Tarell Alvin McCraney


Tarell Alvin McCraney is an American playwright. He is the chair of playwriting at the Yale School of Drama and a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble.
He co-wrote the 2016 film Moonlight, based on his own play, for which he received an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He also wrote the screenplay for the 2019 film High Flying Bird and 2019 television series David Makes Man.
In 2023 McCraney was appointed artistic director of the non-profit Geffen Playhouse, in the Westwood neighborhood in Los Angeles, beginning with the 2024-25 season.
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Early life and education

McCraney was born in Liberty City, Florida. He attended the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida. While attending NWSA, he also applied to and was awarded an honorable mention by the National YoungArts Foundation. As a teenager, he was a member of an improv troupe directed by Teo Castellanos.
He matriculated into The Theatre School at DePaul University and received his BFA in acting. In May 2007 he graduated from Yale School of Drama's playwriting program, receiving the Cole Porter Playwriting Award upon graduation. He also is an Honorary Warwick University Graduate.

Career

As an actor, he has worked with directors such as Tina Landau of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Chicago, Illinois, David Cromer, and B. J. Jones, artistic director of the Northlight Theatre, and developed a working relationship with Peter Brook and Marie-Hélène Estienne of the Bouffes du Nord, Paris. He is a member of the D Projects Theater Company in Miami.
From 2008 to 2010, he was the RSC/Warwick International Playwright in Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company. In April 2010, McCraney became the 43rd member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Ensemble. In July 2017, he became the chair of playwriting at the Yale School of Drama.

Theatre

Television

  • McCraney writes and is an executive producer for the original scripted TV series, David Makes Man, for Oprah Winfrey's OWN Network. As of April 2022, the show is awaiting renewal for its third season.

Film

Moonlight, co-written by McCraney and director Barry Jenkins, was based on McCraney's earlier semi-autobiographical play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, which he shelved. The film follows Chiron, a young Black man who grapples with his identity and sexuality while experiencing the everyday struggles of childhood, adolescence, and burgeoning adulthood in Miami. The film was critically acclaimed, and McCraney and Jenkins won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Personal life

McCraney is gay.

Works

Plays

Ms. Blakk for President Head of Passes Choir Boy American Trade, an adaptation of a Restoration comedy for young people
  • ''Wig Out!''

''The Brother/Sister Plays'' trilogy

The Brothers Size In The Red and Brown Water
  • ''Marcus, or the Secret of Sweet''

Other plays

Without/SinRun, Mourner, Run, both of which premiered at Yale Cabaret. He directed Hamlet for the RSC's Young Shakespeare program for GableStage in Miami.
In the summer of 2006, McCraney, Catherine Filloux and Joe Sutton wrote The Breach, a play on Katrina, the Gulf, and American society, commissioned by Southern Rep in New Orleans, where it premiered in August 2007 to mark the second anniversary of the tragedy in New Orleans. The Breach also played at Seattle Rep in the winter of 2007.

Other projects

High Flying Bird, a script based on the 2011 NBA lockout starring André Holland, who starred in Moonlight, directed by Steven Soderbergh. It premiered on Netflix on February 8, 2019.In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, an autobiographical drama school project that is the inspiration for the 2016 film Moonlight.

Forthcoming projects

On September 25, 2017, Walt Disney Studios acquired McCraney's screenplay "Cyrano the Moor," a musical adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac and Othello, with David Oyelowo attached to star in and produce the film.

Awards and honors