A woman with dark hair, wearing a black blazer and white top, resting her chin on her hand, with a white background.

Jessica Kahkoska is a writer, producer, and researcher for theatre and television. She is most interested in work inspired by creative research and historical archive, the American West, and community collaboration.

About

In theatre, Jessica was recently the Archival Researcher for the Tony-nominated Broadway production/CNN broadcast of Good Night, and Good Luck (by George Clooney and Grant Heslov), and had 2025 World Premiere Productions: The Vermont Farm Project at Northern Stage Theatre Company (“a rollicking and entertaining musical with pathos — and authentic” — Rutland Herald) and In Her Bones at the Colorado Spring Fine Arts Center (“a bittersweet story told with profound sensitivity and realism… heartwarming and heartbreaking” — Onstage Colorado).

As a writer, she has premiered/developed original new plays and musicals in New York and across the country— with New York Stage and Film, WP Theatre, the Village Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, Weston Theatre Company, and others. Projects include revisionist Western musical The Death of Desert Rose (with Elliah Heifetz, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship), Wild Fire (Commissioned, World Premiere, & Colorado Tour by the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, upcoming at ZSpace), Letters to the President (with Michael Bello/others, NY Premiere at the Great Hall at Cooper Union, Goodspeed Musicals Festival of New Musicals), Agent 355 (with Preston Max Allen, Signature Theatre Company, Chautauqua Theater Company), Wild Home (Notch Theatre Company, NEA “ArtWorks” Grant Recipient), and Nia (World Premiere: UNC Chapel Hill).

She is currently writing new musicals with Ellen Winter (DREAM - under commission by Concord Theatricals/the Alley Theatre, 2025 UCROSS residency) and Katie Lynne Sharbaugh (We Are All Monsters - under commission by Zachary Hausman & Andrew Patino, 2026 Goodspeed Musicals Grove Residency).

As a dramaturg, she has supported the development of new works Off-Broadway (safeword by S. Asher Gelman, We are the Tigers by Preston Max Allen), in NYC (Judgement Day by Rob Ulin, The Truth Is… by Hank Rion, Salaam Medina by Rona Siddiqui/Playwrights Horizons, ThreeTimesFast by Teresa Lotz and Naomi Matlow, Salem by Kira Stone), and regionally at Creede Rep, the Athena Project, Arts Mission, and others.

In the documentary space, Jessica has worked as a writer, producer, and researcher on films and series for the Discovery Channel (American Spirit (seasons 1-2), True Crime and Shine (seasons 1-3)), CNN Originals (Vegas: The Story of Sin City), Max Originals (They Called Him Mostly Harmless), the Oxygen Network (Sins of the South (seasons 1-2), New York Homicide), Universal Music Group, Time Studios, the Magnolia Network, the History Channel, and Peacock. She is currently an Associate Producer for a historical crime series on the Discovery Channel, and is developing documentary projects with QCODE, Muck Media, XTR Productions, Asteria Films, and Fifth Season

In scripted TV, she has staffed on original series for WBTV, Brownstone Productions, David E. Kelley, Shondaland, and Netflix. She was both a researcher and writer on the scripted podcast Madam Ram (starring Toni Collette, created by Michelle Rosenfarb, produced by QCODE, LuckyChap Entertainment, and Elizabeth Cantillon). She is currently developing original projects with AGC Studios, Lighthouse Pictures, Happy Accidents, and Billy Magnussen's HappyBad Bungalow.

Jessica is the two-time recipient of the Marion International Fellowship in the Visual and Performing Arts (2017 and 2023), and has received a Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellowship, the Marscio Visiting Scholarship at Denver University, and a Redline Contemporary Arts Center “Arts-in-Society” Grant. She has been an artist in residence at Rhinebeck Writers Retreat (New York) Faberllull Olot (Spain), UCROSS Foundation (3-time recipient, Wyoming), Green Box Arts (Colorado), the Johnny Mercer Grove at Goodspeed (3-time receipient, Connecticut), the Chautauqua Institution (New York), and was awarded the inaugural “Powered By Off-Center” creative residency at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. For her research on the American women who worked at the Nuremberg Trials, Jessica is the 2023 recipient of the National Archives Foundation's Cokie Roberts Fellowship in Women's History

She is a guest lecturer at Wesleyan University (Producing and Performing Anthropology with Dr. A. George Bajalia) and on faculty at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts (Theatre Histories, Advanced Dramatic Structure and Text Analysis).

