Emma Grasso Levine is a writer and director from Oakland, California. She cut her theater teeth in grade-school getting type-cast as sisters and moms. By the time she was a high-school senior, she had branched out to direct, produce, and act in her first original play with the support of a local theater. She graduated from NYU Tisch in 2020, earning dual degrees in Dramatic Writing and Social & Cultural Analysis. She is a University Honors Scholar and the recipient of the 2020 Chair’s Award for Dramatic Writing. While at NYU, she wrote short and full-length plays, screenplays, and TV content, led Fusion Film Festival’s Editorial Department, and studied directing at the National Film and Television School in the UK. She has also worked in production and development at various theater, film, and TV production companies, including The Shotgun Players, Elevator Repair Service, and Berkeley Repertory Theatre. She currently works in development at Jane Startz Productions. She is also writes for Iris, a scripted, thriller podcast produced by Trick City Productions that explores power dynamics in ballet, the occult, and the cost of ambition.
In her work, she seeks to honor and uplift the stories of marginalized folks and to collaborate with people who share her mission. She writes for the sisters and moms, with the desire to share stories that make them feel seen. Her play Code Words, inspired by WWII American women codebreakers, was in rehearsals at Playwrights Horizons Theater School before COVID-19 halted production. She was also directing a short film version of her thesis screenplay, Fault, which was in pre-production. Pandemic permitting, Emma is excited to return to producing the play and the film.