Author

Branden Jacobs Jenkins

 Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (born 1984) is one of the most influential contemporary American playwrights. His work is known for combining sharp humor, formal experimentation, and deep engagement with history, identity, and theatrical tradition.

Rather than rejecting classical theatre forms, Jacobs-Jenkins often reworks and challenges them, asking how older structures can speak to the present moment. His plays frequently place audiences in an active position, encouraging reflection rather than passive consumption.

Early life

Jacobs-Jenkins was born in Washington, DC, and raised in the Takoma neighborhood.His father, Benjamin Jenkins, is a retired prison dentist.He and his adopted siblings were raised by a single mother, Patricia Jacobs, who is a Harvard Law School alumna and business owner.

As a child, he attended the Roots Activity Learning Center and fell in love with reading black authors, including playwright August Wilson. He spent his summers in Arkansas, where his maternal grandmother and schoolteacher, Helen Jacobs, who stimulated his creativity.At age 13, he made it to the finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, stumbling on the word "pinyin".

He was accepted to St. John's College High School in DC, and graduated in 2002.

For college, he went to Princeton, where he earned his bachelor's degree in anthropology in 2006. For graduate school, he attended New York University Tisch School of the Arts, and earned a master's degree in performance studies in 2007.

He has taught playwriting at Hunter College, New York University,Princeton, and Yale University.He graduated from the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwrights Program at The Juilliard School.

Jacobs-Jenkins worked at the New Yorker where he edited and wrote reviews.

Source: 

The New Yorker (January 8, 2024). Profiles: The Playwright Has a Few More Changes. Published in the print edition of the January 15, 2024, issue, with the headline “Shamelessly Dramatic.” Retrieved June 9, 2025.

Witchel, Alex (November 23, 2014). "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Is, and Is Not, Writing About Race". New York Times Magazine. Retrieved June 9, 2025.

Prevost, Lisa (June 17, 2024). Yale playwright Jacobs-Jenkins wins first Tony for ‘Appropriate’ revival. Yale.

"Branden Jacobs-Jenkins" Signature Theatre.com, accessed November 7, 2016

Gray, Margaret. "Spotlight shines brighter on 'Appropriate' playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins" Los Angeles Times, September 24, 2015

Honor

In 2010 he won a Fulbright Award which funded him while studying and developing plays in Germany at the Freie Universität Berlin. He then went on to receive the Helen Merrill Award in Playwrighting—Emerging Playwright category—in 2011 followed by the Paula Vogel Award from the Vineyard Theatre in the same year. The award is "presented annually to an emerging writer of exceptional promise." It provided him a 2011 residency at the Vineyard Theatre.

In 2015, he won the Steinberg Playwrights Award. Paige Evans, the artistic director of LCT3 said that his "plays are fiercely intelligent, ambitious, and boldly theatrical.... They challenge, entertain, and unsettle audiences, making us laugh, gasp, and think deeply about race, class, personal ambition, and other complex issues.”

He received the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize (Drama) at Yale University in 2016; the prize includes a cash amount of $150,000. He received the 2016 PEN/Laura Pels Theater Award, Emerging American Playwright. In 2016, he also received a Creative Capital award with collaborating artist Carmelita Tropicana.

He was named a MacArthur Fellow, Class of 2016. The fellowship comes with a monetary award of $625,000, made in installments over five years. The foundation noted, in part: "Many of Jacobs-Jenkins’s plays use a historical lens to satirize and comment on modern culture, particularly the ways in which race and class are negotiated in both private and public settings."

In 2015 and 2018, Jacobs-Jenkins was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his plays Gloria and Everybody. In 2025, he received the prize for Purpose.

In 2020, he was awarded USA Artists and John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships.

Source: 

"Fulbright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins". fulbrightprogram.org. Retrieved May 8, 2025.

"Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Wins 4th Annual Paula Vogel Playwriting Award" stage-directions.com, accessed March 2, 2016.

Hetrick, Adam. "Playwrights Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Dorothy Fortenberry, Dan LeFranc, Radha Blank and Lisa Kron are the recipients of the 2011 Helen Merrill Awards in Playwrighting" Playbill, September 28, 2011.

"Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Dominique Morisseau Win 2015 Steinberg Playwright Awards" americantheatre.org September 22, 2015.

Clement, Olivia. "Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Named Windham-Campbell Prize Winner" Playbill, March 1, 2016

"Branden Jacobs-Jenkins". Windham–Campbell Literature Prize. February 29, 2016. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.

Maggie Galehouse (March 1, 2016). "PEN Literary Award winners announced". Chron. Retrieved March 2, 2016.

"2016 PEN Literary Award Winners". PEN. March 1, 2016. Retrieved March 2, 2016.

"Creative Capital - Investing in Artists who Shape the Future". creative-capital.org. Archived from the original on 2016-11-15. Retrieved 2016-11-14.

"Fellows Class of 2016" macfound.org, accessed September 22, 2016.

Gans, Andrew. "Playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Among MacArthur “Genius” Grant Winners" Playbill, September 22, 2016.

"Pulitzer Prize Winners" The New York Times, April 16, 2018

"Pulitzer Prizes: 2025 Winners List". The New York Times. 2025-05-05. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2025-05-05.

"Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins" John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation