Maleek Rae
EmergeNYC Flagship (2024)
Space Grant Resident Artist (Fall 2024)
Maleek Rae (they/them) great-grandchild of Joseph Gilbert, hails from the Eastside of Detroit, MI. They are gender queer multidisciplinary Rapper/Writer/Actor/Producer. Maleek is a graduate of the SUNY Purchase BFA acting conservatory. Their credits include The Best Man: The Final Chapters (Peacock), Random Acts of Flyness (HBO), East New York (CBS), and their recurring role on Law & Order: Organized Crime (NBC).
Maleek’s work can also be seen on stages throughout NYC, national commercials, video games, and their own original multi media creations. Theatre credits include; Ghetto Alchemy: A Lunchroom Survival Guide (The Tank), ‘Tia Pray A Sound (BTBF), The Bacchae (Classical Theatre if Harlem), and Messiah (La Mama). Their most recent play Community: A Guttah Ritual has received developmental support from The Tank and SPACE on Ryder Farm(Greenhouse Residency). Maleek is a 2024 Gatekeeper Collective Learning To Love Fellow, 2023-24’ Institute fellow with Target Margin Theatre, a 2024 EMERGE cohort member at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, and a current member of LIT Council, a developmental intensive for playwrights at the Tank. Outside of their theatrical work, Rae exercises their pen through lyrical flows and hard hitting punch lines, which can be heard throughout their debut mixtape Ghetto Alchemy: Vol 1. As a creative Maleek is interested in crafting theatrical baptistism as a means of decolonization. All glory be to God, “Work Hard and Pray Harder.”
Photo by Benjamin Allen