Hannah Manikowski is a narrative professional with a robust background in experiential entertainment: games, immersive, theatre, and transmedia enterprises. With an abiding passion for IP development, she loves both working with existing IP and building story vessels from the ground up.
Career focal points include…
…AREA15, where she served as the Narrative Director, scouting and overseeing a team of freelancers, leading the creation of original IP, and guiding all narrative initiatives, both in-house and through external partners.
…Meow Wolf, where she was a leading voice in the shaping of a proposed large-scale exhibit expansion.
…Blizzard Entertainment, where she streamlined narrative asset pipelines and supported cross-departmental story initiatives within the Writers' Room of the Story and Franchise Development Department.
…CAMP, where she pitched out-of-the-box experiential marketing activations and influenced the refinement of a family-focused brand voice.
As a theatre artist, Hannah holds a BFA in Directing from the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University. Through her work, Hannah prioritizes excavating the mundane within the magical and the magical within the mundane. Among other honors, Hannah has been named a 2023 Jane Chambers Prize finalist, a 2020 O'Neill finalist, and the winner of the 2018 - 2019 Judith Barlow Prize. She's a proud alumna of The 24 Hour Plays: Nationals, The Road Theatre's Under Construction year-long playwriting cohort, and the inaugural Tepper Semester Playwriting Program, where she studied under Broadway-produced playwright Antoinette Nwandu. Her play, The Sunrise from the Moon has enjoyed readings/development through both the San Francisco Playhouse and the MACH 33 Festival (a collaboration between Pasadena Playhouse and CalTech) and received a full university production in spring 2023 through CalTech Theatre, where Hannah served as a writer in residence. Compensation, meanwhile, received its professional world premiere in 2021 at Island City Stage in Florida. Critics called the script "effectively lacerating," hailing that "every emotion associated with pregnancy and pending parenthood is present in the 95 minutes of Hannah Manikowski’s smart and promising play." You can read her plays on NPX.