Achiro P. Olwoch

Achiro Patricia Olwoch is an award-winning Ugandan writer, director, and producer whose work spans theater, film, and television, exploring exile, memory, nationhood, and belonging. Based in New York, she is a Visiting Scholar and Instructor at Vassar College, where she teaches playwriting and postcolonial drama. Her acclaimed works include the plays Uganda My Mother, The Exiled President, and The Survival, which premiered at Lincoln Center before returning for a full production at the Perelman Performing Arts Center. A former Weiss International Fellow and Scholar at Risk at Barnard College, her writing has appeared in Guernica, PEN America, ADI Magazine, and Exposition Review.

AFI has supported Achiro through legal assistance and year-long engagement with the Artist Community Network (ACN), where she served as a Community Artist Leader for the 2025 cohort, mentoring fellow artists and fostering creative exchange. Today, she serves on AFI’s Artist Advisory Board, bringing her expertise as a writer, educator, and cultural leader to help shape the organization’s work advancing artistic freedom and supporting artists at risk.