Son of Colombian immigrants, Chris Gabo was born and raised in Tampa, Florida in an era where genre was permeable, where hip hop and punk rock were nothing if not synonyms. Fast, loud, strange, defiant. Plus: all those weirdos were theatre kids. After singing in a long series of bands, the first time he rapped on stage as a solo artist was opening up for a death metal band on prom night and it only got weirder from there. He takes his name sake ‘Gabo’ from the nickname Colombians give the father of magical realism, Gabriel García Márquez, and his complex imagistic lyrics live up to the moniker. Between sound checks on tour as a kid was where he wrote his first plays in piss stained dance-floors across the American South. A recent graduate from The Yale School of Drama’s Playwriting MFA program under Tarell Alvin McCraney, his music has an art school bent that coalesces into a punk and Latin influenced rap sound with a definitive pop sensibility helmed musically by his older cousin The Brainius who started producing for Gabo at family reunions.

His play The Surgeon and her Daughters was workshopped at the 2015 Ojai Playwrights Conference; it was a semifinalist for the Sundance MENA Theatre Lab, a finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, and was part of the Cherry Lane Mentor Project in 2016 mentored by Rajiv Joseph.

His play Locusts was a finalist for Sundance MENA Theatre LAB and was workshopped at the 2019 Ojai Playwrights Conference. His play In The Palm of a Giant was a finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference.

He is currently under commission from Long Wharf Theatre and had a lead role as an actor in Jim McKay’s critically acclaimed film On The 7th Day.

As a television writer Chris has written six episodes for the recently aired reboot of In Treatment. He is also acting as the consultant producer for The Weeknd’s show The Idol. Chris’ involvement in music shares a seamless synergy with his background in film/TV. Past musical collaborations include Cakes Da Killa, Lazerbeak, DJ Trackstar of Run The Jewels, and Company Flow’s Bigg Jus, he has opened for Ana Tijoux and DJ Rob Swift and licensed music to Hulu’s Broad City and Champs-Elysees Film Festival’s Coldwater

He currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the poet Safia Elhillo.