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writer. director. performer. CREATIVE educator.

photo: www.dphelanphotography.com

* Toni taught Media and Creative Technologies with a social justice and anti-oppression framework at the New School for Drama in New York and helped facilitate the school’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion workshops for both faculty and students. They currently work on media projects as ToneOnTop Productions, highlighting food, chefs, musicians, multi-media performance and short-form documentary and narrative film.

Tonilyn A. Sideco is a proud booty-shaking genderqueer love warrior. The fourth child of Filipino immigrants, Toni was born and raised in San Francisco’s Sunset District and is now a SF & Brooklyn-based writer, director and creative educator for both stage and film.

Toni holds a BA in Sociology with a minor in Women’s Studies from UCLA and a MFA in Theater & Film from Stony Brook University, Southampton. Toni has 15+ years experience in the non-profit sector and public school system as a counselor, case manager and creative healing program coordinator and educator working with queer youth and elders and young people of color in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and New York. 

Utilizing the arts, media and storytelling as a tool for activism and social change, Toni focuses on amplifying the voices and experiences of queer people of color through stage and narrative film. Her latest feature-length narrative script sheds light on the often hidden and forgotten Screaming Queens of the Compton’s Cafeteria Riots of 1966’s San Francisco. Toni is a former emcee of TransMarch SF and can often be found sharing their original songs on-stage. He has recently performed in staged readings of new works by transgender artists and recently had their Joe’s Pub NYC singing debut with the Civilians Theater Company and sings with Broadway Barkada, a professional Filipino performance group.