Gabriela Furtado Coutinho is a writer, actor, cultural strategist, and proud graduate of Northwestern University (Theatre/English Creative Writing BA). For the past three years, she has guest lectured at Northwestern in the theatre and English departments and served as an editor of TCG’s American Theatre magazine. Grateful for previous work with the Emmy's/Television Academy, The Kennedy Center, and various Chicago collectives, she holds experience in developing both new work and tangible care practices. 

 

Projects include Goodman Theatre's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (understudy actor); Blood Wedding (lead actor); The Bloody Bricks and Blows of American Dream High (playwright); Much Ado About Nothing: A Miami Party to Joy, featured in the Latinx Shakespeares archive (director); and Lookingglass's Circus Quixote (dramaturg). Gabriela is a past fellow of the Fornés Playwriting Workshop and O'Neill National Critics Institute. She was also a 2026 semifinalist for the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference.

 

AT bylines include creative nonfiction piece "How to Survive a Dictatorship, the Theatre Artist's Way," personal cover story "Tomorrow's Tamoras and Titanias," and poem "in your hands, american theatres" (the editor's letter for AT's Immigrant Imaginations issue). She feels deeply honored that many of her stories have been featured in syllabi around the country, from high schools in Florida, to undergraduate programs in the Midwest and West Coast, to Yale's David Geffen School of Drama. 

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Her latest endeavors include contributing to a new Routledge companion on Latine and Caribbean musical theatre and leading the new monthly series Re:working Chicago Theatre at The Understudy Coffee + Books.

 

She loves to reimagine classics, embody power roles, take lyrical creative risks, empower youth, and dream up kinder futurisms with friends whose language is laughter. She brings warm Brazilian sensibilities to her work, creating across three native languages.

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Please feel free to contact her at gabriela.furtado.coutinho.us@gmail.com. As an actor, Gabriela Furtado Coutinho is represented by Talent X Alexander (lsmith@talentxalexander.com).

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She looks forward to being in community with you!