Aku Kadogo

Aku Kadogo is a choreographer, director, actress, and educator. She was one of the original cast members of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf, and Snap Jordan in Lift Off. Born Karen Vest, Aku Kadogo grew up in Detroit, Michigan. She attended Cass Technical High School, specializing in their Performing Arts Department from 1969-1972. Unimpressed with her high school department, she enrolled in a program at the defunct Concept East Theatre during her last year of high school. It was there that she got her first acting role. Her first professional performance was of Sonia Sanchez’s “Sister Sonji”.