I heard the universe is still expanding.
telling stories and building connections across media
laugh, collaborate, and listen
Anthea Carns (she/her) is a writer and storyteller whose work spans media from the theatrical stage to the video game console. She takes a holistic view of narrative, informed by her training as a dramaturg and a collaborative drive. Her writing features strong, flexible character voices, genre savvy, and voracious curiosity.
multi-hyphenate in parvo
- Video games: narrative design, dialogue, VO support
- Theatre: acting, stage management, dramaturgy
- Writing: blogs, essays, plays, games
the story so far
Born and raised in Alaska, Anthea received her BFA in Dramaturgy at Carnegie Mellon University in 2011, earning University, School of Drama, and Phi Beta Kappa honors. At CMU, she wrote Bad Hamlet with Lil DeRitter, which went on to be selected for the 2011 Last Frontier Theatre Conference Play Lab.
After working and training with Alaska Theatre of Youth, one of Alaska’s longest-running children’s theatre companies, she relocated to Seattle, got a job driving a food truck, and dove into the world of theatre. Her dramaturgical work has been seen in productions with Book-It Repertory and Taproot Theatre. Her playwriting has been produced by the Intiman Emerging Artists Program (2015), Infinity Box, the 14/48 Project, and the Panel Jumper, among others; her debut musical The Devil and Sarah Blackwater, created with lyricist/composer Lauren Freman and produced by Annex Theatre, received the People’s Choice Award for Outstanding New Play at the 2019 Gregory Awards. She also created and hosts Bard In A Bar, a unique and wildly popular “karaoke-style” version of drunk Shakespeare.
In 2020 Anthea entered the video game industry with Harebrained Schemes, where she wrote and implemented dialogue, lore, and game text for The Lamplighter’s League and the Tower at the End of the World. In 2023 she joined the Endless Adventures team under the direction of Jordan Weisman.
“Anthea is not just a writer; she is a true narrative designer, in every sense of the term.”
Jill Scharr
Narrative Lead, The Lamplighters League
“[The Devil and Sarah Blackwater is] sweet and funny and tender and queer in a way that is incredibly refreshing to see on stage.”
Seanan McGuire
New York Times bestselling author of October Daye, InCryptid, Wayward Children, and more
wanna make something together?
I’m deeply invested in a feminist, queer, humanist dramaturgy. I joke that any story or piece of media I like, I’d enjoy more if it had a female protagonist, or more lesbians, or both. I strive to tell stories that value outsiders—folks from the queer community, women and femmes, disabled people, the disenfranchised. That part of my craft, of my life, is an eternal and exciting work in progress.
I’m drawn to collaboration, with living artists and with dead authors. A lot of my work focuses on adaptation and remixing—collaborating with artists, texts, and tropes from the past—and I thrive when working with others to shape an interesting idea into a good script and a great play, or game, or poem.
Unsurprisingly, I main Bards.
Anthea Carns 