Zakiyyah Alexander is the author of: 10 Things to do before I die (Second Stage Uptown), Sick? (Summer Play Festival), The Etymology of Bird (Hip Hop Theater Festival, Providence Black Repertory Theatre), Blurring Shine (Market Theater, Johannesburg), Sweet Maladies (Rucker Theatre), something new, You Are Here, and The Focus. Her work has been seen and/or developed at: Ventura Theater, Chalk Rep, WET, A Contemporary Theater (ACT), Classical Theater of Harlem, The New Blackfest, Bristol Riverside Theater, Philadelphia Theater Company, The Humana Festival, Penumbra Theater, The Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Rattlestick Theater, Hartford Stage, 24/7 Theater Company, the Hip Hop Theater Festival, Vineyard Theater, the Women’s Project, GAle GAtes et al, La Mama Theatre, Greenwich Street Theater, etc. Awards include: Helen Merrill Emerging Playwriting Award, ACT New Play Award/Lorainne Hansberry Prize, Stellar Network Award, Theodore Ward Prize, Jackson Phelan Award, Drama League New Directors/New Works, New Professional Theatre Playwriting Award, Young Playwrights Inc., etc. Her work is included in the current edition of “New Monologues for Women by Women”, featured in the book of essays “Girls who like Boys who like Boys”, and “Game on: The Humana Festival ’08 Anthology”. A former resident member of New Dramatists; past residencies and fellowships include: CTG (Center Theater Group) Playwrights Lab, EST’s Youngblood, the Women’s Project Writer’s Lab, the Women’s Work Project, and the Drama League. She has received commissions from: Second Stage, The Philadelphia Theater Company, and the Children’s Theater of Minneapolis. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama (MFA in playwriting); for four years she was a Visiting Assistant Professor at Bard College, where she taught undergraduate playwriting, but most recently was a writer on the television show “Grey’s Anatomy”. She is currently working on a musical with Imani Uzuri (featuring the poetry of Sonia Sanchez), that will next be seen at Joe’s Pub. Zakiyyah is a native New Yorker and was raised in Queens and Brooklyn.
Zakiyyah Alexander