Current Students

Ishita Mishra is an Indian screenwriter, director, and playwright. She has written children's animated series for Nickelodeon and Disney. Beyond television, she has worked as a copywriter, creating brand films and advertising campaigns.

Her writing is rooted in a curiosity about what people choose to fight for and what it costs them to become themselves. Her stories center on identity, freedom, and mental health, following characters who challenge the worlds they inherit. Through her work, she aims to make space for overlooked emotions and help audiences recognize themselves in lives and experiences far removed from their own.

When she's not writing, she enjoys being on set, reading, swimming, and photography. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Delhi, India and a postgraduate diploma in Filmmaking.

Joe Tacke is surely Idaho’s most famous export. He is the youngest of four siblings and fits the stereotype comfortably. He attended Catholic high school, where he learned how to dodge mandatory mass and talk his way out of trouble. It was around this time that writing became his chosen leisure. His work seeks to upend our held beliefs, though a gentle prod is usually the most he can manage. Joe often finds himself in a no man's land of genres, but most favors horror akin to The Silence of the Lambs (1991). His credentials include a certificate of integrity he received in 5th grade, a bullseye on his first (and last) time shooting a crossbow, and his mother’s approval.

Lizzie Vieh is a playwright and recovering actor from Phoenix, Arizona whose work explores the darker side of life and is frequently set in the American Southwest. Following a win at the Samuel French OOB Festival, her short play Monsoon Season debuted in a full-length version at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and had an NYC premiere at Rattlestick Theater. Lizzie has served as artist-in-residence for the solo performance company All For One, and was a member of The Amoralists 'Wright Club playwriting group. A frequent contributor to Amios’ short-play series Shotz, the company produced her full-length play The Loneliest Number in 2017. Lizzie's play Backwater Rising received Honorable Mention for the Relentless Award, and she is the current recipient of the Mary Louise Rockwell Scholarship through Primary Stages. She has a B.A. in Theatre Arts from Brown University and an M.F.A. in Acting from the Brown/Trinity Graduate Program.

Mauricio Drummond, Jr. is an Afro-Latino philomath and comedy writer who grew up inside and outside of the Capital Beltway. He discovered a penchant for writing realistic fiction while matriculating through public schools in the District of Columbia and Prince George’s County, Maryland. Regretfully, Mauricio did not act upon nudging from his English 102 professor, to declare an English major, in order to refine a raw ability. Instead, he cowered, stumbled, and fumbled into a semblance of practicality as a Finance major, and labor attorney.  

Mauricio is grateful for a "second chance" to properly steward his time and talent at Northwestern. He aspires to use his art to serve as a change agent, sharing his stories, and the stories of his peers in a way that is authentic, smart, engaging, and powerful enough to destroy any idea that minorities are monolithic.

In his free time, Mauricio enjoys listening to 90’s hip-hop music, stamp collecting (of the passport variety), and late-night television. He can actually be seen in the audience during the taping of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Season 1, Episode #365! 

Mauricio holds a bachelor’s degree from Hampton University, a Juris Doctor from The Catholic University of America, and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.

Sophie Poole is a writer and actor from Seattle, Washington. She received a B.A. in English from Barnard College, where she received the Ethel Stone LeFrak Prize for excellence in the arts, the Helen Prince Memorial Prize for dramatic composition, and the Brandt Playwriting Award. She was a Fulbright Scholar to Spain, where she published original research in The Dial. While living in New York, she has acted in film and theater, as well as working at Harper’s Magazine. Her essays on literature have been featured in The Nation, Los Angeles Review of Books, and BOMB, among others.