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Playwright, poet, actor, model, and activist Sejahari Saulter-Villegas is a Blaxican multidisciplinary artist from Chicago using his voice to uplift, advocate for, and represent black and brown stories in theater and film. He continues to nuance social commentary through various artistic outlets, focusing on how performance art can be used as a tool for liberation.

His mother is the co-founder and creative director of Chicago’s Kuumba Lynx, an arts non-profit that uses Hip Hop, theatre, dance, and spoken word poetry as tools for educational outreach and activism. Subsequently, Sejahari was immersed in a world of radical and transformative creation from his earliest artistic development. He participated in poetry slams and dance performances as soon as he could walk and talk, and he began to show exceptional talent from an early age. At age nine, he was cast in a workshop production at the prestigious Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Throughout middle and high school, he won a record number of four citywide championships at the Louder than A Bomb Poetry Slam and received a Gwendolyn Brooks Literary excellence award from Young Chicago Authors.

He competed in the National August Wilson Monologue Competition throughout high school, being named a Chicago finalist in 2014 and winning the Chicago competition in 2017. This accomplishment brought him to New York City, where he performed at the August Wilson Theatre on Broadway in the national finals. After college, he immediately immersed himself in the world of high fashion modeling. His first large runway show was at the Barclays Center modeling for VFiles Yellow label designed by Paul Cupo, walking alongside Lil’ Kim. He has been featured in fashion campaigns for Adidas, Woolrich (featured in British Vogue), MCM, and Steve Madden (featured on a Times Square billboard).

Sejahari is currently finishing his final semester at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, receiving a BFA in Drama with a minor in Africana Studies. As his thesis project, he is writing, producing, and directing his first short film entitled Pretty Boy, a narrative fashion film following a young male model battling the cutthroat modeling industry and enduring the objectification of the black body. Alongside his film, he is developing his clothing brand God of Gold, and creatively directing his first collection to be released by Spring 2021.

Sejahari Saulter-Villegas intends on using his platform to speak truth to life and inspire conversations and actions that will create a more just world for future generations to come.