Artist Bio

(Bio as of February 2025)

Dael Orlandersmith is an acclaimed playwright known for works such as Stoop Stories, Yellowman and Until the Flood. She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and Drama Desk Award nominee, and won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for The Gimmick. Her honors include a New York Foundation for the Arts grant, the Helen Merrill Award for Emerging Playwrights, Doris Duke grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Orlandersmith’s play Forever premiered at the Mark Taper Forum and was subsequently performed at venues including Long Wharf, New York Theatre Workshop and Portland Center Stage. Until the Flood debuted at St. Louis Repertory and has since been staged at numerous theaters, including the Arcola Theatre in London. She’s worked on commissions for Rattlestick Theatre and Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, including Watching the Watcher and Antonio’s Song/I Was Dreaming of a Son, and collaborated with David Cale and Robert Falls on You Don’t Know the Lonely One. In 2023, Orlandersmith performed Spiritus/Virgil’s Dance at CATF Theatre in West Virginia, followed by performances at Rattlestick Theatre and Merrimack Theatre in Lowell, Massachusetts in 2024. She also appeared in Pre-Existing Condition by Marin Ireland, directed by Maria Dizzia, at Connelly Theater in New York City. Additionally, she is currently working on a book of autofiction.