Meet the CEO

TOMEKA ALLEN  (Writer, Director, Actress, Choreographer)  born in the Bull City yet raised in Oxford, NC, always believed she would heal the world through the Arts. Her journey started as a child singing into hairbrushes and then eventually joining different choirs. As a young adult, she began her college career first majoring in Voice for the singer, and later changing her major to Drama. Tomeka received her Bachelor’s in Arts from the University of NC at Greensboro. While there, she absorbed acting, directing, dance, film and playwriting classes. She took advantage of opportunities to do drama within and outside of college to gain as much knowledge and experience as she could in the field. A few of her theatrical acting credits include: Death and the King’s Horseman, For Colored Girls Who Have Committed Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, Big River the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and many more. Upon graduation, she was already directing scenes written by greats such as August Wilson and Ntozake Shange.

In 2013, Tomeka became CEO of her own Arts company, I Inspire Productions. She began to explore writing and developed it, thus paving the way for her flagship theatrical production, Sight Chronicles, Man’s Transformation from Darkness to Light. This production was accepted into the Reader’s Theater of the National Black Theater Festival and reviewed by the public as well as national and international performing artists.

In 2014, she worked as a writer and director for the International Civil Rights Museum on a grant in partnership with, Arts Greensboro. She also partnered with the Artists 4 Justice poets, to produce a stage play entitled, February Once Again, the Evolution of a Dynasty. This production was created through the collaboration of different poems submitted by the community and then transformed into playscript format.

Tomeka has also written and produced other stage plays. Among those credits produced and directed are: If it Doesn’t Kill Me, a married couple’s struggle in dealing with terminal cancer, the historical piece entitled, Coffin And Lane- Stories of Slavery and Abolition. She later on wrote, directed and produced a musical entitled, A Meeting in Morocco, Mysteries of Blackness. In 2016, that stage play went up at the Odeon Theater at the Greensboro Coliseum. 

Tomeka released her first triple award-winning short film February/2019 entitled, I Am Sarah Baartman, and just recently premiered her 2nd short film, Generations, a story of domestic violence. Her first film premiered at the National Black Theater Festival, the Newark International Film Festival, and the Cannes Indie Awards Film Festival in Europe. Tomeka also finished the first season of Fox’s ‘Our Kind Of People,’ a new series where she worked as a background actor. She was able to work with actor moguls like Morris Chestnut, Yaya DaCosta, Nadine Ellis, Debbi Morgan, Lance Gross, and many more.

Tomeka adores directing and coaching actors and writers of all ages and skill levels.  Through her passion for the arts, Tomeka focuses on disparities in the community and believes she can help heal the masses, invoke awareness, and inspire positive change through art.