(she/her) is a Bangladeshi-American mixed race singer, songwriter, and storyteller who believes in the power of art changing culture, and culture changing policy. A graduate of Ethnomusicology from UCLA, Afsar recently released her album, We Won’t Sleep, distributed by Sony Masterworks. She is the composer of Broadway-bound Jeannette, as named by Playbill. She is currently commissioned as an Artivist Fellow for the Tony-award winning Broadway Advocacy Coalition collaborating on a song cycle to support the Justice Beyond Punishment Coalition. Her musical work has been commissioned by and featured at the La Jolla Playhouse (Allegory & Teacher Of The Year), NMTC @ O’Neill (Jeannette), Warren Miller Performing Arts Center (Keep Your Head Down), McCarter Theatre (I & You), University of Tennessee Knoxville (Teacher Of The Year), University of Missoula (Jeannette), Berkeley Rep Ground Floor (That Girl), Loyola Marymount University (Jeannette), Cooper Union (Letters To The President), Signature Theatre (Jeannette) and Texas State University (Jeannette). Afsar has opened for Michelle Obama, Kamala Harris, Raphael Warnock, Gloria Steinhem, Jane Fonda, Misty Copeland, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Kwan, Ani DiFranco and Cory Booker. Her credits include starring in the top 10 Netflix original movie Wedding Season, co-composing a song with Pasek & Paul for Shawn Mendez in Sony’s Lyle Lyle Crocodile, originating Eliza in Chicago's Hamilton, starring in the world premiere of Bhangra Nation at La Jolla Playhouse, winning Miss California 2010, placing top 10 at Miss America 2011, winning the Lyricist Award at The O'Neill NMTC 2018, winning the American Association University of Women development grant, and placing top 36 on American Idol. She is the co-founder of Until We Do It which provided 1 Million masks to communities disproportionately affected by Covid-19 in 2021 and she is currently an MPA candidate at NYU Wagner.
