Antoinette Nwandu

Antoinette Nwandu was born and raised in Los Angeles. She studied at Harvard University, the University of Edinburgh, and the Tisch School of the Arts. She is a member of the Ars Nova Play Group, and was the 2015–2016 Naked Angels Issues Playlab Resident at The New School for Performing Arts.[1] Nwandu was also a 2013–2014 Dramatists Guild Fellow and a Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference Fellow. She frequently performs with the spoken-word ensemble Sister Scribes.[2]

Nwandu has worked with the Cherry Lane Mentor Project,[3] Page73,[4] Ars Nova,[5] The Flea,[6] Naked Angels, Fire This Time,[7] The Movement Theater Company,[8] WordBRIDGE, and Dreamscape Theatre.[9] She has received the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award[10] for Flat Sam in 2009 and the Negro Ensemble Company's Douglas Turner Ward Prize.[11] She has also been a Playwrights of New York Fellowship finalist, a Page73 Fellowship finalist, an NBT (National Black Theatre) I Am Soul Fellowship finalist, and a Princess Grace Award semi-finalist.[12]

In 2015, Nwandu's play Pass Over was a finalist for the Ruby Prize.[13] It was included on the 2016 Kilroys' List.[14] Pass Over premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in May 2017.[15] The play was recorded live at the Steppenwolf Theatre, adapted for film by co-director Danya Taymor and co-director and producer Spike Lee and premiered on Amazon Prime Video on April 20, 2018.[16][17][18] Its New York debut was at LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater in June 2018.[19]

Her play Breach: a manifesto on race in america through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate was staged at Victory Gardens Theater in 2018 by director Lisa Portes.[20]

• FLAT SAM (2013)
• Vanna White Must Die (2012)
• Black Boy & the War (2011)
• 4 Sustenance (2012)
• Pass Over (2017)
• BREACH: a manifesto on race in America through the eyes of a black girl recovering from self-hate (2018)