In Dad We Trust

Percival Everett is the author of more than 30 books, including Wounded, which won the 2006 PEN USA Literary Award; Erasure, winner of the Academy Award for Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Big Picture, winner of the PEN/Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature; Zulus, winner of the New American Writing Award; The Trees; Telephone, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the story collection Damned if I Do and the novel, Dr. No. His latest novel, James, was published in March and became an instant classic. Everett is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California.

Dion Graham, from HBO’s The Wire, also narrates The First 48 on A&E. An award-winning and critically acclaimed actor and narrator, his film and television credits include The Blacklist, Madam Secretary, the Law & Order franchise, and Malcolm X, as well as voice work with the Star Wars video game franchise, The Atlanta Child Murders, Art of the Heist, and American Experience on PBS. Graham’s extensive stage credits include performances at the Roundabout; Circle in the Square; Lincoln Center; The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; the Edinburgh International Festival; The Royal National Theater in London; and on Broadway. His performances have been praised as thoughtful and compelling, vivid and full of life.

Victor LaValle is the author of the short-story collection Slapboxing with Jesus; four novels: The Ecstatic, Big Machine, The Devil in Silver, and The Changeling; two novellas: Lucretia and the Kroons and The Ballad of Black Tom; and is the creator and writer of the comic book Victor LaValle’s Destroyer. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Whiting Writers’ Award, a United States Artists Ford Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Shirley Jackson Award, an American Book Award, and the key to Southeast Queens. The Changeling is in production at Apple TV. His forthcoming novel Lone Women will be published in March 2023.

Victor LaValle is the author of the short-story collection Slapboxing with Jesus; the novels The Ecstatic, Big Machine, The Devil in Silver, The Changeling, which was adapted into a series on Apple+, Lone Women, and Eve: Children of the Moon; the novellas Lucretia and the Kroons and The Ballad of Black Tom; and he is the creator and writer of the comic book Victor LaValle’s Destroyer. LaValle is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Whiting Writers’ Award, a United States Artists Ford Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Shirley Jackson Award, an American Book Award, and the key to Southeast Queens.

Arian Moayed is the Co-founder & Board Chair of Waterwell, a civic-minded and socially-conscious theater and education company, as well as a partner at the for-profit Waterwell Films. Most recently with Waterwell, Moayed arranged the transcripts of a deportation proceeding called The Courtroom, now a feature film. He wrote and directed the Emmy-nominated series The Accidental Wolf. Notable acting credits include a dual-language Hamlet, The Humans, for which he won a Drama Desk Award, his Obie Award-winning role in Guards at the Taj, his Tony-nominated turns in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo and A Doll’s House. Recent screen appearances include HBO’s Succession, Elsbeth, Retribution, and You Hurt My Feelings. Upcoming projects include Fountain of Youth, House of Spoils, and Shell.

Adriana Ogle grew up in North Carolina, where she performed extensively with the NC Youth Tap Ensemble, directed by Gene Medler. In 2015, she joined Boston-based tap company Subject:Matter, performing at the Montréal Fringe Festival and The Yard. She holds a B.S. in journalism from Boston University and is an alumna of the 2019 Tap Program at The School at Jacob’s Pillow, where she received the Lorna Strassler Award for Student Excellence. Since relocating to NYC, she has been honored to be part of Marshall Davis Jr.'s Revelations in Rhythm, Music From The Sole’s I Didn’t Come to Stay, and Okwui Okpokwasili’s Swallow the Moon.

Denis O’Hare is known for his versatility and multiple roles on the series American Horror Story. His screen credits include Garden State, A Mighty Heart, Michael Clayton, Milk, The Comedians, Duplicity, The Good Wife, True Blood, The Normal Heart, Dallas Buyers Club, This Is Us, Big Little Lies, Lizzie, The Goldfinch, American Gods, Dr. Seuss' the Grinch Musical, The Postcard Killings, The Nevers, The Accidental Wolf, and Infinite Storm. He won a Tony Award for his performance in Take Me Out, a Drama Desk Award for his role in Sweet Charity, and recently appeared in the unfinished Sondheim musical, Here We Are. He is the co-writer and star of An Iliad, and co-author of The Good Book. O’Hare’s upcoming projects include the film The Postcard Killer and In the Room.

Simon Rich is a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. He has written for Saturday Night Live, Pixar, and The Simpsons and is the creator of the TV shows Man Seeking Woman and Miracle Workers, which he based on his books. His other collections include Ant Farm, Spoiled Brats, New Teeth, and Hits and Misses, which won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Rich wrote for the feature film Wonka, starring Timothée Chalamet. His latest collection, Glory Days, will be published in July.

Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval is renowned for blending America’s great tap tradition with Brazil’s rich rhythmic and musical heritage. A true dancer-musician, he was one of Dance Magazine’s “25 To Watch” for 2021 and the recipient of a 2022 Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise. He has continued bringing tap to global audiences through his performances, as well as TV features and interviews on PBS, BBC, MSNBC, the CW channel, and Fox. In 2015, with composer Gregory Richardson, he founded Music From The Sole, a tap dance and live music company that has appeared at Jacob’s Pillow, Lincoln Center, The Yard, Works & Process at the Guggenheim, and more. In addition, Sandoval has been a core member of acclaimed tap company Dorrance Dance since 2014.

Meg Wolitzer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion, The Interestings, The Ten-Year Nap, and The Wife, which was adapted to film in 2018, starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce. She was the guest editor of The Best American Short Stories 2017, and has also published books for young readers, mostly recently a picture book, Millions of Maxes. Wolitzer is a faculty member in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton, where she co-founded and co-directs BookEnds, a one-year, non-credit intensive in the novel.

CREDITS

“Beauty and the Beast” by Simon Rich, from New Teeth: Stories (Little, Brown and Company, July 2021). Copyright © 2021 Simon Rich. Used by permission of Levine, Greenberg, Rostan Literary Agency.

“Bedtime Story” was commissioned by Symphony Space for the collection Small Odysseys: Selected Shorts Presents 35 New Stories, edited by Hannah Tinti, published by Algonquin Books. © 2022 by Symphony Space.

“Exposure” by Percival Everett, from Half an Inch of Water: Stories (Graywolf, September 2015). Copyright © 2015 by Percival Everett. Used by permission of Graywolf Press, graywolfpress.org.