
BRANDY HOANG COLLIER

HOW DO I
SAY YOUR NAME?
I have, in the past, answered to “Brenda Hawang Kallyer," so don't beat yourself up if you thought that was my name. But, personally, I rhyme "Hoang" with “song” and "Collier" with “holy day." No hyphen. You can also call me “HoCo” in a pinch, which is like a cute thing I’m trying to start.
BIO
Brandy Hoang Collier is a storyteller, and the whole thing of bios being a list of all the work you've done just feels super boring to her. Feel free to visit the work page if that's what you're into.
Collier is a queer, Asian-American writer and composer from San Antonio, TX. She earned her BA from Texas A&M where she double-majored in Music and English. She also minored in Anthropology, and it's important to her that you know that. She learned almost nothing about theatre in her studies, but somehow sweet-talked her way into being allowed to write and produce a short musical as her capstone project. The show was about a virus that kills literally everyone, they crammed an entire steel drum band onstage, and it sold out every night—which Collier honestly still finds hilarious.
While working at an online marketing agency in Austin, TX after college, Collier decided that it would be a good idea to leave her steady job and move to New York to write musicals. She attended the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU Tisch where she discovered she's actually an amazing writer, and she should do it forever. Collier feels completely comfortable making that claim about herself because she lived her whole life never being amazing at anything, and it's really easy to tell the difference.
In those two years at NYU, Collier honed her craft, collaborated on two full-length musicals, earned her MFA, and— perhaps most importantly— met her friend and business partner Jessie Field. After graduating into the apocalyptic hellscape of 2020, Collier and Field founded Root Beer Occasion Theatre Company. With help from their team and community, they're currently producing safe, in-person theatre, and broadcasting it online to bring hope and entertainment to humans everywhere.