PLAYWRIGHT / PERFORMANCE POET/ DRAMATURG

Alternatively, check out my profile as part of the Satellites Archive here.

Nathan Joe (he/him) is a New Zealand playwright (2021 Bruce Mason Playwriting Award) and performance poet (2020 National Slam Champion) of Chinese descent.

He is an incoming MFA playwriting candidate at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin, and a 2025 Fulbright grantee.

He is a graduate of the New Zealand Broadcasting School (2012) with a Bachelor in Broadcasting Communications (Digital Film and Television Production). He completed his Postgraduate Diploma in Creative Practice at Unitec in 2025.

He won the Playmarket b425 award two years in a row (2015 and 2016), and has been shortlisted for the ADAM NZ award. He won two Auckland Fringe awards in 2019 for I am Rachel Chu and two Auckland Fringe awards in 2022 for Gay Death Stocktake.

He was the 2019 NZ Young Writers Festival writer-in-residence, a 2020 Ursula Bethell writers-in-residence, a 2021 Te Matatiki Toi Ora (The Arts Centre) Creative Resident, and a 2022 Grimshaw Sargeson Fellow.

In 2022, his play Scenes from a Yellow Peril had its world premiere at the ASB Waterfront Theatre. In 2023, his play Losing Face had its world premiere at Q Theatre.

Other work includes curating BIPOC spoken word event DIRTY PASSPORTS at Basement Theatre, co-creating Slay the Dragon or Save the Dragon or Neither with A Slightly Isolated Dog, and directing Yang/Young/杨 for Auckland Theatre Company.

As a critic, he was a regular contributor to Theatrescenes and was the theatre editor at The Lumière Reader.

As a dramaturge, he has worked with the likes of Legacy Project , Auckland Theatre Company (Here & Now), Proudly Asian Theatre (Fresh off the Page), Black Creatives Aotearoa, and the Ōtepoti Theatre Lab.

He is a playwright client of Playmarket, and occasionally goes by the nom de plume of yellowperilproductions.

In 2024, he completed a two-festival term at Auckland Pride as the Creative Director.

He has also worked as the Programming Assistant and Interim Programme Manager at Basement Theatre. And was the 2022 Guest Curator for the New Zealand Young Writers Festival.

Along with Shania Pablo and Lily Holloway, Nathan is an editor of eel mag, a queer literary publication for poets of Aotearoa.

CV available upon request.

REPRESENTED BY:

Playmarket (Playwriting)