Kaneza Schaal is a New York City-based artist working in theater, opera, and film. Her work has shown in divergent contexts from New York City galleries to courtyards in Vietnam, East African amphitheaters, European opera houses, United States public housing, and rural auditoriums in the United Arab Emirates. By creating art that speaks many formal, cultural, historical, aesthetic, and experiential languages, she seeks expansive audiences. Schaal received a 2025 Doris Duke Artist Award, 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship, Herb Alpert Award in Theatre, United States Artists Fellowship, SOROS Art Migration and Public Space Fellowship, and the Ford Foundation Art for Justice Bearing Witness Award. She directed the 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Omar, and she co-wrote and co-directed the award-nominated film BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions. Schaal is an Arts-in-Education advocate; most recently, she taught a course on theater and social practice at Harvard University and served as the Denzel Washington Endowed Chair in Theatre at Fordham University. As part of her commitment to artist-centered institutions, Schaal co-founded Gihanga Institute for Contemporary Art in Kigali, Rwanda. She has also served on the board of PS122/PSNY, the Leadership Council for Creatives Rebuild New York’s artist-employment and guaranteed-income initiative, the Artistic Leadership Committee for New Victory Theater, and as Co-Director of Under the Radar Festival in New York (2024-26).