American playwright and director George C. Wolfe was BOTD in 1954. Born in Frankfort, Kentucky to a middle-class family, he attended a racially-segregated school where his mother was a teacher, becoming one of the first African-American students in Kentucky to attend an integrated high school. He studied at Kentucky State University, before transferring to Pomona College in California. After graduating with a degree in theatre, he moved to New York City, studying directing and playwriting at New York University and directing off-Broadway shows. His 1986 play Spunk, an adapted from the writings of Zora Neale Hurston, won him an OBIE Award for his direction. He rose to national attention with his 1991 musical Jelly’s Last Jam, based on the life of jazz musician Jelly Roll Morton. Premiering in Los Angeles, its Broadway transfer became a critical and commercial hit, earning 11 Tony nominations. Wolfe is best known for directing the original Broadway production of Tony Kushner‘s two-part play Angels in America, a magical realist epic set amid the HIV/AIDS crisis in 1980s New York. The 1993 production of Part One: Millennium Approaches was hailed as a landmark in American theatre and nominated for seven Tony Awards, winning for Wolfe’s direction. The following year, Wolfe directed the world premiere of Part Two: Perestroika to critical acclaim. Following his success, Wolfe became artistic director of the New York Shakespeare Festival, where he premiered his 1996 musical Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in ‘da Funk, winning a second Tony Award for his direction. His other theatrical successes included the premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks’ play Topdog/Underdog, Elaine Stritch‘s one-woman show At Liberty, and Kushner’s civil rights-era musical Caroline, or Change. In 2005, he directed the TV film Lackawanna Blues, announcing his intention to abandon theatre to work in film and television. After the commercial failure of his 2008 film Nights in Rodanthe, he (perhaps wisely) returned to Broadway, directing celebrated revivals of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children starring Meryl Streep, and Larry Kramer‘s AIDS-themed drama The Normal Heart. His recent theatre work includes revivals of Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh starring Denzel Washington, and the Arthur Laurents–Stephen Sondheim musical Gypsy starring Audra McDonald; the TV film The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, starring Oprah Winfrey; and a film adaptation of August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey‘s Black Bottom. His 2023 film Rustin, a biopic of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, earned an Oscar nomination for its star Colman Domingo. Openly gay since forever, Wolfe’s current relationship status is unknown.