Lydia R. Diamond

Lydia R. Diamond is an award-winning playwright whose works include: The Gift Horse, Toni Stone, Smart People, Stick Fly (Broadway), Voyeurs de Venus, Harriet Jacobs, The Bluest Eye, The Inside, and Stage Black. Her work has been performed at companies including: The Huntington (Stick Fly, Smart People [Premiere], The Bluest Eye), American Conservatory Theater, Congo Square, Steppenwolf, Alliance Theatre, Arena Stage, Company One, Writers Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, New Victory at The Duke (Off Broadway), Guthrie Theater, Roundabout (Off Broadway), Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Second Stage Theater (Off Broadway), Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, True Colors, MPAACT, Arden Theatre Company, Encores! at City Center (New York), Intiman Theatre, and PlayMakers Repertory Company. Diamond has been a W. E. B. Du Bois 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 Prize, 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 Arts Club Kesselring Prize for Playwriting. She was a Consulting Producer and writer for Showtime’s 4th season of The Affair and nominated for a Writers 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 Dramatists Guild Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access Committee. Diamond is an Associate Professor of Playwriting at University of Illinois in Chicago.

(As of March 2024)