Artist
Anna Deavere Smith
Via New York, NY, USA
Anna Deavere Smith is a renowned actress, playwright, filmmaker and professor. She has created over 18 one-person shows based on hundreds of interviews, most of which deal with social issues. Twilight: Los Angeles, about the Los Angeles race riots of 1992, was performed around the country and on Broadway. Her most recent piece, Let Me Down Easy, explores the human element of the American healthcare system. Smith also appears on television in Nurse Jackie and The West Wing, and in several films including Rachel Getting Married and The American President.
Smith is a Professor of Performance Studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her mentoring of aspiring actors and interviewers is augmented by her two books, Letters to A Young Artist and Talk To Me. Smith also founded ADS Works Inc. to develop new models for the creation, exhibition and marketing of art. She has won several prestigious awards, including a National Endowment of Humanities medal, the MacArthur fellowship, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Award, two Obies and two Tony nominations.
Photo of Anna Deavere Smith by Mary Ellen Mark.
