 Astaire Award); starring as âFaithâ in the Broadway production of Brooklyn The Musical, and in Jonathan Larsonâs Pulitzer- and Tony Award-winning musical, Rent. Additional theatre credits include Murder Ballad at the Manhattan Theater Club; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark by Lynn Nottage at Second Stage; and The Miracle Brothers directed by Tina Landau at the Vineyard Theatre. Olivo is also recognized for her many television appearances including a series regular, recurring & guest-starring roles on â Harryâs Lawâ, âThe Good Wife,â âCriminal Minds: Suspect Behavior,â âChase,â âLaw & Order: Special Victims Unit,â âConviction,â and âLaw & Order.âÂ
Olivo is also an educator teaching at Northwestern University, NYU-Tisch, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as working as a visual artist and writer. In the Spring of 2020, Olivo co-founded the non-for-profit organization, AFECT, Artists for Economic Transparency, in the efforts to educate the industry and promote discussion regarding entertainment industry structures and how they can be altered to better serve marginalized communities. www.AFECTchange.org
Weekly Round-Up:
- Listen to this podcast episode of The Ezra Klein Show with Tressie McMillan Cottom and then buy Tressieâs book Thick and lastly, listen to her Hear To Slay podcast, co-hosted with Roxanne Gay.
- Review Deepa Iyerâs guide and framework, âMapping Our Roles in Social Change Ecosystemsâ, originally introduced to Celia through The Broadway Advocacy Coalition. Attribution: Deepa Iyer, SolidarityIs and Building Movement Project.
- Read this New York Magazine article, âArt Doesnât Need Tyrantsâ by Tavi Gevinson