Karen Zacarias

Her grandfather, Miguel Zacarías, was a movie director and writer during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema in the 1930s and 1940s.

It wasn't until I was out of college, had worked a couple of years at a Latin American policy nonprofit and knew I could support myself without betraying others that I finally let myself really become a writer.

She included young people in the process and her script was converted into a book published by Scholastic.

[4] The book was called Chasing George Washington and the musical premiered at The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and was followed by a national tour.

[1] She began by volunteering and teaching playwriting classes to children in D.C. classrooms, and they grew so popular that she turned it into a 501c3 nonprofit organization by 1997.

This play has been widely produced, thus Zacarías translated it for a Spanish-language production in April at D.C.'s GALA Hispanic Theatre.