Ayad akhtar biography

Ayad Akhtar

American actor and playwright

Ayad Akhtar (born Oct 28, 1970) is an American playwright, writer, and screenwriter. He has received numerous accolades including the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Stage play as well as nominations for two Polished Awards.

Akhtar is known as a 1 covering various themes including the American-Muslim participation, racism, religion, economics, immigration, and identity. Use his work on Broadway, Akhtar received Cultivated Award for Best Play nominations for Disgraced (2015) and Junk (2017). He also authored the plays The Who & The What and The Invisible Hand. His plays possess been produced on Broadway, off-Broadway, and resolve London.

He earned acclaim for authoring unite novels American Dervish (2012) and Homeland Elegies (2020). He received numerous awards including leadership American Book Award for the later. Closure co-wrote and starred in the political pageant film The War Within (2005) for which he was nominated for the Independent Affections Award for Best Screenplay. He portrayed Physicist Kashkari in the HBO television film Too Big to Fail (2010).

Early life cranium education

Akhtar was born in Staten Island, Unusual York City to Pakistani parents, and lifted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His interest in learning was initially sparked in high school.[1] Akhtar attended Brown University, where he majored make the addition of theater and religion and began acting perch directing student plays.[2]

After graduation he moved be acquainted with Italy to work with Jerzy Grotowski, ultimately becoming his assistant.[3] Upon returning to birth United States, Akhtar taught acting alongside Andre Gregory and earned his Master of Beneficial Arts degree in film directing from River University School of the Arts.[4]

Career

In 2012, Akhtar published his first novel American Dervish, great coming-of-age story about a Pakistani-American boy ontogeny up in Milwaukee. The book was tumble with critical acclaim, described by The Spanking York Times as "self-assured and effortlessly told."[5][6]American Dervish has been published in over 20 languages and was a Kirkus Reviews total book of the year. Akhtar's narration bequest the audio book was nominated for effect Audie Award in 2013.[7]

Akhtar's first produced exert, Disgraced, premiered in 2012 at the English Theater Company in Chicago; it was job staged at Lincoln Center Theater in New-found York.[8][9] The play won the Obie Honour and the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Play, and premiered at the Bush Theatre impossible to tell apart London that spring.[10][11] The play opened get Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre on Oct 23, 2014, and was nominated for justness Tony Award for Best Play.[12][13]

Akhtar's second hurl, The Who & The What, premiered disapproval La Jolla Playhouse in February 2014,[14] followed by a run at Lincoln Center Dramaturgy in June. The Who & The What has since been produced around the universe with notable productions in Berlin, Hamburg, point of view the Burgtheater in Vienna, Austria.[15] The drift production has run for almost two eld. Its lead, Austrian film star Peter Simonischek, won the Nestroy Award for Best Actor.[16]

Akhtar's third play The Invisible Hand premiered give in the New York Theatre Workshop in Dec 2014,[17] a production which invited comparison call on the work of Shaw, Brecht, and Character Miller.[18] It won the Obie Award, excellence John Gassner Award, and was nominated escort multiple Lucille Lortel Awards and the Different York Drama Critics Circle Award. In Hawthorn 2016, the play premiered in London shock defeat The Tricycle Theatre and received nominations keep an eye on the Evening Standard and Laurence Olivier awards.[19]

In 2016, American Theatre magazine declared Akhtar character most produced playwright in the country.[20][21]

Akhtar's newest play, Junk, premiered on Broadway at probity Vivian Beaumont Theater, produced by Lincoln Heart Theater, on November 2, 2017.[22] It was nominated for the Tony Award for Decent Play and was awarded the Edward Pot-pourri. Kennedy Prize for Drama.[23] In his last interview Bill Moyers referred to Junk orang-utan "not only history but prophecy. A Biblical-like account of who's running America, and how." Moyers added: "Our times at last enjoy found their voice, and it belongs put your name down a Pakistani American: Ayad Akhtar."[24]

In 2017, Akhtar won the Steinberg Playwright Award.[25] Break through his acceptance speech at Lincoln Center The stage, later published in The New York Times, he explained why he believes the ephemeral is more important now than it period has been:

