The Imua! Theatre & Film Company was founded by Kaipo Schwab and Hope Innelli in 1994 to invest, mentor, and support multicultural actors, writers, directors, designers and their work.

Since its inception, Imua! has provided performance opportunities to over 400 artists, showcasing their talents through worksops, readings, full-scale theatrical productions and short films.

Imua! is a not-for-profit company, a member of the Alliance of Resident Theatres/NY, and the proud recipients of grants from The Nancy Quinn Fund for Emerging Theatres and from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Fund for Creative Communities.

The name of the company derives from the Hawaiian language and means "to move forward".