Alex Benjamin
Playwriting
Chicago, IL
Alex Benjamin (he/him) is a performance artist, teaching artist, and theatre director as well as the Program Director at Luminarts Cultural Foundation at the Union League Club of Chicago. In this role, he supports exemplary, emerging artists with financial awards, fellowships, and professional development opportunities. As his drag persona Wanda, he has performed at venues all over Chicago including Thalia Hall, Steppenwolf, The Den Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, and Metro, and toured nationally and internationally including New York, Los Angeles, and the UK. He co-founded SADHAUS Drag and Performance Art Collective, which created and performed original full-length drag theatre. He adapted and directed an immersive dance production of The Great and Terrible Dr. Faustus, produced by Striding Lion Performance Group, at the Athenaeum Center in 2016. He created and led Chicago's first drag museum tours at the Art Institute of Chicago; its first drag ghost tour company; and its first drag pottery class. He is a recipient of the Illinois Arts Council's Individual Artist Grant for his one person show The Witch Project (2020), which recently had its second production at The Den Theatre in Fall 2025.