hello and welcome!
who are we talking about?
Sarah Jae Leiber is a writer (mostly plays, screenplays, and essays), singer (mostly Carole King covers), and actor (mostly not anymore) based in New York City. She is, crucially, from Philadelphia. She is also funny and Jewish and on Twitter.
Sarah spent two years working at the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene and formerly served as entertainment editor at BroadwayWorld. She also covers the culture beat at Jewish Women's Archive and has been a freelance video writer for WatchMojo and a contributing satirist at The Broadway Beat. Her byline exists at Polygon, Bitch Media, Bright Wall/Dark Room, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Niche, Film Daze, Screen Mayhem, Screen Queens, Grow Up, The Daily Drunk, Sally Mag, Small Screen, Uncomfortable Revolution, and The Validation Project.
In December of 2021, a play Sarah wrote following a two-day workshop with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel was chosen out of over 50 plays to be read in a festival at McCarter Theatre Center. Muhlenberg College produced The Repair Man in the fall of 2018; Rascal Arts produced Grand Theft Tea Leaves at Theatre Row in the summer of 2017. Her first full-length play, PLEASE LAUGH, had an official reading with the Dramatists Guild in spring of 2021 (and now she's a member!). Check her out on New Play Exchange.
On top of interviewing some of her favorite entertainers (including Rachel Bloom, Joel Grey, Norbert Leo Butz, Leslie Odom Jr., Yeardley Smith, Jane Krakowski, Kristin Chenoweth, Jaime Camil, Ariana DeBose, Stephen Root, Mike Viola, and Kenneth Branagh), Sarah writes most critically about film, TV, Judaism, and Judaism in film and TV.
She writes a pop culture newsletter called "hit me with some more lame tautology, socrates." She's also "the voice" of The Flashpaper issue three, singing an original musical theatre song by Marc Jablonski.
Her 30-minute TV dramedy pilot, Hearts and Bones, was a semifinalist in ScreenCraft's 2021 TV Pilot Script competition.
Sarah is a member of the 2020 TEDxBroadway Young Professionals program and an alumna of Actors Theatre of Louisville's 48th Professional Training Company. Before that, she worked as a marketing associate for Muhlenberg College Theatre & Dance and as an administrative intern at Lantern Theatre Company. She’s also been a receptionist at a casino hair salon and a doughnut lady at Krispy Kreme. She has stories.
A 2019 graduate of Muhlenberg College with a degree in theatre and history, Sarah wrote a thesis about C. Everett Koop, arts, and activism during the AIDS crisis. She also did a lot of dramaturgy there, most recently on Mr. Burns: a post-electric play (dir. Beth Schachter).
Sarah has very complicated personal relationships with an American Idol runner up and with the granddaughter of a very famous psychiatrist. She’d be happy to tell you or your publication about this, or about the time she got interviewed by a literal Nazi, for free or for money.
