Omer Abbas Salem- the brown Julia Roberts...
Actor and Playwright- Chicago, IL
Omer Abbas Salem is a Chicago actor and playwright. As an actor, he's worked with The Goodman, The New Coordinates, Jackalope Theatre, Steep Theatre, Silk Road Rising, Griffin Theatre, The House, Bailiwick Chicago, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Roundabout Theater, and The Atlantic Theater. His play Mosque4Mosque was developed through the National Queer Theater and then chosen for further development through Steppenwolf Theatre's SCOUT Program. It received it’s world premiere with About Face Theater in 2022. The Secretaries was workshopped through The New Coordinates, a semi-finalist in Definition Theatre's Amplify Commission, and developed through the Goodman Theatre's Future Labs. It received it’s world premiere in 2022 with First Floor Theatre. Pretty Shahid was commissioned as part of Jackalope Theatre's 2020/21 New Frontier Series and will receive it’s world premiere as
part of Jackalope’s 2023 season. Love in the Time of Jonestown was produced as a radio play by The New Coordinates. His play The Aunties was commissioned by The Goodman Theater and written in their Writers Room. It will have a second public reading as part of the New Stages 2022 New Play Festival at The Goodman. He is a member of the 2021/22 Goodman Playwrights Unit and is the recipient of the 2021 Cunningham Commission through DePaul University. He wrote Chronicles of the Kaliedescope Visitors, which will receive its World Premiere in the Merle Reskin Theater in the Spring of 2025. He will also receive First Floor Theatre’s Blueprint Commission in 2022. He wrote One Party Consent and that will receive it's World Premiere at First Floor in the Winter of 2025. His new play Happy Days are Here (Again) was commissioned by Steep Theatre and was performed in the Steppenwolf 1700 space in the Fall of 2024. Chris Jones gave it 3.5/4 stars in the Chicago Tribune and named it one of his Top 10 Plays of 2024. Abbas is currently working on three new commissions, an Edgerton Commission for Steppenwolf Theatre (Love Me, You Do), an audio play for Audible Theater (Paris, Illinois) and a new play for The New Stages Festival for The Goodman Theater (The MAIDS). He is the winner of the 3Arts award in Theater for 2023, was named Who's Got Next by Chicago Magazine for theater in 2023, and one of the Top 50 Performers in Chicago by New City Magazine in 2025. He was an apprentice of the Actors Theatre of Louisville (17/18) and a proud ensemble member with Steep Theatre, First Floor Theater, Jackalope Theatre, and The New Coordinates. He is represented by Gray Talent Agency.