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Dmae Roberts

She // Her // Hers

Media Producer and Theater Artist

Portland, Oregon

Photo of Dmae Roberts.

Photo by Julie Keefe.

Dmae Roberts is a playwright, journalist, and educator. She has written and produced more than 400 stories and audio art pieces for NPR and PRI. Her work is primarily autobiographical, informed by her biracial identity and her experiences growing up in the only interracial family in a small town in rural Oregon. Her documentary Mei Mei, a Daughter’s Song is a harrowing account of her mother’s childhood in Taiwan. She won a Peabody Award for the piece and has received honors from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NEA, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, the Casey Medal, and the United Nations Silver Award. She received an Oregon Book Award for her play Picasso in the Back Seat. Roberts recently completed Crossing East, the first radio series on Asian American history. She is the executive producer of Mediarites, a nonprofit organization dedicated to multicultural arts production in radio, theater, and educational outreach.

Donor -This award was generously supported by The Rockefeller Foundation.

This artist page was last updated on: 01.21.2025

Photo of Dmae Roberts as an infant with her parents.

Mei Mei, a Daughter's Song by Dmae Roberts, 1989. Dmae Roberts with parents, Chu-Yin and Bobby Roberts.

Photo courtesy of the artist.