Exal Iraheta (he/his) is a Salvi-Mexi-Japanese American playwright & screenwriter born in Houston, TX now based in Chicago, IL. Sometimes humorous and often uncomfortable, his writing explores the intersections of belonging, queerness, Latinidad, violence, and sex.
Recently, his full-length play They Could Give No Name was curated as part of Victory Gardens’ 2019 Ignition Festival of New Plays and was a 2019 honorable mention for the Relentless Award. His short play Open Venas received a production as part of Theater Masters’ 2019 Take Ten New York Short Play Festival. His full-length play Rules of a Closed Door was a semi-finalist for 2019 Activate: Midwest New Play Fest, with an excerpt reading at The Goodman Theater the previous year as part of the Fornés Playwriting Workshop.
Exal earned an MFA from Northwestern University’s Writing for the Screen and Stage program, and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Film & Video Production.