MIRANDA CORNELL (she/her) is a Jewpanese New York-based theater director, educator, and sometimes writer born and bred in Brooklyn, NY. She aims to tell stories that engage the dialectic, the sincere, and the strange. 

She has directed and developed work with Playwrights Horizons, Roundabout, New York Theatre Workshop, Clubbed Thumb, Ma-Yi, Playwrights Realm, Vineyard Theater, The New Group, Cleveland Play House, Stages Houston, Yale Summer Cabaret, Prospect Theater Company, the National Asian Artist Project, EST/Youngblood, 24 Hour Plays, The Brick, Leviathan Lab, YES Theatre, New Ohio/Ice Factory, NYMF, Shakespeare Academy at Stratford, Moxie Arts, and universities around the country. Recent productions include the world premiere of Eliana Theologides Rodriguez’s Indian Princesses (La Jolla Playhouse), Lloyd Suh’s The Heart Sellers (Stages), and CHAIRS by Hayley Stahl (Clubbed Thumb Winterworks).

Miranda was the 2020 Van Lier Fellow in Theater at the Asian American Arts Alliance, the inaugural Directing Apprentice at Dear Evan Hansen, the Roundabout Directors Group (Cohort 2), a NYTW 2050 Artistic Fellow, and a New Play Directing Fellow at Clubbed Thumb. She is a two-time resident artist at Mercury Store. Recently, she was named to the ‘2026 Women to Watch on Broadway’ list by the Broadway Women’s Fund.

She has served as associate/resident/assistant director to Danya Taymor, Chay Yew, Robert Icke, Rachel Chavkin, Michael Greif, and more. Productions include The Outsiders (Broadway/Tour/La Jolla Playhouse, 4 Tony Awards), The Doctor (Park Avenue Armory), Dear Evan Hansen (Broadway and North American tour), Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord (NYTW/LJP/Portland Center Stage, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), and others at the Armory, LJP, McCarter Theatre Center, New York Stage & Film, and The TEAM. 

Outside of directing, she was seen in Pocket Universe’s all-female Julius Caesar as Casca, which was featured for its fresh take in the New York Times in July 2017.  She was also the founding Artistic Director of Semicolon Theatre Company, a company dedicated to producing the work of young theater artists and administrators professionally in New York. Alongside creative partner Zoe Kamil, she was named a ‘Woman to Watch’ by The Interval in 2016 at the age of 19.

She holds BAs in Drama and Education at Vassar College, where she was awarded the Molly Thacher Kazan Prize for her direction of Revolt. She said. Revolt again. and received top honors on her thesis in Educational Studies about socially engaged and culturally reflexive curriculum in adolescent theater classrooms. 

She is a proud member of SDC.

CURRENTLY:

  • Directing the New York premiere of Eliana Theologides Rodriguez’s Indian Princesses in a co-production between Atlantic Theater Company and Rattlestick Theater Company. La Jolla Playhouse. April 30 - June 7, 2026, tickets available here.

  • Associate & Resident Director of The Outsiders - winner of 4 Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Direction of Musical for Danya Taymor - currently running at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on Broadway and across the country on the First North American Tour

 
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