Ashley Smiley | Programs Coordinator | [email protected]
Ashley Marie Smiley, also known as “Smiley” is an AfroFranciscan poet, playwright and emerging theologian with a 20+ year background within the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre and Entertainment industry as a Production/Stage Manager at venues such as Berkeley Rep, the A.C.T. Strand and Davies Symphony Hall and for events such as the Life is Living Festival and the Brave New Voices Festival and more, with a heart towards pneumatological + ritual performing arts, social equity, community building and a return to joy.
Currently, Smiley serves as the Programs Coordinator for the African American Art and Culture Complex in San Francisco. She is also a resident artist with Campo Santo and the Magic Theatre. Smiley is currently serving as the President of the Board of Directors for the Performing Arts Workshop and an active board member for The Living Earth Show. In 2024, Smiley had her first world premiere as a playwright with her original (award winning) full-length piece, Dirty White Teslas Make Me Sad which premiered at the Magic Theatre. Smiley is also a member of the 2024 – 2026 Resilience + Development Cohort with Crowded Fire Theatre and pursuing her PhD in the Historical and Cultural Studies in Religion with a concentration in Art and Religion at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA.
When Smiley is not wading through spreadsheets and burying herself with multisyllabic words, she enjoys hanging out with her two dogs Jacob and Oliver, blowing bubbles and getting lost in books and live entertainment.