Artist Bio

(Bio as of May 2022)

Lydia R. Diamond (Playwright) is an award-winning playwright whose works include The Gift Horse (2002 premier at Goodman Theatre);Toni Stone; Smart People; Stick Fly (Broadway run at Cort Theatre); Voyeurs de Venus; Harriet Jacobs; The Bluest Eye; The Inside and Stage Black.  Her work has been performed at companies including American Conservatory Theatre Company, The Huntington Theatre, Congo Square, Steppenwolf Theatre Co., The Alliance Theatre, Arena Stage, Company One, Writers Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, New Victory at the Duke (off-Broadway), The Guthrie Theater, Roundabout Theatre Co. (off-Broadway), Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Second Stage Theater (off-Broadway), Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, True Colors, MPAACT, Arden Theatre Co., Encores at City Center (New York), Intiman Theatre and PlayMakers Repertory Company. Diamond has been a W. E. B. DuBois Institute Non-Resident Fellow at Harvard, a Sundance Playwright Lab Creative Advisor, a Radcliffe Institute Fellow, a Sally B. Goodman Fellow and a National Endowment for the Arts/TCG playwright in residence. Awards include Horton Foote Playwriting Award, Joseph Jefferson Award, IRNE Award Nomination, Elliot Norton Award Nomination, Audelco Nomination, Kilroy’s List, Susan Smith Blackburn Prize Finalist, LA Critics Circle Award and National Art’s Club Kesselring Prize for Playwriting.  She was a consulting producer and writer for Showtime’s fourth season of The Affair and nominated for a Writer’s Guild Award for Best Drama Episode.  She has also written for NBC, HBO, HBOMAX and Hulu. Diamond has an Honorary MFA from A.C.T., and an Honorary Doctorate from Pine Manor College.  She sits on the Dramatists Guild Legal Defense Fund Board and The Dramatist Guild Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access Committee. Diamond is an associate professor of Playwriting at University of Illinois at Chicago.