ZHUANG Jia yun is graduate of Central Academy of Drama. She received her PhD in Theater and Performance Studies from UCLA and held an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Dramatic Art at the University of NorthCarolina at Chapel Hill, where she teaches Play Analysis, Theatre History and Dramatic Literature, and Introduction to Performance Studies.

Her research interests include Avant-Garde Theater and Performance, Theories of the Body, and the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies. She also serves as dramaturge for the PlayMakers Repertory Company (2010-present).

As the playwright of the Beijing-based theatre group the New Youth, Zhuang and the team collaboratively developed A Madman’s Diary (2011), One Fine Day (2013), 25.3 KM Fairytale (2014), and A Man Who Flies Up to the Sky (2015).