Branden Jacobs-Jenkins | |
|---|---|
 Jacobs-Jenkins in 2018 | |
| Born | (1984-12-29)December 29, 1984 (age 40) Washington, DC, U.S. |
| Occupation | Playwright |
| Education | Princeton University(BA) New York University(MA) Juilliard School(GrDip) |
| Notable awards | Fulbright Award MacArthur Fellow Obie Award Steinberg Playwright Award Tony Award Pulitzer Prize for Drama |
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (born 1984) is an Americanplaywright. His playPurpose won the 2025Pulitzer Prize for Drama, for which his worksGloria andEverybody were finalists in 2016 and 2018, respectively. His playAppropriate marked his Broadway debut as a playwright in 2023 and earned him his firstTony Award; he won a second in 2025 forPurpose. His additional plays includeAn Octoroon andThe Comeuppance. He was named aMacArthur Fellow in 2016.
Jacobs-Jenkins was born in Washington, DC, and raised in theTakoma neighborhood.[1] His father, Benjamin Jenkins, is a retired prison dentist.[1] He and his adopted siblings were raised by a single mother, Patricia Jacobs, who is aHarvard Law School alumna and business owner.[1]
As a child, he attended the Roots Activity Learning Center and fell in love with reading black authors, including playwrightAugust Wilson.[1] He spent his summers in Arkansas, where his maternal grandmother and schoolteacher, Helen Jacobs, who stimulated his creativity.[1] At age 13, he made it to the finals of theScripps National Spelling Bee, stumbling on the word "pinyin".[1]
He was accepted toSt. John's College High School in DC, and graduated in 2002.[2]
For college, he went toPrinceton, where he earned his bachelor's degree in anthropology in 2006. For graduate school, he attendedNew York University Tisch School of the Arts, and earned a master's degree in performance studies in 2007.
He has taught playwriting atHunter College,[1]New York University,[3] Princeton,[3] andYale University.[3][2] He graduated from the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwrights Program at TheJuilliard School.[4]
Jacobs-Jenkins worked at theNew Yorker where he edited and wrote reviews.[5]
In 2013 Jacobs-Jenkins became a member of theSignature Theatre Residency Five program. The program "guarantees three full productions of new work."[6]
Neighbors premieredOff-Broadway at thePublic Theater/Public LAB in February - March 2010,[7][8] and was presented at the Matrix Theatre Company, Los Angeles in August 2010, directed byNataki Garrett. The play was produced by the Mixed Blood Theater,Minneapolis, Minnesota in September to October 2011, also directed by Nataki Garrett.[9] It premiered in Boston in 2011 with Company One.
He received the 2014Obie Award for Best New American Play for his playsAppropriate andAn Octoroon.[2][10]
An Octoroon is an adaptation ofThe Octoroon byDion Boucicault. It first ran atPerformance Space New York from June 24 to July 3, 2010.[11] It ranOff-Off-Broadway at the Soho Rep in April 2014 to June 2014 and then at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center, Brooklyn, New York, from February 2015 to March 29, 2015.[12][13]Artists Repertory Theatre, Portland, Oregon, stagedAn Octoroon from September 3 to October 1, 2017.[14]
Appropriate was produced Off-Broadway by the Signature Theatre, at the Pershing Square Signature Center, from March 16, 2014 to April 13, 2014. The play was nominated for theOuter Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play, and also won 2014 Obie Awards for Direction (Liesl Tommy) and Performance (Johanna Day).[15][16]Michael Billington in his review of the 2019 production at theDonmar Warehouse (London), wrote: "...he appropriates the classic American family drama with results that are both gravely serious and mordantly funny...What is exhilarating about the play is that Jacobs-Jenkins pushes everything to the limits."[17] The play opened on Broadway at theHayes Theater in December 2023.[18] It won 3Tony Awards, includingBest Revival of a Play, from 8 nominations.[19][3]
War premiered at theYale Repertory Theatre,New Haven, in December 2014, as a commission from the Yale Rep. Directed byLileana Blain-Cruz, the cast featuredTonya Pinkins, Philippe Bowgen, Rachael Holmes, Greg Keller and Trezana Beverley.[20]War opened at theLincoln Center LCT3 series Off-Broadway on May 21, 2016 in previews, officially on June 6, directed byLileana Blain-Cruz, and ran through July 3.[21][22][23] He wroteWar while on a Fulbright Fellowship in Germany.[2][24]
Everybody was produced Off-Broadway by the Signature Theatre, and opened on January 31, 2017 in previews, officially on February 21. The play is "a modern riff on one of the oldest plays in the English language."Everybody is suggested by the 15th-century morality playEveryman.[25] Directed by Lila Neugebauer, the cast includes Jocelyn Bioh, Brooke Bloom, Michael Braun,Marylouise Burke, Louis Cancelmi, Lilyana Tiare Cornell,David Patrick Kelly, Lakisha Michelle May andChris Perfetti. The role of Everybody is chosen by lottery.[26][25][27] Jacobs-Jenkins explained the play: "The concept...is that every night there’ll be a different Everyman, chosen by lottery, so the cast will shift a lot. This may be an insane idea. We’re assuming all these lovely actors are going to memorize the entire script.”[28]Everybody was a finalist for the 2018Pulitzer Prize for Drama.[29]
