Brian Quijada

Brian Quijada is a Salvadoran-American actor, playwright, musician, and a solo performer, known for his multimedia theatrical works involving topics on immigration, humanity, identity, and American experience incorporated with Latinx childhood.

He wrote and starred in the 2025 musical, Mexodus, with Nygel D. Robinson. The 2026 Off-Broadway production received critical acclaim, winning Quijada two Drama Desk Awards, an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Lucille Lortel Award.

Background Family Quijada was born to immigrant parents, Eduardo and Reina Quijada. He is the youngest of four brothers. His parents moved to the United States from El Salvador in the 1970s with their two children at the time, Fernando and Roberto. Quijada and his brother Marvin were born after the family moved to the United States. In an interview with Stage & Candor, Quijada said that he thinks his parents named him and his brother Brian and Marvin to give them "easier lives in the States." which Quijada explained as "a 'burb that's surrounded by a very affluent - I would say 70% Jewish town (Highland Park, IL)." After graduating from the University of Iowa, he took part in variety of theatre festivals all over the United States, such as The National Playwright's Conference, The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, The Kennedy Center's MFA Playwright's Festival, The Denver New Play Summit, The Lark, Seven Devil's Playwright's Conference, and La Jolla Playhouse, to promote his interest in new play development. Quijada uses digital looping with the technology of iPhones and iPads, fusing this technique with multi-instrumentalism in his play Where Did We Sit On The Bus? These sounds are connected to the main themes of his works: his childhood and the search for his identity. He has worked as a writer-in-residence in The Kennedy Center and The Eugene O'Neil Theatre Center. derived from his childhood experience in the northern suburbs of Chicago, from a trailer park in Glenview to a house in Highwood. The title refers to a moment in his childhood during a 3rd grade history lesson about Rosa Parks. Referring to Latino and Latina people in US history, he asked his teacher, "Where did we sit on the bus?", to which she replied "They weren't around." Quijada talks about this experience in an interview with Stage & Candor, saying it "flipped [his] mind" and provoked his dissatisfaction with "the way that history is taught in the public school system." His story is told using looped rhythms, raps, songs, poems, and spoken-word pieces, in an attempt to find his identity. Quijada describes Kid Prince and Pablo as "a hip-hop, digital age, American adaptation of Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper."

Strip Strip is Quijada's third play, which he also wrote for WildWind Performance Lab. In an interview with Texas Tech School of Theatre and Dance, Quijada says that Strip is "a story about the boundaries of religion and the consequences of losing faith." The collection, made up of over 70 plays, was performed at theaters and universities across the country as a reading titled "After Orlando."

Mexodus Quijada partned with Nygel D. Robinson in 2024 as writers and composers of the musical, Mexodus, which tells the story of African-Americans who traversed to Mexico on the Underground Railroad. The production premiered at Baltimore Center Stage in 2024, starring Quijada and Rmoobinson and directed by David Mendizábal. The show is notable for its use of live-looping, designed by sound designer Mikhail Fiksel.

The show later transferred to the Mosaic Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., and later Berkeley Repertory Theatre. with the same team, before premiering Off-Broadway in 2025 at the Minetta Lane Theatre. Produced by P3 Productions and Audible, the show received universal acclaim, with praise for Quijada and Robinson's writing and performances, Mendizábal's direction and Fiksel's sound design. The show returned Off-Broadway in 2026 at the Daryl Roth Theatre. The show announced a U.S. national tour beginning in July 2026.

The production was nominated for nine Lucille Lortel Awards, winning Outstanding Musical, 10 Drama Desk Awards, winning three, two Drama League Awards and 10 Outer Critics Circle Awards, winning four including Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical.

Awards and nominations YearAwardCategoryWorkResultRef.2026Jeff AwardBest New PlayWhere Did We Sit On The Bus? Outstanding Lead Performance in a MusicalOutstanding MusicOutstanding LyricsOutstanding Book of a MusicalOuter Critics Circle AwardOutstanding New Off-Broadway Musical Outstanding New ScoreOutstanding Book of a MusicalOutstanding Lead Performer in an Off-Broadway MusicalOutstanding OrchestrationsDrama League AwardOutstanding Production of a Musical Distinguished PerformanceLucille Lortel AwardOutstanding Musical Outstanding Lead Performer in a MusicalDorian AwardOutstanding Off-Broadway Production