Filipinx playwright Thelma Virata de Castro lives and works in San Diego and her writing explores identity and belonging. She received a Far South/Border North grant as part of the California Creative Corp. She was a 2022 finalist for the AGE Legacy Playwright Grant. The Old Globe Theatre commissioned and workshopped Penumbra. With Asian Story Theater, she won The San Diego Foundation’s Creative Catalyst Fellowship for The Fire in Me: An Exploration of Domestic Violence in San Diego’s Filipino Community, and also collaborated with them on the California Humanities funded Halo-Halo and other projects. Access Inc. awarded her the Esperanza Award for extraordinary commitment to eradicating domestic violence in San Diego County. Playwrights Project produced The TAG Project with support from the William Male Foundation and a Rising Arts Leaders San Diego Virgil Yalong Quick Grant. She founded San Diego Playwrights, serves the Dramatists Guild on the Regional Affairs Committee and as San Diego Co-Ambassador, and builds community with United AAPI Artists through Play Space and other events. She chairs the DEI committee and sits on the Board of Directors for San Diego Writers, Ink. She’s been in residence at Hedgebrook three times and attended the A Room of Her Own retreat. She’s spoken to university and college classes and on panels at various writing conferences, and been a judge for multiple writing contests. She works as a teaching artist, dramaturge, and actor. The San Diego Union-Tribune included her in its list of Phenomenal San Diego Women: Creators and Performers.