Biography

From the New Victory Theatre on Broadway in New York City, to the Graz Erzahlt in Austria, to Sapporo, Japan, Brenda Wong Aoki has established a new genre as a contemporary storyteller.A writer, performer, and recording artist, she has received numerous grants, fellowships and commissions for her original work. Of Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Scots descent, her stories blend myth, streetlore, and real life. These dramatic presentations synthesize Kyogen & Noh (Japanese traditional theater), modern dance, and live jazz.

Aoki was named one of the 500 most influential Asian Americans by Avenue Magazine (1996) and received a 1998 Golden Ring Award from the Asian American Arts Foundation. She received the 1998 Innovative Composition award from ASCAP(The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), the US Pan Asian Chamber of Commerce Excellence 2000 Award (Washington, DC), the 1996 Woman Warrior Award (San Francisco), 1996 National Storytelling Championship, and she was the sole artist selected by the Smithsonian to perform before the 1996 National Asian American Congressional Caucus. Ms. Aoki’s plays have become part of the curriculum on several campuses. She is on the Theater Arts faculty at U.C. Santa Cruz and continues to lecture and teach at colleges across the nation.

PDF copy of Brenda Wong Aoki's Biography

PDF copy of Brenda Wong Aoki's Awards