Vahid Management and Production Company welcomes Zuhairah McGill to our family!

Actor, Director, Founder and Producing Artistic Director of First World Theatre Ensemble

Zuhairah McGill: Hails from Brooklyn NY and now resides in Upper Darby, PA.She is the founder and producing artist director of Philadelphia’s newest and most provocative theatre company, First World Theatre Ensemble. She was the Director in Residence at the Prince Music Theater and is currently the Creative Director for the Master Griot Project. Zuhairah has directed numerous plays, some which include: ”For Colored Girls…” “Mary”, “The Amen Corner”, “Zooman and the Sign”, “The Cooling Board”, “Eubie”, and “Survival Strategies: A Tale of Faith” And the hit “The Sounds of Philadelphia, starring Billy Paul, the Bluenotes, the Delfonics and the Stylistic. She has also been seen in numerous off-Broadway & national tour productions.

She received the 2002 BarryMore Nomination for Outstanding Leading Actress in a Play For her one-woman performance as “Sojourner Truth” in Richard Lamont Pierce’s “Sojourner” . She’s appeared in several productions, she can be seen in commercials and films, including a lead role in indie director, Aaron Blandon’s newly released film, “The Battle of Ishu and Iku”. She performed her one-woman show in Mississippi to a sell out crowd for the well-known Lyceum Series. A series that has such greats such has Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Melba Moore, and others grace it stage.

Zuhairah has worked with the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office and renowned author, Lorene Cary as part of Philadelphia’s 2003 One Book/One Philadelphia, leaving no child left behind in Philadelphia’s literacy program. She’s performed for the 2003 National Black Writers Festival, in honor of Chinua Achebe; Zuhairah gave her moving performance of “Sojourner”. She was an educator for the Point Breeze of Performing Arts (Donna & Al Brown former Governor Award Recipients) teaching grades 4-12 how to deal with life issues through Conflict Resolutions.

She received the 2007 award from the National Black Spoken Word Tour for Outstanding Community Service through the Arts. She was an artist /educator for 3yrs with The Village of Arts & Humanities, under the direction ofH. German Wilson & Lily Yeh She’s also worked with the Philadelphia Young Playwrights, for 5 years teaching youth playwrighting and at the end of the year putting on productions with the Philadelphia Theatre Company.

Ms Mcgill was also the producer of C. Delores Tucker’s Martin Luther King Non-Violence Award Ceremony with Joe Frazier, Cicely Tyson, and Jackie Frazier for two years. She is also working with Queen Mother Fattah The House of Umojo’s on their “Peace in the Hood” campaign and The City Of Philadelphia Second Annual “Collar Green Festival” She was the host this past June for the “Nice town CDC Giveback Festival featuring “Jean Carne and Mikki Howard.”

Zuhairah directed the moving production of “Wade in the Water”: A Katrina Drama and “From Ancient to Hip-Hop: The African Continuum (which she conceives) that received rave reviews and standing ovations at The National Black Theater in New York.

Her current projects are The Castration of a Dark-Skinned Women, dealing with the after- effects of genital mutilations on women throughout the world. In which she is writing. She will also be making her feature film debut as Director for “The Seventh Cypher” a film by Tito Irizarry.