Humaira Ghilzai is a Social Entrepreneur dedicated to bringing people together across cultures.
Born in Kabul and raised in California, I’ve spent my life working at the intersection of art and activism, helping bring authentic Afghan and Muslim stories to the stage and screen.
I’ve worked on The Kite Runner (West End & Broadway), served as a cultural consultant on Little America (Season 2) and collaborated with composer, Sheila Silver, on her opera A Thousand Splendid Suns.
My latest project, PILGRIMAGE—a play I’ve co-written with Bridgette Dutta Portman—is a funny, heartfelt story about five Muslim women on a journey to Mecca. PILGRIMAGE is a bold depiction of Afghan and Muslim women that challenges narrow stereotypes. It’s about the tension in immigrant families—the gap between tradition and lived experience, inherited faith and personal belief, what we hold onto and what we struggle to carry. It premieres fall of 2025 in a co-productions between Golden Thread Productions and Z Space in San Francisco.
Beyond theater, I’ve spent two decades supporting education and women’s rights in Afghanistan through the Afghan Friends Network and the Hayward–Ghazni Sister City project. I also serve on the board of Golden Thread Productions and offer cultural competency trainings to organizations who want to do better.
My other projects:
Faculty member at “The Immigrant Experience in California through Literature and History,” a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for School Teachers.
Member of MENA THEATRE MAKERS ALLIANCE and the anti-racist cohort, Making Good Trouble, which focuses on advocating for equity for BIPOC representation in the arts, and a reader for the BAY AREA PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL.
Everything I do is about shifting narratives, breaking stereotypes, and opening space for voices that too often go unheard.
“Humaira’s meticulously organized (not to mention, memorized) presentation on how Afghanistan’s history has affected women’s lives provided a powerful context for sharing the poetry and essays written by AWWP’s Afghan women writers. She has such a thorough understanding of her country’s rich heritage, cultural influences, and the complexity of Afghanistan’s current day struggles. ”
“Humaira knows Afghanistan and its people well, and describes it in such a way that pushes past the usual “plight” narrative. She helps listeners understand the basic interests and needs of the people without over simplification but in a way they can connect with. It is impossible to leave a presentation of hers without a very much enriched understanding of Afghanistan, the richness of its people, and most importantly what that means for us. ”