Nikki Lynette

Nikki Lynette is a social impact artist & suicide survivor who fuses mental health activism into her musical theater performances, film projects and visual art, creating a lane that is uniquely her own. This Chicago native's self-produced songs are frequently featured in popular shows on Netflix, Hulu, Showtime and more. Her journey with mental health outreach began in 2016 when she returned to the public eye after a long hiatus with a confession: she'd secretly been battling mental health issues. In a time when being open about mental health struggles was taboo, Nikki began writing articles about depression and suicide for prominent media like Afropunk and AllHipHop. As the opening act for Pussy Riot's first American tour, Nikki workshopped the material that would soon become her buzzed-about new musical about depression, GET OUT ALIVE. The stage show is in development under the guidance of Octopus Theatricals. In 2019, Nikki made history as the first black female playwright to have a musical produced by American Music Theatre Project, in 2022 she became the first Steppenwolf LookOut Series work and first female AMTP alum to be featured at NAMT's Festival of New Musicals, and in 2024 Nikki Lynette became the first American Playwright to be invited to Cove Park's Musical Theatre Writing Residency in Scotland. A proud ambassador and board member for the Chicago chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Nikki Lynette's first TEDx Talk, hosted by Princeton University, was an opportunity for her to share how her punk culture roots aided her suicide recovery. Seeing her music used to tell stories in tv shows led Nikki to an interest in filmmaking. Since adapting her musical about depression to film during the pandemic, GET OUT ALIVE has been invited into over a dozen film festivals and nominated for 5 awards, of which she won three. Her zeal for crafting edgy multimedia theatrical experiences that center mental health is on full display in Nikki Lynette's second film, the new documusical entitled Happy Songs About Unhappy Things, which boasts Jamie Foxx & Datari Turner as producers. Nikki Lynette is represented by Independent Artist Group.