Ah-Keisha McCants

Born in Harlem New York, Ah-Keisha McCants spent the first eight years of her life in the Lincoln Projects.  At the age of eight, she moved to Los Angeles, California where she lived with her father, Writer/Actor, Reed McCants and her step-mother, Director, Neema Barnette.  There, the magic began.  At 14 years of age, Ah-Keisha began working professionally as a writer.  She wrote and performed two songs for NBC’s “The Cosby Mysteries”.  One of which, “Can I Get A Witness”, won her recognition in the 1995 Billboard Songwriting Awards.  Her music was also featured in the feature film, “Cuttin’ Da Mustard”.  She also has been a member ASCAP since the age of fourteen.

In 1996, when she was accepted into the highly prestigious Los Angeles County High School of the Arts as a theatre major, where such graduates included, Jon B, (R&B singer), and Jenna Elfman (“Darhma and Greg”).   Shortly after being accepted, Ah-Keisha was featured in Seventeen Magazine’s, “School Zone”, as one of the standout students in her high school.   Ah-Keisha’s love for the theatre shined through and in her final year, she won the lead role in the theatre department’s production of “You Can’t Take It With You”.  That same year, her first play, “Great Women of Color”, was produced and ran at the Whitefire Theatre in Los Angeles, California.  A writer for Backstage West, pinned Ah-Keisha as “a budding playwright, whose insight is way beyond her years”.

Her play “Café Millennium”, has been featured in the "Source" magazine and reviewed in "Backstage" magazine as "The future of theatre and contemporary art". “Café Millennium” has garnered Ah-Keisha a Young Pioneers "AUDELCO" Award .  Currently she has written a duet featuring Cassandra Wilson for renowned Jazz/Blues Artist, Olu Dara’s new CD, “Neighborhoods” on Atlantic Records.  She’s Produced , “Printz of Poets”, “Great Men & Women of Color”, Produced and Directed “Café Millennium” and most recently, "Sista Scrooge".

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