Zora Howard

Zora Howard is an American actress and writer. She is best known for co-writing and starring in the 2019 drama Premature. Her debut play, STEW, premiered off-Broadway in February 2020.[1][2]

Early life and education

Howard was born and raised in Harlem.[1][3] She began writing poetry at a young age, and performed with the spoken word group The Strivers Row.[4] At age 13 she was the youngest poet ever to win the Urban Word NYC Grand Slam finals.[5] She holds a Bachelors of Arts from Yale University and a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of California, San Diego.[6]

Career

Premature is Howard's first starring role and first time writing a feature film, co-written with director Rashaad Ernesto Green.[7] Howard previously met Green in New York's theater scene when she was 11. When she was 14, he cast her in his student film while a student at NYU Tisch, also called Premature.[8][3] She also worked with Green on his feature first film, Gun Hill Road.[7]

In 2017, Green contacted Howard to develop a feature film script for Premature.[8] The film follows Howard as Ayanna, a 17-year-old New Yorker who strikes up a summer romance with an artist in his twenties (Joshua Boone).[7] It premiered at Sundance 2019.[3] The film received positive critical reception. Writing for Elle, Candace Frederick called it "the kind of confident, remarkably vulnerable drama to which even veteran storytellers aspire."[7] Michael Cuby of Nylon described it as, "a coming-of-age love story that's as much about finding your first love as it is about using that first love to find yourself."[9]

Howard's first play, STEW, ran in February 2020 at Walkerspace in New York.[10][11] It centers on a family of three generations of women who must grapple with their personal choices.[2][7] In a mainly positive review for Vulture, Helen Shaw stated, "Howard moves from broad strokes to ontological bewilderment almost before you know it...Howard makes us hear hundreds of years of pain, knocking to be let in."[11]

On August 18, 2020 Howard was named a 2020-2021 Van Lier New Voices Fellow at The Lark in New York City.[12]

References
  1. "Indie romance 'Premature' challenges Hollywood by portraying black love, not black pain". Los Angeles Times. 2020-02-21. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  2. Vincentelli, Elisabeth (2020-02-01). "Review: 'Stew' Takes Deeper Emotions Off the Back Burner". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  3. Luers, Erik. ""No One Was Willing to Sign the Check": Rashaad Ernesto Green and Zora Howard on Premature, Shooting 16mm and Self-Financing". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  4. Booth, Laura. "Spoken Word on Bleecker Street". Columbia University Arts Initiative. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  5. "MOVIE OF THE WEEK February 28, 2020: PREMATURE – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS". Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  6. "Zora Howard – Co-Writer and Lead Actress of PREMATURE (Ep29)". Directing Magic - a podcast about women filmmakers. 2019-05-15. Retrieved 2020-05-30.
  7. Candice Frederick (2020-03-05). "'Premature' Is a Coming-of-Age Love Story That Puts Its Heroine First". ELLE. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  8. Cuby, Michael. "Dakota Johnson Thinks Shia LaBeouf Might Be The Greatest Actor Of Her Generation". Nylon. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  9. Cuby, Michael. "Zora Howard On Writing And Starring In 'Premature'". Nylon. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  10. Clement, Olivia (15 October 2019). "Page 73's Next Production Will be Zora Howard's Stew". Playbill. Retrieved 2020-05-27.
  11. Shaw, Helen (2020-02-02). "Zora Howard's Stew Remixes the Potboiler". Vulture. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  12. https://www.playbill.com/article/in-the-news-shoshana-bean-anika-noni-rose-laura-bell-bundy-more-celebrate-women-who-get-it-done-the-lark-names-2-new-fellows-more
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