Kenny Leon

Tony-nominated director and Julia Hansen Award winner Kenny Leon is an acclaimed film and theater director. He is the first African-American director to have two shows running on Broadway simultaneously with The Mountaintop starring Samuel L. Jackson and Angela Bassett; and Stick Fly, produced by Alicia Keys.

In 2010, his hit Broadway production of Fences garnered 10 Tony Nominations including Best Director and won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play, Best Actor and Best Actress. Other Broadway credits include Radio Golf, Gem of the Ocean and the Tony-winning revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, the television adaptation of which garnered Kenny Leon a Best Director nomination by the DGA. The film also received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and won 3 NAACP Image Awards.

Prior to co-founding Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theatre Company, he served 11 years as Artistic Director of the Alliance Theatre, where he produced the premieres of Disney’s Elaborate Lives: The Legend of Aida, Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky and Alfred Uhry’s The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Other directorial credits include Toni Morrison’s opera Margaret Garner, the world premiere of Flashdance: The Musical, Alicia Keys’ “As I Am” World Tour and the August Wilson Century Cycle at the Kennedy Center, for which he was Artistic Director. He has directed extensively throughout the US, including Chicago’s Goodman Theatre, Boston’s Huntington Theatre, Baltimore’s Center Stage, Los Angeles’ Center Theatre Group and New York’s Public Theatre.

Recently, Mr. Leon directed the world premiere of Marcus Gardley’s Every Tongue Confess starring Phylicia Rashad at Arena Stage in D.C. and the theatre world premier of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner under his True Colors Theatre banner. Hi recent film remake, Steel Magnolias, for Lifetime and Sony Pictures premiered to 6.5 million viewers, the third highest watched program in the network’s history.