Kenny Leon

Kenny Leon is an American director, producer, actor, and author, notable for his work on Broadway, on television, and in regional theater. In 2014, he won the Tony Award for Best Director of a Play for A Raisin in the Sun.[2]

Kenny Leon
Born	February 10, 1956[1] Tallahassee, Florida, U.S.
Alma mater	Clark Atlanta University
Occupation	Director, producer, actor

Career

He gained prominence in 1990, when he became one of the few African Americans to head a notable nonprofit theater company as the artistic director of Atlanta's Alliance Theatre Company.[3] During Leon's tenure, the company staged premieres of Pearl Cleage's Blues for an Alabama Sky, Alfred Uhry's The Last Night of Ballyhoo, and Elton John and Tim Rice's musical Aida, which went on to Broadway. The Alliance's endowment also rose from $1 to $5 million during his time there.

Leon resigned from the Alliance in 2000 to take on other projects. These included being the co-founder and artistic director of True Colors Theatre Company,[4] a group based in both Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He also took his talents to Broadway. In the spring of 2004, he directed a revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, starring Sean Combs, Phylicia Rashad and Audra McDonald in his Broadway debut. At the end of that year, he directed the Broadway premiere of August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean. In 2005, he directed Margaret Garner, an opera by Richard Danielpour with a libretto by Toni Morrison. In spring 2007, he directed August Wilson's Radio Golf. All three plays were nominated for Tony Awards, and Leon was a Drama Desk Award nominee for A Raisin in the Sun. He also directed the television version of A Raisin in the Sun, which aired on ABC in February 2008. He was nominated for a Tony Award in 2010 for Best Director for his work on August Wilson's Fences, starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, earning them both nominations and wins for Best Performance for Male and Female in a Play.

In November 2010, Leon directed Phylicia Rashad in the world premiere stage play Every Tongue Confess written by Marcus Gardley, which ran at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.

Leon has also directed plays at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and other venues.

In January 2012, he completed a Lifetime Original Television remake of Steel Magnolias.[1] Other projects at that time included the world premiere of a staged adaptation of the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner at the Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre Company; and a musical inspired by the work of rapper Tupac Shakur.[5]

In 2014, he directed the Broadway revival of A Raisin in the Sun starring Denzel Washington and LaTanya Richardson Jackson and the Broadway premiere of the musical Holler If Ya Hear Me, featuring the discography of Tupac Shakur. A Raisin in the Sun earned Leon a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play.[6] That same year Leon directed NPR Presents Water±, written by award-winning NPR Science Correspondent Christopher Joyce, and award-winning theater writers Arthur Yorinks and Carl Hancock Rux, with an original sound score by violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR). The show toured nationally, co-hosted by NPR's Michele Norris and WWNO's Eve Troeh and featuring Tony Award-winner Anika Noni Rose (Caroline, or Change); Tony Award-nominee Michele Shay (August Wilson's Seven Guitars); Jason Dirden (Tony Award-winning production A Raisin in the Sun); and Lucas Caleb Rooney (Boardwalk Empire).[7]

In 2015, Leon directed the live musical The Wiz for NBC. Cirque du Soleil partnered on the production with plans to bring the show to Broadway. He was slated to direct both the television production and the planned Broadway revival.[8] In 2016, Leon once again partnered with NBC for Hairspray: Live!, starring Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Kristin Chenoweth, and Harvey Fierstein.[9]

In addition to his directing experience, he has extensive acting experience on stage and in television and film. He made an appearance in the Hollywood Black Film Festival winner Big Ain't Bad, playing the role of Thomas Jordan, the mayor of Atlanta.

His memoir, Take You Wherever You Go, was released in June, 2018, by Grand Central Publishing. The title derives advice he received from his grandmother, Mamie Wilson.

Leon directed the 2019 Netflix film American Son, based on the play of the same name which he had directed on stage.

Most recently, he directed the Broadway premiere of Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece, A Soldier's Play, starring Blair Underwood and David Alan Grier at Roundabout Theatre Company. He also directed The Underlying Chris at Second Stage Theatre Company and this past summer’s acclaimed production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Delacorte/Shakespeare in the Park.

Education

Leon participated in the federally funded TRIO Upward Bound college-prep program while in high school. He is a graduate of Clark Atlanta University.

Honors

In 2004, People named him one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" of the year.

In 2007, he was a recipient of the 2007 Georgia Arts and Entertainment Legacy Award for his contributions to Georgia's cultural legacy.[10]

In 2010, Leon won the Drama League's award for Excellence in Directing for the play Fences.

In 2014 he won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play for A Raisin in the Sun.[11]

Leon was awarded the 2016-2017 "Mr. Abbott" Award for outstanding artistry and creativity, which is presented by the Stage Directors and Choreographers (SDC) Foundation, in recognition for his over 40-year career.

