Amara james Aja
is a New York City based actor, director, and teaching artist. Amara has worked on television, in film, and onstage both regionally and in New York, on both classical plays and in new work. He received his MFA from the Old Globe/ University of San Diego's Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, and his B.A. in Government from Cornell University.
As a teaching artist, Amara trained with Community-Word Project and Epic Theatre Ensemble, cultivating a teaching practice that is socially engaged, empathetic, and curious. His teaching career has taken him from Title I schools in Brooklyn and the Bronx, to correctional facilities in upstate New York, to the Powerhouse Training Program at Vassar College. He is currently Head of Acting of the Waterwell Drama Program at the Professional Performing Arts School in New York City.
When not working, Amara enjoys reading speculative fiction and arguing with West Africans about the superiority of Nigerian jollof rice.