VOICE DIRECTOR
ACTOR | WRITER
ARTS EDUCATOR
Alani is a multi-hyphenated actor, writer, voice director, and arts educator dedicated to using technology and immersive storytelling techniques as a bridge between socially impactful stories and audiences around the world. Alani produced and directed Meat Puppet: The Filmed Experience, a streamed theatrical production aimed at raising money for the philanthropic group, Unusual Suspects, before being invited to the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s inaugural Festival Observership for Early Career Directors under the mentorship of Warren Adams. Soon after, Alani directed and adapted an all female filmed student production of Sophocles’ Antigone for New York City’s world renowned Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute.
As a performer, Alani continues to cement himself as one of the most dynamic talents of his generation. Known for exploring the full humanity of vibrantly complex characters, his theater credits include the 20th anniversary off-Broadway revival of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s The Brothers Size at The Shed (Drama League and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations), The Brothers Size and Paradise Blue at Geffen Playhouse, and productions of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running at Seattle Rep and Arena Stage. Additional theater credits include Matthew Lopez’s The Legend of Georgia McBride (Ensemble Theatre Company), Dominique Morisseau’s Sunset Baby (TheaterWorks Hartford), Robert O’Hara’s Antebellum (Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Helen Hayes Nomination), Melvin Van Peebles’ Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death and Romeo & Juliet (The Classical Theatre of Harlem). Television credits include Castle, Major Crimes, Blue Bloods, Law & Order: SVU, and Cousins for Life. Film credits include Arthur the King, Woodlawn, Almost Friends, and Life of a King. An accomplished voice over artist, Alani can be heard voicing various characters on Cartoon Network/HBO Max’s Jessica’s Big Little World and Nickelodeon’s The Loud House, Casagrandes, and The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish.
As an emerging writer of speculative fiction, Alani aims to create socially impactful novellas and short stories that fully explore the rich cultural tapestry of Black American experiences to honor his ancestors and spark conversations that may lead to meaningful change in the future. A 2025 Voices of Our Nations Arts (VONA) Foundation Fellow and a 2025 Tin House Autumn Online Workshop Fellow, Alani wrote the book for the original speculative fiction musical At The River I Stand (2021 THEatre ACCELERATOR: New Realities Edition winner); and wrote an interactive prequel, The Calling: A Musical VR Experience (Slamdance Film Festival). Alani also successfully developed and sold an Afro-surrealist Civil War musical miniseries to HBO.
A certified voice director educated at The Paiva Institute, Alani voice directed the pilot episode of Shoe String TV’s gothic Western, The Darkness of Red and The Calling: A Musical VR Experience.
THE DARKNESS OF RED – PILOT: “THE BUTCHER’S BELL”
(Audio Drama, 28 Minutes)
Voice Director
In Whittle’s End, three tolls of the butcher’s bell mean death is near. Tonight, it rings four. A grieving mother’s desperate bargain summons an otherworldly gunman to find the son stolen from her ten years ago. Known only as the Darkness of Red, he rides into a town where faith offers little shelter and familiar faces conceal terrible secrets. But Red Country remembers its debts—and even the rider everyone fears has a past that can find him.
A gothic western from Shoestring TV.
THE CALLING: A VR MUSICAL EXPERIENCE
(Drama, 16 Minutes)
Voice Director, Writer, Producer
THE CALLING, an immersive musical experience, transports you back to Memphis’ famed Beale Street on March 28, 1968 — the date of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s final march. Beginning in a Beale Street blues club in present day, users witness some of the scenes, prompted by historical photos positioned around the club, that lead to the sanitation worker strike in 1968. With the guidance of a mysterious Shoeshine Man you march with Dr. King and the thousands who journeyed to Memphis in support of the 1300 workers, striking for higher wages and better working conditions. Along the way you discover The Calling, an ancestral power to change the world resonating inside every person. This is a story about the audacity of hope, the challenges we overcome, and the choices we can make along the way.
THE CALLING | OFFICIAL TEASER
360° CLIPS
ANTIGONE
(Drama, 101 Minutes)
Executive Producer, Adapted for the Screen, Director
After the Theban Civil War comes to an end, the newly-appointed ruler Creon orders the fallen Polynices to remain unburied on the battlefield as punishment for his crimes against the state. Appalled by the decision, the Polynices’ sister Antigone defies Creon, burying her brother regardless. After Antigone openly confesses to her actions, her loved ones find themselves forced to stand against her – or be implicated in her crime – as she faces a doomed fate.
Filmed virtually in quarantine during the height of the 2020 pandemic, this adaptation of Sophocles’ classic Greek Tragedy has been reimagined for a modern audience and features a talented all female cast from New York’s world renowned Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute.
ANTIGONE | OFFICIAL TEASER
MEAT PUPPET
(Dark Comedy, 134 Minutes)
Executive Producer, Director, Story Editor
College football hero. Paragon of American masculinity. Porn addicted. Impotent. When Carlton Mason meets erudite porn star Jessica Lorde everything he thinks he knows is quick torn asunder.
Meat Puppet was filmed before a live audience and streamed to raise money for the Unusual Suspects, a theatre company that mentors, educates, and enriches youth in under-resourced communities through the creation of collaborative, original theatre.
MEAT PUPPET | OFFICIAL TEASER
VAL-EN-TINA
(Drama, 16 Minutes)
Executive Producer, Co-Writer
When a high profile politician makes a controversial speech on immigration reform, he soon finds himself in hot water with his Mexican-American mistress, awakening a dark entity that, until now, has walked undisturbed alongside her.
VAL-EN-TINA was selected to Les Femmes Underground International Film Festival, Latino Short Film Festival, and Louisville’s International Festival of Film.
VAL-EN-TINA | OFFICIAL SCREENER
SLOW
(Drama, 13 Minutes)
Co-Writer, Actor
An online dating hookup takes an unexpected turn.
SLOW premiered at Outfest 2011 and online simultaneously via Vimeo (going viral). SLOW has screened at 40 International film festivals (Outfest, Martha’s Vineyard, Frameline) winning numerous awards, including HBO Short Film Award.
SLOW | OFFICIAL SCREENER
