ELLAROSE CHARY (she/hers) is an award-winning writer and advocate for inclusion in musical theater. She is a Richard Rodgers Award winner, Drama League Award Nominee, Dramatists Guild Fellow, NYFA Fellowship Playwriting/Screenwriting Finalist, Kleban Prize Finalist, Kernodle New Play Award Finalist, Doric Wilson Award Semi-Finalist and winner of a BOH Cameronian Arts Award and the Weston Award for Musical Theater.

In addition to winning the 2021 Rodgers Award, her musical TL;DR: THELMA LOUISE; DYKE REMIX was featured in the 33rd NAMT Festival of New Musicals and has been developed at The  Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (NMTC Incubator Residency, NMTC Finalist), Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (Triple R Residency), and the UArts Polyphone Festival. Her play THE WRONG QUESTION was selected for the 2021 Jewish Playwriting Contest. She is the bookwriter for the award-winning THE DOLL MAKER’S GIFT, which opened at The Rose Theater in 2019 (“Families should flock to this one.” – Omaha World-Herald) and her play THE SÉANCE MACHINE premiered off-off Broadway at Obie Award Winning The Tank in 2019. Her other projects include: COTTON CANDY AND COCAINE, HOW TO SURVIVE THE END OF THE WORLD (featured on Broadway.com, BroadwayWorld, Hollywood Soapbox, and 89.5 FM Star), THE LAKE AND THE MILL, QUEER. PEOPLE.  TIME., PATRIETTES (The #FWord Finalist) and the Malaysian musical MARRYING ME.  

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She has been in residence at Ars Nova (Uncharted), Harvard ArtLab, Catwalk Institute, Milikin University, and has received an Anna Sosenko Grant and a NAMT grant. Her work has been produced, developed and commissioned by the Great Plains Theater Conference, the Drama League, The Civilians and City Center (Encores! Off-Center), Theater C, AFO Solo Shorts, Luna Stage, Prospect Theater, Joe’s Pub, and 54 Below. She was a guest lecturer and production studio lead artist at Harvard University in the Theater, Dance and Media department in Fall 2020.  

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She is an activist and advocate for inclusion in media both on and off stage. She has written for The Lilly Awards Blog, HowlRound, and Musical Theater Today (where she is a contributing editor). Her work coordinating Amplifying Activists Together phone banks with Natasha Sinha and Jay Stull was recently featured in American Theatre. She has appeared on panels at NYMF and with Honest Accomplice Theater and co-created Tankaret, a cabaret series for underrepresented voices. She believes the future of the American theater is universal healthcare. MFA: NYU Tisch, BA: Brown University.