Serious Play

KO

KO (they/them) is a Tony Award-winning associate professor in the School of Communication's Department of Theatre and the Donald G. Robertson Director of Music Theatre. They are most widely known for their acting work that spans the last 25 years on Broadway and TV.

At Northwestern KO works with other professors to enrich the culture of the program with the goal of making space for students to explore how they think when they create art.

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Farhan Arshad (GC10)

Farhan Arshad (GC10) is a television writer and producer with an MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage from the School of Communication. He has written for shows like CBS’s Man with a Plan and The McCarthys, as well as ABC’s Dr. Ken. He was also both a writer and co-executive producer for the Frasier reboot starring Kelsey Grammer on Paramount+. He was a supervising producer on Amazon Freevee’s The Pradeeps of Pittsburgh.

A Pakistani American who grew up in Davenport, Iowa, Arshad has pitched and worked on projects that feature characters who resemble him and reflect his experiences. “[I'm] in a unique situation, where millions of people tune into our work,” Arshad explains. “Telling inclusive stories is important.”

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Mel McDaniel, Human Communication Sciences Major

When Mel McDaniel came to Northwestern, she thought it would be interesting to work with people with aphasia or work on language with kids with autism and other learning disabilities.

“Then I learned what a wide range there is in speech-language pathology, with all the different populations you can treat. I can go in all different directions,” says McDaniel. “I love the diversity of being able to treat different populations and getting to know a lot of different fields.”

McDaniel is currently enjoying her work in the Early Intervention Research Group, a lab led by Professor Megan Roberts, who received a grant to study early communication interventions in toddlers with hearing loss.

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