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 the current Creative Director (2022-present) at Auckland Pride.
He is a graduate of the New Zealand Broadcasting School (2011) with a Bachelor in Broadcasting Communications (Digital Film and Television Production).
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.
He has also worked as the Programming Assistant and Interim Programme Manager at Basement Theatre. He 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.