Sopan Deb is a playwright, author and writer for The New York Times, where his topics have included sports and culture. He is the author of the novel “Keya Das’s Second Act,” and the memoir, “Missed Translations: Meeting The Immigrant Parents Who Raised Me.” Before joining the Times, Deb covered Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign as a campaign embed for CBS News. His work has previously appeared on NBC, the Boston Globe and Al Jazeera America. His plays “Siddhartha’s” and “The Good Name” were workshopped at New York Stage and Film. The latter was named a finalist for Dayton Playhouse’s 2025 Future Fest. He is also a member of the Woolly Mammoth’s 2025-2026 playwrights group and the Playwrights Cohort at PlayPenn.

Arpita Mukherjee is the Co-founder and Artistic Director of Hypokrit, a company committed to fostering diverse voices in the entertainment industry and the performing arts. She is a NYC-based director and writer who works in theatre, film, and television. She made her Broadway debut in 2022 as the resident director of The Kite Runner. She is the book writer, Associate Director, and Associate Producer on Monsoon Wedding Musical, which had its NY premiere at St. Ann’s Warehouse in 2023. Additional directing credits include How I Met Your Masi (Dynasty Typewriter), Bollywood Kitchen (Geffen Playhouse), House of Joy (San Diego Rep), and Eh Dah: Questions for My Father (Next Door @ NYTW). Upcoming directing credits include The Scarlet Letter (American Stage) and Wives (East West Players). She has developed work at The Public Theater, WP Theater, The New Group, and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Arpita was a 2021 Drama League Resident Director, a 2018-2020 Women’s Project Lab Member, a 2018 Eugene O’Neill National Directing Fellow and a 2019-2020 Mabou Mines Resident Artist. She is also an alumna of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Arpita’s latest short film The Cycle premiered at the New York Indian Film Festival, and is currently playing in film festivals around the world. Arpita directed Running, a short film written by and starring Danny Pudi, which won Best Short Film at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival and has been featured in New Filmmakers LA, The Indian Film Festival of LA, CAAMFest and many others. Arpita is the co-writer of the National Award winning film Gulmohar which was released on Hulu and Disney+ Hotstar in March 2023. She also won the Filmfare Best Screenplay Award for the film in 2023. She has developed projects for WIIP, AMC, Sony, and Netflix.