Ensemble Tenshi 天地静

Tomoko is a writer/ director of a play, “2 lies, 3 dreams and Hollywood ” which premiered at Atcre Theatre in Tokyo Japan. In 2021, Tomoko received a scholarship from Hollywood Fringe Festival and wrote/ directed/produced “Japanese Love Story”. In 2022, she Wrote/ directed/produced a 16^th Century Period Japanese Epic play, “Shizuka” at The Zephyr Theatre earning Best Play, Director, and Performer nominations at Broadway World Regional Award. In 2024, she wrote/directed “Castles in the Crimson Flame”. In Summer 2025, Tomoko translated, directed and stared an acclaimed and popular play “Prostitute Investigator” by one of the most influential playwrights in modern Japan, Kohei Tsuka. 

Tomoko debuted as a film writer/ director with WWII epic, Camellia- Kerria- Pink (山茶花～山吹～撫子), which won the Best Foreign Mini Film at BPPI Film Festival and was a semifinalist at Women-Voice-Now Film Festival. Her second film, “Ain’t It Pretty to Think So” was officially selected at Japan Film Festival Los Angeles 2025.

Tomoko is also an international actress born and raised in Japan and acted professionally both in the US and Japan. Her theater credits include “Balm in Gilead” and “Blood”, both directed by Obie Award-winning, two-time Golden Globe nominee Robert Allan Ackerman, Chekhov ‘s “Three Sisters at Theater Project Tokyo, played 2 lead roles at the prestigious Tokyo Metropolitan Art Theater, lead role of Himiko in “Tea” with Hero Theater and many others. Her TV/ Film credits include “Cobra Kai” (Netflix), “Captain America: Brave New World” (Disney/ Marvel), “Haunting in Silver Falls: Returns” (Netflix) “Another Tango” (Hallmark Movie) among others. Tomoko is voicing the recurring role in the newest “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” series (Nickelodeon) premiered in 2024.

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Carla Valentine

Artistic Director/Secretary

Carla Valentine-Is a native New Yorker of Honduran decent. She has performed on various New York stages including Henry St. Settlement, Intar-53, P.S 122 and The Nuyorican Poet’s Cafe. Since moving to Los Angeles Carla has appeared in TV shows The Politician, Love, S.W.A.T and Gaslit. Her film credits include Moxie by Amy Poehler, Huella by Gabriela Ortega and the Golden Globe awarded Oscar nominated film Lady Bird by Greta Gerwig. LA theatre include: Luzmi at Hero Theatre; El Arbol at Parson’s Nose Theatre; Piece Of Mind, Kissinup To Mr. Bliss and Power In The Blood at Write Act Repertory; Puro Estilo and Global Village at Frida Kahlo Theatre; The Serpent at The Odyssey Theatre. Cumbia De Mi Corazon and La Casa De Bernarda Alba at Bilingual Foundation Of Arts. She has appeared in the Hollywood Fringe Festival with Don’t Talk About It Spit About It, by Alex Alpharaoh and Life’s A Bitch And So Am I, by Touch Brandon in which she starred, produced and co-directed.

Yukari received a BA from the Tamagawa University in Tokyo, Japan. She has performed in a variety of styles in Japan and the US and currently is a member of SAG-AFTRA. Her theatrical credits in the US include AEA union stage as Solange LaFitte in Sondheim’s Follies, Lady Thiang in The King and I, Sakiko in Nadeshiko and Wife in Rashomon. Her film credits include Clint Eastwood’s Best Film winner, Letters from Iwo Jima, and Flags of our Fathers.

In 2014, she participated in The Hollywood Fringe Festival with the West Coast premier production of Vengeance Can Wait. For her efforts, she was nominated for the award of best new producer and her lead actor won the best male actor award. Both of them were the first Asian creative artists to receive such acknowledgement. She was awarded for Best Supporting Performer for her role as Kotoji in Japanese Love Story – Shizuka from Broadway World’s 2021 LA Regional Award.

As the executive producer and director of Kuro Productions, she has produced a variety of entertainment projects, from film to stage to music.  Additionally, she is active in volunteer work, presenting Japanese cultural shows to local audiences for over 20 years.

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Alexander Collins began acting an early age, performing Shakespeare as part of a youth troupe in his hometown of Washington, D.C. He trained with the renowned Shakespeare Theatre Company and is a graduate of USC’s School of Dramatic Arts.

Recent stage credits include “Shizuka” at the Zephyr Theater, for which he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in Broadway World’s Regional Awards. Film credits include “Don’t Deport My Luna” (Sereal+), “Buried in the Backyard” (Oxygen) and “Sound Good?” (YouTube), a web series promoting organ donation awareness for the charity Donate Life.

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Masako was born in Osaka, Japan. She studied at Theater February acting School and after graduation she started performing professionally. She moved to Theatre Kazenoko and performed all over Japan.

She has performed on stage more than 4,000 times in a variety of roles, from small children to elderly women and sometimes even animals. She also studied “Kyogen”, Japanese Traditional Comedy under Kyogen performer Shime Shigiyama. She is also trained in Martial Arts and Circus performing. 

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Houston’s literary career began Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club, expanding globally. In 2024, her play “Tea” was designated a canon classic by Roundabout Theatre Company, New York, and HERO Theatre, Los Angeles. With over 43 writing commissions, she has been honored by several institutions including the Kennedy Center, Rockefeller Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution. She has written for Sidney Poitier, Columbia Pictures, PBS, and other film/TV entities; as well as Los Angeles Opera.

At the University of Southern California, she founded graduate playwriting and co-founded Asian American cultural studies in the early 1990s; and is a presidentially appointed USC Distinguished Professor of Theatre in Dramatic Writing and USC Resident Playwright. She is affiliated faculty with East Asian Studies, American Studies & Ethnicity; and the Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions & Culture.

A Fulbright scholar, she served on the State Department’s Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission. She is on the Board of Trustees, Berklee College, Boston; Writers’ Odyssey Associate Artist, Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, Los Angeles; Associated Artist of New Circle Theatre Company, New York; a member of The Writers Group, New York; and on HERO Theatre’s and Directors’ Lab, West’s advisory councils. Memberships include: Writers’ Guild of America, west; Dramatists’ Guild, League of Professional Theatre Women, Honor Roll, and Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights.

Archives: The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens (https://catalog.huntington.org/record=b1553052).

• http://velinahasuhouston.com