Berkley Center

Anna Deavere Smith is an actress and playwright who is said to have created a new form of theater. She has won numerous awards, among them two Tony nominations, a MacArthur fellowship, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, and others. She was runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize for her play Fires in the Mirror. Her play Let Me Down Easy, toured the U.S. and was recently broadcast on PBS’s Great Performances. In popular culture you have seen her in Nurse Jackie, The West Wing, The American President, Philadelphia, others. Honorary degrees include those from Juilliard, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Northwestern, Haverford, and Radcliffe. She has served as Artist in Residence at several organizations as varied as MTV Networks and Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. She teaches at New York University and is the founding director of Anna Deavere Smith Works: A Place for Artistic Excellence and Social Change.