SHARIBA RIVERS is the proud recipient of the 2024 3Arts Stan Lipkin & Evelyn Appell Lipkin Award
Shariba is a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, native but has called Chicago home for 20 years. Shariba moved to Chicago to work at Betty Shabazz Academy so that she could return to teaching after having caught the bug for teaching at her mother’s school, Sankofa Shule. She’d spent the previous few years in administration at Fort Valley State University and Medgar Evers College. After almost 15 years in education, another bug bit Shariba: The Acting Bug.
After landing her first reviewed production with Mary-Arrchie Theatre Company, she snagged her first agent and never looked back. Over the next several years, she appeared on stages (where she says she feels most comfortable) almost year-round and has continued to find immeasurable joy in the entire process of bringing a play to life.
For a long time, Shariba felt like she was playing “catch up” with her acting career since she started much later than most, but the past few years have been incredible reminders that her hard work is paying off. She was featured in “The People Issue” of The Chicago Reader in 2023, named by NewCity Stage as one of the top 50 people who performed for Chicago in 2023, featured in MPAACT’s Listen Magazine in 2024, and listed again in NewCity Stage's Players 50: 2025.
Shariba has been seen on TV and film. She is an award-winning voice actor for her role as Lilian Harper in the BBC award-winning audio drama, Unwell: A Midwestern Gothic Mystery, and every now and again, she dabbles in writing. She looks forward to new opportunities to create and play and discover and continue this lifelong journey of self-actualization.
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Selections from The Chi, Chicago Med, Smoking Gun, Fitting Descriptions, and Chicago Fire
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