Meet the Team
Anyia Gillespie is a senior at Ballard High School and actively involved in creating films at her school's filmmaking program. Because of her love of visual arts and her determination to uphold racial equity in the arts, she joined The Colorization Collective as their film editor. In addition to creating films, Anyia is involved in community service: she volunteers at an art store called Recreative and lends a hand at the Northwest Folklife Festival.
Anya Shukla (Co-Founder) is a senior at Lakeside School and has been an artist for as long as she can remember. A proponent of racial equity in the arts, she co-founded The Collective to create space for teen artists of color who, like her, may feel underrepresented in the art community. Anya is also the Event Director for TeenTix’s leadership board, as well as a participant in many community service-and-writing-related extracurriculars.
Kathryn Lau (Co-Founder) is a senior at Lakeside School who has spent more of her time on stage or in rehearsal than not. She has danced with artists from all over the country, and more recently finished the Seattle Children's Theatre's Young Actor's Institute with Anya. As a co-founder of The Collective, Kat wants to find a way to make the arts inclusive for all audiences regardless of race and strives to have equal, authentic representation in the arts community.
Jessica Liu is a senior at Madison West High School passionate about lending teen artists of color a platform to alter the world and using writing to advocate for minorities. A lover of creative writing her whole life, she has won various national writing awards for her poetry and flash fiction, and has been published in The Best Teen Writing of 2018. Aside from writing, she loves science and is a co-captain of Science Olympiad at her school.
Joshua Fernandes was just an ordinary senior at Ballard High School, where he makes movies in his school's film program. However, one fateful day, he got bitten by a bug that changed his life. The journalism bug. Since then, Joshua's worked to find a way to satisfy his hunger for stories and is now even more committed to standing for truth and justice by amplifying the voices of artists of color through video and film. Josh is a member of the TeenTix Editorial Staff and has participated in KUOW's RadioActive Internship program and AAJA's 2019 J-Camp.
Kira Seshaiah is a senior at Eastside Preparatory School where more often than not she is seen backstage rather than onstage: she works as an member of the backstage crew spends her summers interning at different theatres around Seattle, doing everything from programming lights to building the sets. Kira sees the arts as a platform for artists to get their voices heard and hopes to bolster the representation of artists of color within the community.
louka yeoul started writing to cope with childhood trauma--though back then she was just trying to survive. Growing up has meant constantly delving into the links between art and healing and finding her voice through it all. Now, she strives to help others experience this same healing and spread awareness while doing her part in amplifying the voices of marginalized groups. She'll be studying English + creative writing and psychology at Emory, and in her free time, she watches BTS and writes love letters to Ophelia.
Neha Gupta is a senior at Eastside Preparatory School. She loves being able to interact with other like-minded teenagers and to discuss the intersection of arts and social justice. In her mind, art is the perfect tool to explore issues of race, gender, political affiliations, etc. as it creates an accessible platform that opens towards deeper conversations about relevant issues. In addition to being heavily involved with TeenTix, she is a member of the Seattle Art Museum's Teen Arts Group, does policy work with OneAmerica, and serves as an Intern at the University of Washington School of Public Policy and Governance.
Anya Shukla (Co-Founder) is a senior at Lakeside School and has been an artist for as long as she can remember. A proponent of racial equity in the arts, she co-founded The Collective to create space for teen artists of color who, like her, may feel underrepresented in the art community. Anya is also the Event Director for TeenTix’s leadership board, as well as a participant in many community service-and-writing-related extracurriculars.
Kathryn Lau (Co-Founder) is a senior at Lakeside School who has spent more of her time on stage or in rehearsal than not. She has danced with artists from all over the country, and more recently finished the Seattle Children's Theatre's Young Actor's Institute with Anya. As a co-founder of The Collective, Kat wants to find a way to make the arts inclusive for all audiences regardless of race and strives to have equal, authentic representation in the arts community.
Jessica Liu is a senior at Madison West High School passionate about lending teen artists of color a platform to alter the world and using writing to advocate for minorities. A lover of creative writing her whole life, she has won various national writing awards for her poetry and flash fiction, and has been published in The Best Teen Writing of 2018. Aside from writing, she loves science and is a co-captain of Science Olympiad at her school.
Joshua Fernandes was just an ordinary senior at Ballard High School, where he makes movies in his school's film program. However, one fateful day, he got bitten by a bug that changed his life. The journalism bug. Since then, Joshua's worked to find a way to satisfy his hunger for stories and is now even more committed to standing for truth and justice by amplifying the voices of artists of color through video and film. Josh is a member of the TeenTix Editorial Staff and has participated in KUOW's RadioActive Internship program and AAJA's 2019 J-Camp.
Kira Seshaiah is a senior at Eastside Preparatory School where more often than not she is seen backstage rather than onstage: she works as an member of the backstage crew spends her summers interning at different theatres around Seattle, doing everything from programming lights to building the sets. Kira sees the arts as a platform for artists to get their voices heard and hopes to bolster the representation of artists of color within the community.
louka yeoul started writing to cope with childhood trauma--though back then she was just trying to survive. Growing up has meant constantly delving into the links between art and healing and finding her voice through it all. Now, she strives to help others experience this same healing and spread awareness while doing her part in amplifying the voices of marginalized groups. She'll be studying English + creative writing and psychology at Emory, and in her free time, she watches BTS and writes love letters to Ophelia.
Neha Gupta is a senior at Eastside Preparatory School. She loves being able to interact with other like-minded teenagers and to discuss the intersection of arts and social justice. In her mind, art is the perfect tool to explore issues of race, gender, political affiliations, etc. as it creates an accessible platform that opens towards deeper conversations about relevant issues. In addition to being heavily involved with TeenTix, she is a member of the Seattle Art Museum's Teen Arts Group, does policy work with OneAmerica, and serves as an Intern at the University of Washington School of Public Policy and Governance.