Michael Barakiva

Michael Barakiva is an Armenian/Israeli-American theater director, writer, and novelist born in Haifa, Israel, and raised in the suburbs of New Jersey. He attended Vassar College and Juilliard School as an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Directing, and has directed numerous plays across the US and internationally while publishing young adult novels including One Man Guy (2014), Hold My Hand (2019), and Keepers of the Stones and Stars (2024). He founded the Upstart Creatures theater company and serves as Artistic Director of the Cleveland Play House.