Deepak Kumar is a South-Asian-American playwright, lyricist, composer, and researcher based out of the Internet. His work prominently features Asian-Americans grappling with the messiness of their identities as they relate to their unique American experiences. His first show, “Baked! The Musical” (co-written with Jord Liu) was featured at the Chicago Musical Theatre Festival 2020, where it won awards for best lyrics, best lead performer, best supporting performer, and best ensemble. His theatre work has been produced with Underscore Theatre in Chicago, the National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO), Musical Theatre Factory, and PACE University in New York, Faultline Theater in San Francisco, and Shotgun Players in Berkeley, CA. When he is not writing plays, he spends his time as a computing researcher, studying ways to measure and mitigate the effects of online hate and harassment. He received his BSE from the University of Michigan and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He currently resides in the Bay Area, California.