BA: Northwestern University.
MBA: SUNY New Paltz

Contact

Authentic Talent & Literary Management and United Talent Agency

A group of young performers playing and singing on a colorful, cluttered stage decorated with posters, lights, and various objects. Two women are standing at microphones, one in red pants and the other in a black jacket and ripped jeans, with other b
Two people standing behind a microphone and a music stand, each holding a coffee cup, with a background of colorful posters and artwork at Chautauqua Theater Company
Two women at a party or event. The woman on the left is wearing sunglasses, a red vest, and jewelry, and is holding a microphone, making a rock and roll gesture. The woman on the right is smiling, holding a red cup, and holding a sign with a drawing
A theatrical stage with a woman holding a microphone, sitting on a chest, wearing a large heart-shaped sign reading 'The First Valentine on American Soil.' Several women are on stage, some singing and playing drums, with a colorful, cluttered backgro
A woman with red hair singing into a microphone while playing an electric cello on a stage with colorful posters and two women sitting behind her.
A stage performance featuring musicians and performers surrounded by scattered papers and posters, with a person singing into a microphone at the center, a drummer in the background, and various props including a ladder and boxes.
Three women singing at an outdoor gathering, with one woman in a yellow sweater appearing emotional, and two women in blue dresses smiling.
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A man with a beard and long hair wearing a baseball cap and a white shirt is speaking to an elderly woman with curly white hair wearing a floral blouse and a cardigan. They are outdoors on a porch with trees in the background.
A woman playing an acoustic guitar on stage, singing passionately with her right hand raised, while a man with a double bass in the background looks on with a smile.
A man playing an acoustic guitar on an outdoor stage with large sound speakers and equipment around him. There are two women in the background, one playing drums and the other watching.
Outdoor concert stage with musicians performing at dusk, audience seated with umbrellas, mountain backdrop.
An outdoor concert at night with a stage illuminated by colorful lights and many audience members standing and sitting, watching a band perform.
A musical band performing on stage with multiple musicians playing instruments, including guitar, keyboard, drums, and upright bass, in front of an audience at Denver Center for Performing Arts.
A young woman in a plaid shirt standing on a stage with a group of people, including a man with a guitar, under purple stage lighting.
A promotional poster for the Denver Center for the Performing Arts World Premiere Production of 'Wild Fire' with a sunset over mountains and text describing the event.
Stage scene with a mountain backdrop and a projected map featuring an eagle, trees, and sunset colors. Three people are standing in front of the backdrop, with one person sitting at a table on the left.
A young woman sits on a stack of soda packs in a convenience store, looking thoughtful. Behind her are shelves stocked with snacks and household items, with a refrigerator containing drinks to her left. The store has a rustic brick wall and holiday d
Two women hugging each other and smiling in a cozy indoor setting.
A woman singing into a microphone on stage, wearing a reddish-brown hat and black off-shoulder dress, with a music stand in front of her and a large screen in the background showing her performance.
A man with brown curly hair is standing at a podium on a stage, smiling and making a peace sign with his right hand. Behind him is a large screen displaying cursive writing in blue ink on a white background.
A young woman with dark hair, wearing a yellow floral dress, is speaking into a microphone on a stand. She is making a gesture with both hands, raising her index fingers. She is on a stage with a music stand in front of her, and dark curtains as the
A man in a suit standing behind a podium with a microphone, in a dimly lit room labeled 'The Cooper Union', with a person with curly hair and a white shirt standing nearby and other people in the background.
Female singer performing on stage with microphone, tattoo on arm, wearing orange top, with stage lights in the background.
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A group of five people performing music on a stage set designed to look like a rustic farm or barn, with hay bales and farm tools in the background.
Two people sitting on hay bales inside a barn, with hay bales, a truck, and speaker in the background. One person is a young woman with short dark hair wearing a plaid shirt and yellow Crocs, looking up at an older man with glasses and a beard, weari
Three people on stage in a rustic setting. One woman with a bandana on her head is sitting on hay bale, smiling and holding a phone. A man with a beard and hat is sitting on the floor looking up. A woman in shorts, a beanie, and rain boots is sitting