His playGirls premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre from October 4, 2019 to October 26. The play was directed byLileana Blain-Cruz and choreographed byRaja Feather Kelly. The play is a contemporary version of Euripides’ Greek tragedyThe Bacchae, and contains dance music and live-streaming video.[30][31]
His work has been seen atThe Public Theater,Signature Theater, PS122,Soho Rep,Yale Repertory Theatre,Actors Theater of Louisville, The Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles, Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, theWilma Theater (Philadelphia), CompanyOne and SpeakEasy Stage in Boston, Theater Bielefeld in Bielefeld, Germany, theNational Theatre in London, and theHighTide Festival in the UK.[32]
Jacobs-Jenkins currently serves on the board ofSoho Rep in New York City.[33]
In 2019, he joined the faculty of theUniversity of Texas at Austin MFA playwriting program. At Texas, he worked withAnnie Baker, who served as co-artistic directors for the MFA playwriting program atHunter College of the City University of New York.[34]
In 2021, he joined theYale Faculty of Arts and Sciences as a professor in the practice of Theater and Performance Studies.[3]
In 2023, his playThe Comeuppance, a story about a group of thirtysomethings who reunite at a cursed high-school reunion, opened Off-Broadway.[1]
His playPurpose transferred to Broadway'sHelen Hayes Theater beginning in February of 2025 after a critically acclaimed run at Chicago'sSteppenwolf Theatre.[35]
Gloria was produced Off-Broadway at theVineyard Theatre from June 15, 2015 to July 18, 2015 and was directed by Evan Cabnet.[36] The play received a workshop at the Vineyard Theatre in January 2013.[37] The play concerns an "ambitious group of editorial assistants at a notorious Manhattan magazine."[38]Gloria was nominated for the 2016Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Play.[39]Gloria was a finalist for the 2016Pulitzer Prize for Drama.[40] The Pulitzer committee wrote: "A play of wit and irony that deftly transports the audience from satire to thriller and back again."[41]Gloria received two nominations for theOuter Critics Circle Award: Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play; and Outstanding Director of a Play.[42] The play was nominated for the 2016Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play.[43]
A production was staged at London'sHampstead Theatre in June and July 2017.[44]
A production was staged at San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater opening in February 2020 and closed early due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A livestream of the show was made available for a limited time.[45][46]
In 2010 he won aFulbright Award which funded him while studying and developing plays inGermany at theFreie Universität Berlin.[47] He then went on to receive the Helen Merrill Award in Playwrighting—Emerging Playwright category—in 2011 followed by the Paula Vogel Award from the Vineyard Theatre in the same year. The award is "presented annually to an emerging writer of exceptional promise." It provided him a 2011 residency at the Vineyard Theatre.[37][48][49]
In 2015, he won the Steinberg Playwrights Award. Paige Evans, the artistic director of LCT3 said that his "plays are fiercely intelligent, ambitious, and boldly theatrical.... They challenge, entertain, and unsettle audiences, making us laugh, gasp, and think deeply about race, class, personal ambition, and other complex issues.”[50]
He received theWindham–Campbell Literature Prize (Drama) atYale University in 2016; the prize includes a cash amount of $150,000.[51][52] He received the 2016PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award, Emerging American Playwright.[53][54] In 2016, he also received aCreative Capital award with collaborating artistCarmelita Tropicana.[55]
He was named aMacArthur Fellow, Class of 2016. The fellowship comes with a monetary award of $625,000, made in installments over five years.[56] The foundation noted, in part: "Many of Jacobs-Jenkins’s plays use a historical lens to satirize and comment on modern culture, particularly the ways in which race and class are negotiated in both private and public settings."[57]
In 2015 and 2018, Jacobs-Jenkins was a finalist for thePulitzer Prize for Drama for his playsGloria andEverybody.[58] In 2025, he received the prize forPurpose.[59]
In 2020, he was awardedUSA Artists andJohn Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships.[60]
In 2019, he married actor Cheo Bourne.[1] The couple have a daughter together.[1]
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Pulitzer Prize | Drama | Gloria | Nominated |
| 2017 | Critics’ Circle Theatre Award[62] | Most Promising Playwright | Gloria andAn Octoroon | Won |
| 2018 | Pulitzer Prize | Drama | Everybody | Nominated |
| 2024 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Appropriate | Won |
| 2025 | Best Play | Purpose | Won | |
| Pulitzer Prize | Drama | Won |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
