I was born and raised in New York; a Brooklyn baby born in a Long Island hospital. My parents later relocated us from our first home in East Flatbush, to Rockland County, New York. In the lush and green immigrant-paradise of Spring Valley, I grew up influenced by a myriad of surrounding cultures, the freedom to play outside, and a household full of music.
Photo by Brandon Rubin
In early 2018, I made my broadway debut (alongside my father!) in the choir of Rocktopia. After releasing my first single, "Regrow," later that year, I’m working on writing and recording more solo music, as well as enjoying the magic of creation in another mysterious new music project that I can’t wait to share. In 2019, I made my official regional theatre debut in Christina Ham’s Nina Simone: Four Women at People’s Light, and also traveled to Scotland’s legendary Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In early 2020, after a wonderful run of Jewell Gomez’s Leaving The Blues with TOSOS Theater Company, I was fortunate to find myself at The Bushwick Starr, working on Jillian Walker’s SKiNFoLK: An American Show, co-produced by National Black Theatre of Harlem. Although like everyone else, we halted early due to COVID-19, we managed to snag a glowing NY Times Critic’s Pick review by Jose Solís just in time.
Since then, I have had the pleasure of getting back into theater and performance. In 2022, I performed at Trinity Rep, returned back to TOSOS for the world premiere play, House of Chavis, and received an artist residency with the wonderful Hermitage Artist Retreat. These days I remain based out of Brooklyn, doing shows, working on new plays, auditioning, putting my first EP together, and brand ambassador-ing and collaborating with my artist framily. Looking forward to whatever is next! With much love & light, Tsebiyah 💕 |
My father, Craig Derry, a gifted singer, mentor and vocal coach, nurtured my understanding of music early on- as I had shown my love for it. Between him, and my mom, Hope, who frequently took me to plays, talks, museums and exhibitions, I was constantly consuming art and hearing discussions about it. By 4th grade, I was performing in the annual school musical, and continued to dedicate all of my time to the drama club until I graduated from Ramapo High School. (Drama Club 4evaa! <3) I went to Sarah Lawrence College and studied theatre, writing, and literature with a focus on Black, Latin American and Spanish history. I studied abroad at the British American Drama Academy in London, supplementing SLC’s avant-grande culture of developmental, experimental and devised theatre with more traditional training in classical and contemporary work.
In 2016, I traveled to Tanzania with Dramatic Adventure Theatre. We taught children in underdeveloped areas how to write and perform their own plays, and devised pieces of our own entirely from our experiences in TZ. We performed those pieces at the Zanzibar International Film Festival before bringing them back home to New York, at the IATI Theatre on East 4th St. I am still counting the blessings and lessons I’ve received from that incredible experience. 
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