MINKA WILTZ

“The most courageous thing we can do is love. Let’s be courageous!” -- Minka Wiltz

AN OVERVIEW

Minka is a trained classical singer, professional stage actor, voiceover actor, director, writer and producer

Throughout her career Minka has collaborated extensively on new and developing works written by playwrights including Robert O'Hara, Marcus Gardley, Tanya Barfield, Darren Canady and Kia Corthron. She has performed on the stages of The Alliance Theater, Horizon Theater, The Actors Express, Synchronicity Performance Group, Working Title Playwrights, The Atlanta Opera, San Diego Repertory Theater and The Atlanta Symphony.

She has been honored by Emory University with their Community Artist Impact Award. She is a recipient of the Craig Noel Award for Outstanding Lead Female Performance in a Musical.

THE NEW YORK YEARS

After feeling unfulfilled in her University experience at Brenau University in Gainesville, GA, Minka decided to move to New York City and see what she could see. While she was in New York she found work at Sephora in Times Square and as a caterer, driving a van full of food from Brooklyn to Manhattan and back to Brooklyn; setting up, serving, breaking down, and reloading the van on her own.

After she decided to enroll in evening classes at Julliard, the world stopped because of the 9/11 attacks. Without thinking about any external forces, she called to ask if classes would begin as scheduled. Of course, they didn’t. When she finally started her classes she felt a pull to audition for the Negro Ensemble Company and, after one evening class at Julliard, she withdrew from her classes, took her refunded fees and enrolled in classes with The Negro Ensemble Company; this prestigious program had trained dozens of the world’s most prolific Black American actors such as Lynne Whitfield, Angela Bassett, Samuel L. Jackson, Laurence Fishburne and Denzel Washington.

THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

Along with being recognized for her storytelling as an actor and singer, Minka has also gained recognition as a writer. Minka's three-part narrative inspired by her life as she has survived it thus far, were conceived and presented at Theater Emory. The first part of the trilogy, Shaking The Wind, was the first musical produced by Out Of Hand Theater as a one woman show in their living room series. By popular demand, the show was extended for more than a year past it's original closing date with the last performance being at The Atlanta Black Theater Festival. She is currently developing her show into a screenplay.

In 2019, Minka Wiltz was commissioned by Out Of Hand Theatre to write the first short play, A Few Honest Moments With Sam, for the first highly successful Decatur Dinners which inspired the Atlanta theater community to create a specialized version for their concerns. In July of the same year, Minka worked with the venerable Historian In Heels, Dr. Karcheik Sims-Alvarado, to create Lifting The Veil -- a short musical about Dr. W.E.B Dubois during his years on the campus of Atlanta University.

In February 2021, Minka was tapped to work with Hush Harbor Lab, which was founded by Amina McIntyre and Addae Moon, to develop and workshop Lifting The Veil into a full two act piece. The result was an online reading of her mixed-media musical Behind The Veil; a piece about the scholar and professor W.E.B. Dubois from the perspective of the women in his life during his years at Atlanta University. The fuller piece explores how sexual orientation, gender roles, educatuion, and racism have changed since Dr. Dubois was alive.

STILL SINGING

Minka was a featured soloist in The Atlanta Opera's production of Porgy and Bess (2005, 2019),

After relocating to Bloomington Indiana, the BUEA awarded Minka a grant to develop a work of art. Currently Minka is developing an online program of music entitled “Heal Hope & Love” which is currently in development and will be available online in Spring of 2022.

PODCAST LIFE

Minka starred in the scripted Podcast The Seventh Daughter produced by iHeart Radio and it reached the top 10 fictional podcasts on iTunes. It was in 2021 that Minka began the voice over chapter of her career with Penguin Random House Audio. Currently, her podcast, The Cultural Workers Podcast is available in video format on her website, Spotify and at https://anchor.fm/minka-wiltz.