Brian Quijada is a Salvadoran-American actor, playwright, musician, and a solo performer, known for his multimedia theatrical works involving topics on immigration, humanity, identity, and American experience incorporated with Latinx childhood.
Background
Family
Quijada was born to immigrant parents, Eduardo and Reina Quijada. He is the youngest of four brothers. His parents moved to the United States from El Salvador in the 1970s with their two children at the time, Fernando and Roberto. Quijada and his brother Marvin were born after the family moved to the United States. His father worked as a truck-driver and his mother worked in housekeeping. According to Quijada, his parents originally did not support his desire to be an artist and viewed it "more as a hobby." However, he explains that since pursuing acting as a career, his parents have become more supportive and attentive of his work.
Quijada identifies himself as Salvadoran-American. In an interview with Stage & Candor, Quijada said that he thinks his parents named him and his brother Brian and Marvin to give them "easier lives in the States." Quijada's brother, Marvin, is also an actor. The two brothers worked together on Quijada's play Kid Prince and Pablo.
Childhood and education
Quijada's family settled in a trailer park in Glenview, IL, which is where he lived as a young kid. The family later moved to a house in Highwood, IL, which Quijada explained as "a 'burb that's surrounded by a very affluent - I would say 70% Jewish town (Highland Park, IL)." Quijada attended middle school and high school in Highland Park, which he says was "a weird culture shock" coming from a less affluent family and background. He describes his upbringing as "moving around and new cultures, and a cultural explosion for me throughout my life." Quijada attended The University of Iowa as a Theatre and English major. He spent a year in Chicago after graduation and then moved to New York City, where he currently resides, to pursue a career as an actor, playwright, musician, and a solo performer.
Relationships
Quijada recently got married. He references his wife, who is Austrian and Swiss, in Where Did We Sit On The Bus.
Career
Acting
Quijada performs in different fields, ranging from theatrical works, television, and voice over. He has stated a preference for acting in theatrical new work, which he discovered during his time at the University of Iowa while working on a new play development for Iowa's New Play Festival. After graduating from the University of Iowa, he took part in variety of theatre festivals all over the United States, such as The National Playwright's Conference, The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, The Kennedy Center's MFA Playwright's Festival, The Denver New Play Summit, The Lark, Seven Devil's Playwright's Conference, and La Jolla Playhouse, to promote his interest in new play development. Quijada has originated roles, and he has acted in Regional World Premieres as well as Off-Broadway work. He also has done voice over work for the advertising campaigns of companies like Jeep and McDonalds. He is a member of the Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City.
Music
There is heavy use of hip-hop and looping in most of Quijada's works. Looping is a musical process that involves layering multiple sounds at once to create one finished composition. Quijada uses digital looping with the technology of iPhones and iPads, fusing this technique with multi-instrumentalism in his play Where Did We Sit On The Bus? Quijada has stated that he enjoys the hip-hop genre of music and incorporates it into his own work. He has named artists like Reggie Watts, John Leguizamo, Lin-Manuel Miranda, old silent comedians, and Cantinflas as some of his biggest influences.
Quijada's debut album featuring the live-looped soundtrack of Where Did We Sit On The Bus? was released on March 10, 2016. Seattle Repertory Theater recently hired him to write a new live-looped musical with playwright Hansol Jung. He is also the looper for his hip-hop duo, The Fantastic Boom, with Idris Goodwin.