Weyni Mengesha
Weyni Mengesha is a theatre director, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is known as the director of the plays da kink in my hair, and Kim's Convenience.
Mengesha married American actor Eion Bailey in 2011. The pair have two children.
In 2018 she was hired as the artistic director of the Soulpepper Theatre. Observers applauded her appointment, and that of her colleague Executive director Emma Stenning, as it meant the two senior posts at the theatre would be filled by women, after the previous male director Albert Schultz resigned after actors accused him of preying on female subordinates.
Mengesha's parents were immigrants from Ethiopia. While she was born in Vancouver, Mengesha grew up in Scarborough, Ontario. She graduated from Soulpepper Academy.
Mengesha has been nominated for the Dora Mavor Moore Award five times, winning the award in 2014.
Mengesha co-signed a letter of support to the Black Lives Matter movement, in June 2020, following several high profile incidents where Police killed black civilians, in both the United States and Canada. The Toronto Stars theatre critic, Carly Maga, followed up by interviewing Mengesha over her personal experience with racism.
