Micah Ariel Asante (formerly Micah Ariel Watson) is an award-winning filmmaker, playwright, and screenwriter whose work explores the Black imagination, love, and the sacred. She holds an MFA from NYU Tisch (2020).

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Micah’s acclaimed play Alaiyo earned the 2020 Kennedy Center Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, Hip-Hop Creator Award, and Rosa Parks Playwriting Award, with distinction for the Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and finalist honors for the Leah Ryan Playwrights Prize. Alaiyo was produced at Definition Theatre in Chicago in 2023.

Her play Canaan, winner of the Kennedy Center Undergraduate Playwriting Award, was produced in 2022 by The Kansas African-American Museum in Wichita and in Kansas City, Kansas. Micah has also been recognized as a 2019 Sundance Theatre Lab Finalist and a 2019 O’Neill National Playwrights Conference Semifinalist for Wake Up Music!

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In addition to her theater work, Micah is the creator of the web series Black Enough, which she wrote, directed, and executive produced. Both seasons are currently streaming on YouTube. Her feature directorial debut, Preserves, is in development and has garnered support as a recipient of the SFFILM Westridge Grant and a participant in the Gotham Week Project Market.

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Originally from Wichita, Kansas, by way of Chicago, Micah recently completed an Artist Residency with The Memory Project at the University of Virginia. In her downtime, she enjoys reading, cooking, and curating playlists for her husband, Kwame.