Joriah Kwamé is an award-winning NYC-based composer, lyricist, playwright, and recording artist whose work spans musical theatre, film, television, and popular music. He is best known as the creator of “Little Miss Perfect,” the viral song that grew into his original full-length musical Little Miss Perfect, which received its world premiere at Olney Theatre Center in 2026.
Alongside Academy Award-winning songwriting duo Pasek and Paul, Joriah co-wrote “Top of the World” for the Sony Pictures feature film Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, performed by Shawn Mendes. He was selected for the DreamWorks Theatricals, Music Theatre International, and NBCUniversal Emerging Writers Program, through which he adapted DreamWorks Animation’s Trolls for the stage. The resulting musical, Trolls JR., features music and lyrics by Joriah and a book and additional lyrics by Krista Knight and is now available for licensing through Music Theatre International.
Joriah’s work has been commissioned and developed by institutions including Goodspeed Musicals and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. His relationship with Chicago Shakespeare has included composing for Twelfth Night and DREAM: A Community Reimagining of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Joriah was also invited by composer Andrew Lippa to contribute original work to the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus’ Songs of the Phoenix, alongside a roster of songwriters that included Stephen Schwartz, Stephen Sondheim, and Ingrid Michaelson.
His honors include the 2024 Jonathan Larson Grant, the ASCAP Foundation Cole Porter Award, the Harold Adamson Lyric Award, and the 2019 Write Out Loud Contest. He is a 2020 Johnny Mercer Songwriting Project alum and a 2022–23 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow for Musical Theatre. In conjunction with his Jonathan Larson Grant, he received the Saw Island Foundation Recording Grant, supporting the recording of his original concept album echo + narcissus. In 2023, Joriah was honored by New York Theatre Barn at its gala at the Museum of Broadway.
Across his work, Joriah brings together the storytelling traditions of musical theatre with a contemporary musical vocabulary shaped by pop, R&B, hip-hop, and other popular forms. From songs that have reached millions online to work developed and produced on professional stages, his writing centers bold theatrical storytelling, memorable melody, and characters navigating identity, expectation, and the messy process of becoming who they are.
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