Hi! I'm Kanika, and I'm an NYC-based writer, director, producer, and performer. My work focuses on themes of hope, transformation, and community. Shaped by the work of artists like Tig Notaro, Lynn Nottage, Lisa Kron, Rajiv Joseph, and David Henry Hwang, I believe in using theater as a form of collective healing, social resistance, and self-empowerment.
In January 2020, I co-founded Fresh Lime Soda Productions, a South Asian theater ensemble and incubator, with my creative partner Sabina Sethi Unni. FLSP actively seeks to dismantle traditional barriers to access in theater, focused on producing virtual and in-person politically-motivated new plays and talkbacks, connecting early-career artists with one another, and fostering a social community for South Asian artists and theater-lovers around the world.
I am a recent MFA Playwriting graduate of Columbia University School of the Arts. Prior to Columbia, I worked as a legal assistant at a major law firm in Washington, D.C., where I observed non-theatrical but similarly engaging, persuasive, and ensemble-based storytelling. I'm also a proud alum of Wellesley College, where I studied English & Political Science. My senior thesis, a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories entitled Jet Lag, advised by Octavio Gonzalez, won the Charlotte Paul Reese '38 Memorial Prize for Creativity in a Collection of Short Fiction.
I was born in New York, and spent my teenage years in Mumbai, India.
Some of my favorite things include: cold showers, ripe plums, animals (domesticated and wild ones alike), old maps, train and plane rides, evocative socks, customized playlists, citrus juice (especially fresh lime soda), black raspberry ice cream, neon eyeliner, loose button-downs, breakfast sandwiches, and strangers' laughs.
If you'd like to get to know my work better or collaborate on a project, feel free to reach out.
My resumes (Playwriting, Directing, Acting, Administrative) are available upon request.
In January 2020, I co-founded Fresh Lime Soda Productions, a South Asian theater ensemble and incubator, with my creative partner Sabina Sethi Unni. FLSP actively seeks to dismantle traditional barriers to access in theater, focused on producing virtual and in-person politically-motivated new plays and talkbacks, connecting early-career artists with one another, and fostering a social community for South Asian artists and theater-lovers around the world.
I am a recent MFA Playwriting graduate of Columbia University School of the Arts. Prior to Columbia, I worked as a legal assistant at a major law firm in Washington, D.C., where I observed non-theatrical but similarly engaging, persuasive, and ensemble-based storytelling. I'm also a proud alum of Wellesley College, where I studied English & Political Science. My senior thesis, a collection of semi-autobiographical short stories entitled Jet Lag, advised by Octavio Gonzalez, won the Charlotte Paul Reese '38 Memorial Prize for Creativity in a Collection of Short Fiction.
I was born in New York, and spent my teenage years in Mumbai, India.
Some of my favorite things include: cold showers, ripe plums, animals (domesticated and wild ones alike), old maps, train and plane rides, evocative socks, customized playlists, citrus juice (especially fresh lime soda), black raspberry ice cream, neon eyeliner, loose button-downs, breakfast sandwiches, and strangers' laughs.
If you'd like to get to know my work better or collaborate on a project, feel free to reach out.
My resumes (Playwriting, Directing, Acting, Administrative) are available upon request.
