Danielle Bainbridge

Danielle Bainbridge is an Assistant Professor of Theatre, Black Studies, and Performance Studies at Northwestern University, a web series creator and host, writer, and filmmaker. With PBS Digital Studios, in 2017 she co-founded the YouTube Channel and web series PBS Origin of Everything, which has now evolved into PBS Origins. The channel has 500,000+ subscribers and over 32 million views to date. In support of her ongoing memoir collection, Dandelion, she has received the 2015 Barry Lopez prize for creative nonfiction from Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, was a semi-finalist for the Kore Press 2016 memoir award, received a 2016 scholarship to the Tin House creative writing workshop in Portland Oregon, won a 2022 Anne LaBastille Writing Residency from the Adirondack Center for Writing, won a 2023 virtual residency from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and was named a semi-finalist for the 2023 St. Lawrence Book Award from Black Lawrence Press. Her creative nonfiction and fiction appear in Moko Magazine, Killens Review of Arts & Letters, and The Mechanics’ Institute Review Online. She served as a co-host on two 2021 Daytime Emmy Nominated web series: PBS Self-Evident and YouTube Originals Booktube. From 2021-2022 Danielle also served as a host and consulting producer on PBS’s Historian’s Take, which is a 2023 NAACP Image Award Nominee and 2023 Daytime Emmy Award Nominee. Her first play, Curio, premiered at the University of Pennsylvania and appeared at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018. In 2024 Danielle is in post-production for her first short film, based on Curio. She will be working on recording the songs and score from Curio during her residency at Jack Straw (composed by Autumn Maria Reed.) Danielle is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (BA English and Theatre Arts) and Yale University (PhD African American Studies and American Studies.)

Artist Support Program 2024: Curio, a short film about conjoined 19th century twins Millie Christine McKoy told through re-enactments, original hand bell music, and archival documents.