​Jamal Wade is a director, choreographer, and performer in Los Angeles. Raised in Baton Rouge, his artistic journey was sparked early (or late for some), when he entered the performing arts program at McKinley Middle Magnet School, taking up art, piano, and dance. His training formally began in high school as a dancer training on scholarship with the Baton Rouge Ballet Theatre. During that time, he also trained and performed with Debbie Allen in several stage productions.His dance studies were further supplemented through summer intensives at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and Garth Fagan Dance project. Jamal earned his BFA in Dance Theatre at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Through his coursework, he realized that dance was only the catalyst for his creative thirst, picking up an interest in screenwriting, choreography, and directing. Upon graduating, Jamal joined Iris Company, an immersive dance theatre company exploring the challenges and triumphs of the human experience through thought provoking experimental dance performance that immersed audiences in vibrant, mind bending worlds. Jamal has also performed and made creative contributions to projects with the LA Opera and String Theory. While still developing his choreographic voice, he simultaneously began shadowing and working for directors like Child and Nick Wong. That led to choreographing for artists such as Krewella, Ambre, and Ari Lennox. Soon after, Jamal ventured into directing, his first music video featuring RuPaul’s Alaska Thunderfuck. His directorial work includes music videos for Lady London, Tinashe, and Willie Jones, whose "American Dream" video was nominated for Video of the Year at the CMT Country Music Awards. In 2021, he was the only American finalist in Papaya's Young Directors competition. Jamal strives to continue creating work that empowers minorities and the underrepresented voices of the world. He aims to tell stories across various mediums that expand our capacity for understanding one another and the world around us. Outside of his professional work, Jamal dedicates his time to uplifting and educating young people as a faculty member at AMDA LA in the Digital Content Creation Department and serves as Creative Associate and Program Coordinator at The Swan Within, a non profit organization serving incarcerated and foster care youth through ballet.