Sharia Benn is founder, President & Executive Artistic Director of Sankofa African American Theatre Company. She is an “artivist”, using the canvas of theater to create safe and healing spaces for theater artists and audiences to think, talk, and act in a constructive way on issues of race and social justice. She has written and produced productions that amplify African American culture, history, and perspective using a cross-cultural, collaborative approach to address issues of inclusion, diversity, and equity. Sharia has over thirty-five  years in the Property and Casualty insurance sector and is currently the Director of Corporate Planning & Special Projects for Penn National Insurance and chairs its Inclusion and Diversity Council. Sharia holds a BA Mass Communications from Towson University.  She is a member of the United Way’s Women Leadership Network and has served on various ministries, and boards. Sharia holds a special passion for increasing the knowledge and understanding of the African American experience through theatre. She combines acting and history to engage contemporary audiences particularly around local history and the story of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, the famed abolitionist, literary figure, and civil rights champion.

Find out more about Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

View her video
Read her biography

Sharia M. Benn Credits

Her theatre credits include: winner of Broadway World Best Actress Award for her portrayal of Ma Rainey in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Selected credits: Black Nativity (director), Crowns (director), Echoes of the Voices of the Eighth (writer, director), Pretty Fire (Charlayne Woodard), Do You Know Me? (writer/co-director), Voices of the Eighth (writer/director); Bridge (the gap) (writer/director); For Colored Girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf (director), Voices of F.E.W. (writer, director, role of Frances Harper), Akeelah and the Bee (co-director), Death of a Salesman (Linda Loman), Red Velvet (Connie), To Kill A Mockingbird (Calpurnia); A Raisin in the Sun (Lena), Fences (Rose), A Christmas Memory (Anna), Peter Hook and the Darlings (Tinker Bell),  Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (Bertha), The Piano Lesson (Bernice), Doubt (Mrs. Muller), Crowns (Jeanette).