Stories that compel me center the disenfranchised—the voices pushed to the margins but essential to how we understand power, intimacy, and survival in a precarious world. I work across theatre, television, film, and graphic narrative to illuminate non-traditional relationships and the fragile, surprising ways people connect under pressure. My storytelling draws from both feminist inquiry and diasporic imagination: reframing classics through a new lens, shaping character-driven television dramas, or directing short films and plays that make the unseen legible. I believe stories are a form of resistance and repair—an act of clarity, joy, and survival in a chaotic world.

“I have been a passionate supporter of Lina Patel's writing since we first worked together at Silk Road Rising in Chicago. In her epic storytelling, her blazing theatricality, and her sublime poetry, she is a groundbreaking and fearless playwright who moves the American theatre forward."

- David Henry Hwang