Biography

Ariel is an actor, singer, producer, and Founder and Producing Artistic Director of Leviathan Lab, a creative studio for Asian American performing artists. He has been designated as a 2019 Emerging Arts Leader by New York Foundation for the Arts, and a 2018 Rising Leader of Color by Theatre Communications Group. He is the immediate past Manager of Communications at The Tank NYC, a nonprofit arts presenting organization. Prior to The Tank NYC, he was the Manager of Communications and Community Engagement and Interim Manager of Public Programs for the Asian American Arts Alliance. Ariel is the current Digital Marketing Manager for Children's Health Fund.

As an actor and singer, Ariel has performed on television, film, commercials, industrials, new media, and on, Off, and Off-Off Broadway. You can visit his IMDB page here and download his resume here. The New York Times hailed his "fine emotional shadings" in the critically acclaimed puppet show Made in China. He was also an original cast member of the FringeNYC 2014 Encore Award and Time Out NY Critic Pick production The Imbible. He has performed on film/tv in Blue Bloods, Bull, The Americans, and the award-winning short film Title VII.

As the past Executive Director of Leviathan Lab, he has produced acting and writing salons, cabarets, fundraising events, staged readings, showcase productions, and short films. Ariel served as Executive Producer for Leviathan Lab's multiple-award winning short film TWO WEEKS (Featured Film, 2013 Screen Actors Guild Shorts Showcase; Winner, 2013 Film Festival Flix Short Film Competition; Winner, Best Ensemble, 2013 Asians on Film Festival; Award of Merit: Asian American, Best Shorts Competition (December 2013); and Official Selection, 20th Annual Filipino American Cine Festival, (December 2013). Ariel also served as Executive Producer on Leviathan Lab's short film "Yield" (Official Selection, Planet Connections Film Festival (June 2014), and "Dispatched" (New Ohio Film Festival 2018). In 2018, Ariel served as Executive Producer for Leviathan Lab's 2018 workshop of "Trigger" by Sam Chanse (2017 Kilroys; Resident Playwright, New Dramatists; Member, Ma-Yi Writers Lab).

Ariel is a graduate of the Broadway League's Commercial Theatre Institute Fourteen Week Program: Advanced Topics for Commercial Producers and Managers under Tom Viertel.

As a grant writer, Ariel has secured six grants (2012-2015; 2018-9) from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council for his work with Leviathan Lab. Ariel served as both a performer and Executive Producer of Leviathan Lab's first LMCC-supported project, "Migration Nation", which took ten new short plays inspired by the experiences of Filipina overseas contract workers, and assembled them into a three day, site-specific, immersive theatre event at the Tribeca brownstone/artists collective Space on White. For Leviathan's second and fourth LMCC-supported project in 2013 and 2015 respectively, Ariel served as Executive Producer, Assistant Teaching Artist, and Performer for their Chinatown Kids' Playmaking Project titled "Journey to the World of Playwriting", which took plays created through a 10-week workshop with the 5th grade students of P.S. 124, and produced them using the adult professional actors and directors of Leviathan Lab. In 2014, Leviathan secured their 3rd consecutive LMCC award for their "Ghost Stories" project, featuring original 10-minute musicals inspired by Asian ghost stories, curated by Robert Lee and directed by Tony Award-winner B.D. Wong. He also serves a a freelance grant writer for Choral Chameleon and Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, and has won both organizations several consecutive NYC and NYS grants.

Through Ariel's arts advocacy and community engagement work, Leviathan was a resident at Barn Arts Collective in Maine (2017-2019), 2013 and 2014 resident artist at the Performance Project at University Settlement, and a 2011 resident artist at Space on White. Ariel has also served on numerous foundational and NYC and NYC-neighborhood grant and award adjudication panels, and is a national presenter on equity, inclusion, and diversity in the arts.

Ariel is also an accomplished Fortune 500 and Inc. 5000 level communications designer. To view his design portfolio, please visit arielestradadesign.com.
- IMDb mini biography by: Ariel Estrada