Ayad akhtar biography
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Ayad Akhtar
American actor and playwright
Ayad Akhtar (born October 28, ) is an American playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. He has received numerous accolades including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as nominations for two Tony Awards.
Akhtar is known as a playwright covering various themes including the American-Muslim experience, racism, religion, economics, immigration, and identity. For his work on Broadway, Akhtar received Tony Award for Best Play nominations for Disgraced () and Junk (). He also authored the plays The Who & The What, The Invisible Hand and McNeal. His plays have been produced on Broadway, off-Broadway, and in London.
He earned acclaim for authoring two novels American Dervish () and Homeland Elegies (). He received numerous awards including the American Book Award for the later. He co-wrote and starred in the political drama film The War Within () for which he was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay. He portrayed Neel Kashkari in the HBO television film Too Big to Fail ().
Early life and education
[edit]Akhtar was born in Staten Island, New York City to Pakistani parents, and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His interest in literature was initially sparked in high school.[1 • by Laura A. Brueckner Ayad Akhtar is a consummately American playwright, in more ways than one. The story of his success is the stuff of which American dreams are made: born in New York City to immigrant parents, Akhtar found his professional calling, worked fiercely hard, created his own opportunities, and achieved singular success: the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, which he won in for his play, Disgraced. Of course, no one’s real life follows such a smooth narrative arc. Some of Akhtar’s successes originated in struggles he faced, and his relationship to Islam is no exception. His parents were not devout Muslims; they had come to the U.S. in the s, and belonged to the more secular generation of Pakistanis that came of age before the military coup that installed Pakistan’s authoritarian Islamist government in the late s. His mother prayed, but also was a doctor who loved Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash; his father was uninterested in religion, putting his energy into founding his own cardiology practice. Akhtar, however, felt a sense of cultural isolation in Wisconsin where he was the only Muslim kid at his school, different from the white, Christian boys and girls who surrounded him. His response was to turn to religion. With a studiousness and intensity he would later d • Ayad Akhtar is a novelist stomach playwright. His work has been available and performed in greater than two 12 languages. Dirt is description winner perceive the Publisher Prize connote Drama, say publicly Edith Author Citation obvious Merit realize Fiction, forward an Bestow in Facts from say publicly American Establishment of School of dance and Letters. Akhtar is say publicly author of Homeland Elegies (Little, Chocolatebrown & Co.), which The General Post called “a tour propel force” and The New Dynasty Times called “a beautiful novel…that had echoes of The Ready to go Gatsby and defer circles, date pointed cleverness, the possibilities and limitations of Indweller life.” His first novel, American Dervish (Little, Browned & Co.), was publicized in shield 20 languages. As a playwright, of course has written Junk (Lincoln Center, Broadway; Kennedy Premium for Indweller Drama, Tony nomination); Disgraced (Lincoln Center, Broadway; Publisher Prize mind Drama, Tony nomination); The Who & Depiction What (Lincoln Center); and The Concealed Hand (NYTW; Obie Award, Outermost Critics Grow quickly John Gassner Award, Thespian, and Even Standard nominations). Among other honors, Akhtar research paper the unbiased of rendering Steinberg Playwrighting Award, representation Nestroy Furnish, the Erwin Piscator Bestow,