In October 2017, Leon was the recipient the Governor's Award for the Arts and Humanities for the State of Georgia.[12]

He held the Denzel Washington Endowed Chair in Theatre at Fordham University, previously held by Joe Morton and Phylicia Rashad[13]

Works

Television

As a director

Year	Title	Notes
2002	Nowhere Road
2008	A Raisin in the Sun	Television movie
2009	Ghost Whisperer	Episode: "Excessive Forces"
2010–11	Private Practice	2 episodes
2012	Steel Magnolias	Television movie
2013	The Watsons Go to Birmingham	Television movie
2014	In My Dreams	Television movie
2015	The Wiz Live!	Television special
2016	Hairspray Live!	Television special
2018–19	Dynasty	4 episodes
2019	Ambitions	2 episodes
2019	American Son	Television movie

As an actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1988	Case Closed	Man in Alley	Television movie
1990	Web of Deceit	Dr. Poole	Television movie
1990–91	In the Heat of the Night	Thomas/Daryl	2 episode
1992	The Nightman	Johnson	Television movie
1992	In the Line of Duty: Street War	Raheem	Television movie
1993	I'll Fly Away: Then and Now	Arthur	Television movie
2002	The Rosa Parks Story	Minister #2	Television movie
2002	Big Ain't Bad	Mayor Jordan
2002	Kasha and the Zulu King	Kasha	Television movie

Stage

As a director

Year	Title	Venue	Ref.
2004	A Raisin in the Sun	Royale Theatre, Broadway
2004	Gem of the Ocean	Walter Kerr Theatre, Broadway
2005	Margaret Garner	Michigan Opera Theatre, Detroit
2005	Tambourines to Glory	Lincoln Center, Washington D.C.
2007	Radio Golf	Cort Theatre, Broadway
2010	Fences	Cort Theatre, Broadway
2011	The Mountaintop	Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, Broadway
2011	Stick Fly	Cort Theatre, Broadway
2014	A Raisin in the Sun	Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway
2014	Holler If Ya Hear Me	Palace Theatre, Broadway
2016	Smart People	Second Stage Theatre, Off-Broadway
2018	Children of a Lesser God	Studio 54, Broadway
2018	American Son	Booth Theatre, Broadway	[14]
2019	Much Ado About Nothing	Delacorte Theatre, Off-Broadway
2019	The Underlying Chris	Second Stage Theatre, Off-Broadway
2019–20	A Soldier's Play	American Airlines Theatre, Broadway

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Project	Result	Ref.
2004	Drama Desk Award	Outstanding Director of a Play	A Raisin in the Sun	Nominated	[15]
2005	Helen Hayes Award	Outstanding Director	Tambourines to Glory	Nominated
2009	Outer Critics Circle Award	Outstanding Direction of Play	Fences	Nominated
2010	Drama League Award	Excellence in Directing		Won
2010	Tony Awards	Best Direction of a Play		Nominated
2014			A Raisin in the Sun	Won
2017	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Special Class Program	Hairspray Live!	Nominated
2018	Drama League Award	Outstanding Direction of Play	Children of a Lesser God	Nominated
2020	Primetime Emmy Award	Outstanding Television Movie	American Son	Nominated
2020	Tony Awards	Best Direction of a Play	A Soldier's Play	Pending

References

1. Brock, Wendell (January 2012). "Leon Takes the Lead". Jezebel Magazine. p. 48. 'It doesn't get better than that...' says the Tallahassee, Fla., native who turns 56 in February.
2. Search Past Winners. History. Tony Awards. t IBM Corp., Tony Award Productions 2000, 2015. Retrieved November 29, 2015
3. "Honorary Planetary Citizen of the Month". gccalliance.org. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
4. "Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre". Kenny Leon's True Colors Theatre. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
5. Simi Horwitz, "Interview - Director Kenny Leon Juggles 'Dinner,' 'Steel Magnolias,' and Tupac Musical", Backstage, April 11, 2012.
6. ""A RAISIN IN THE SUN's Kenny Leon Wins Tony for Best Direction of a Play", "Broadwayworld.com", June 8, 2014". broadwayworld.com. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
7. Leon, Kenny. "NPR Presents Water±". NPR.org. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
8. ""'The Wiz' Set as NBC's Next Live Musical", "Hollywood Reporter", March 30, 2015". hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
9. Firestone, Lonnie. "Hairspray Live Is Figuring Out How to Perfect the Live Musical". HWD. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
10. "Honoree Kenny Leon".
11. ""A RAISIN IN THE SUN's Kenny Leon Wins Tony for Best Direction of a Play", "Broadwayworld.com", June 8, 2014". broadwayworld.com. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
12. "Georgia Council for the Arts - Governor's Awards for the Arts and Humanities". gaarts.org. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
13. "Going Universal with Kenny Leon, New Denzel Washington Chair". Fordham Newsroom. 8 September 2014. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
14. Libbey, Peter (8 June 2018). "Kerry Washington Is Going From the Beltway to Broadway". Retrieved 15 January 2019 – via NYTimes.com.
15. "Kenny Leon". Playbill.com. Retrieved April 14, 2020.

External links

• Kenny Leon Productions
• Kenny Leon at IMDb
• Kenny Leon at the Internet Broadway Database