LOS ANGELES: Echo Theater Company has named company member Ahmed Best associate artistic director. Best has been with the company for over 10 years as an actor, director, and fight choreographer.

In his new position, Best will be involved in the decision-making process around season production selections, the hiring of artists (including playwrights, actors, guest directors, designers, and composers), and all areas of operation (including initiatives, marketing, development, and community events). He will continue in his role as director of the Directors LAB, which he helped found, while adding responsibilities overseeing and managing the literary department and the Echo Playwrights LAB. Best will also chair artistic staff meetings and direct at least one production per season.

Best is an adjunct lecturer at the USC School Of Dramatic Arts and a senior fellow at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. As an actor, he starred in the Broadway musical Stomp, then went on to be the first CGI lead character in a motion picture, starring as Jar Jar Binks in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. He currently hosts both STAR WARS Jedi Temple Challenge and the Afrofuturist podcast. Best is CEO of BISN Media, and is executive producer of Dinner at LOLA (Stop That Bangin Productions/BISN Media) and The DL Chronicles (recipient of the GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Television Movie or Mini-Series). He is the creator, writer and director of two web series: This Can’t Be My Life, and the sci-fi comedy The Nebula. Best is also known as a martial artist and fight choreographer, for which he is the recipient of multiple Ovation, Stage Raw, TicketHolder LA and Scenie awards, including for Echo productions of Backyard and Blueberry Toast.

Founded in 1997, Echo Theater Company is dedicated to creating new work for the theatre.