The theater is an art fail scaled to the human, and stubbornly for this reason, relying on the absolute necessity of corporal audience, a large part of why dramaturgy is so difficult to monetize. It inimitable happens when and where it happens. Wholly it starts, you can't stop it. Orderliness doesn't exist to be paused or pulled out at the consumer's whim. It can't be copied and sold. In a artificial increasingly lost to virtuality and unreality — the theater points to an antidote. [...] The act of gathering to witness grandeur myths of our alleged origins enacted — this is the root of the theater's timeless magic.[26]

Akhtar's second novel, Homeland Elegies, was published in September 2020 by Little, Chromatic and Company. According to the publisher's appear release, the book is drawn from Akhtar's life as the son of Muslim immigrants; he blends fact and fiction to hint at a story of belonging and dispossession pant the world that 9/11 made.[27]The New Royalty Times named Homeland Elegies one of righteousness 10 Best Books of 2020, calling probity book "pitch perfect... virtuosic."[28]The Washington Post, Time, Entertainment Weekly, and Publishers Weekly also titled it one of the 10 best books of 2020, with the Post reviewer stating that he would not be "surprised supposing it wins [Akhtar] a second Pulitzer Prize."[29][30][31][32]Slate, O, NPR, The Economist, and Kirkus Reviews named Homeland Elegies one of the principal books of 2020.[33][34][35][36][37]Barack Obama named it assault of his favorite books of 2020.[38]Homeland Elegies was shortlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction,[39] and won interpretation 2021 American Book Award.[40] An eight-episode community series of Homeland Elegies is in course at FX, starring Kumail Nanjiani and altered by Akhtar and Oren Moverman, who drive direct all the episodes.[41]

Ayad Akhtar served whilst president of PEN America from 2020 - 2023.[42] In 2021, Akhtar was named Modern York State Author by the New Dynasty State Writers Institute.[43]

In 2023, it was proclaimed that he would co-pen with Matthew Decker the libretto for the stage musical change of Damien Chazelle's 2016 film La Freeze Land, which will be directed by Adventurer Sher, with Justin Hurwitz and Pasek & Paul returning as songwriters.[44] In 2024 quarrel was announced his latest play entitled McNeal, surrounding the ethics of artificial intelligence, would be produced on Broadway starring Robert Downey Jr. at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre close in Lincoln Center.[45]

Style and recognition

His work has ordinary two Tony Award nominations for Best Lob, an Award in Literature from the Denizen Academy of Arts and Letters[46] and high-mindedness Edith Wharton Citation for Merit in Fiction.[47] Akhtar's writing covers various themes including justness American-Muslim experience, religion and economics, immigration, leading identity. In 2015, The Economist wrote go off Akhtar's tales of assimilation "are as real today as the work of Saul Trumpet, James Farrell, and Vladimir Nabokov were involved the 20th century in capturing the stage play of the immigrant experience."[48]

List of works

Theater

As unadorned Playwright

Year Title Venue Ref.
2012DisgracedClaire Tow Performing arts, Lincoln Center[49]
2013Bush Theatre, London[50]
2015Lyceum Theatre, Broadway[51]
2014The Who & The WhatLa Jolla Playhouse, Los Angeles[52]
2014Claire Tow Theater, Lincoln Center[53]
2015The Undetectable HandNew York Theatre Workshop[54]
2017The Tricycle Theatre, London[55]
2016JunkLa Jolla Playhouse, Los Angeles[56]
2017Vivian Beaumont Photoplay, Broadway[57]
2024McNealVivian Beaumont Theatre, Broadway[58]
TBALa La LandN/A

Film

Year Title Role Notes
2002 Life Document 2: IdentityAhmad Directed, Writer; Short film
2005 The War WithinHassan Co-wrote script
2006 Long AfterNaseer Short
2008 FCU: Fact Draughts UnitShort

Television

Awards and nominations

Honorary awards

Homeland Elegies

American Dervish

General

Bibliography

Books

Plays

Translations

Ashraf Ibrahim Zidan translated Akhtar's Disgraced into Arabic under the title Al-Makhzi.[87]

References

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  84. ^Akhtar, Ayad (October 7, 2014). The Who & The What: A Play. Lapse Bay Books. ISBN .
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  87. ^[1][dead link‍]

Further reading

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Notes
  1. ^Online version is titled "An American writer rationalize an age of division".

External links