Omer Abbas Salem

Omer Abbas Salem (he/they) is an actor and playwright. As an actor, they’ve worked at Roundabout Theatre, Atlantic Theatre, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Goodman, Steep Theatre, Jackalope Theatre, Silk Road Rising, First Floor Theatre, The New Coordinates, About Face Theatre, Griffin Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre, Court Theatre, A Red Orchid, and The Second City. As a playwright, their work has been produced at The Goodman, Steppenwolf, About Face, Steep, First Floor, Jackalope, The New Coordinates, The Story Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, National Queer Theatre, Definition Theatre, A Red Orchid, and The Theatre School at DePaul University. They are a member of the 2021-22 Goodman Playwrights Unit and participated in The Goodman’s New Stages Festival in 2022. They are Salem is also the winner of the 2022 Blueprint Commission from First Floor Theater and the Cunningham Commission from DePaul University. They are an Emerging Playwright Commission from Audible Theater and are also the most recent recipient of the Edgerton Commission from Steppenwolf. They were a member of the 2024-2025 New Stages Commission at The Goodman, part of the 2024-25 Chicago International Film Festival Screenplay Cohort, and the winner of the 2022 3Arts Award in Theater. Abbas Salem an ensemble member of Steep Theatre, First Floor Theater, and The New Coordinates. They graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and the University of Chicago.