Lois “Lo” Abdelmalek is an actor, singer, director/producer, voice artist, and award-winning photographer. Most recently, she was in the world premiere of 400 Barrels of Wine (Theatre Ariel & Theatre Company of Jerusalem) in Israel. Lo has an MFA in Performance and African American Theatre Certificate from the University of Louisville. Lo was part of the US premieres of The Syrian Monologues and Women Behind Bars. She has also performed with Actors Theatre of Louisville, Theatre [502], The Show Must Go Online, and Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival. Since moving to Philadelphia, she has worked with Philadelphia Artists’ Collective, Theater Unspeakable, Theatre Ariel, Hedgerow Theatre, Beacon Theatre Productions, and Delaware Shakespeare, among others. She spent the last three years as the Director/Chair of Theatre and Assistant Professor at Eastern University where she created their first ever Theatre Major and Musical Theatre Concentration. She also created their first diversity focused courses as well as developed anti-racist policy for the department and led diversity training workshops for the entire faculty. As an artist-activist, Lo created and directed Umuryango: Rwandan Stories which was a staged reading and photography exhibit that honored the lives of the street children she met in Rwanda.
