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Young Jean Lee

Playwright and Theater Director

Brooklyn, New York

Young Jean Lee is a writer, director, and filmmaker who has been called “the most adventurous downtown playwright of her generation” by the New York Times and “one of the best experimental playwrights in America” by Time Out New York. She has written and directed ten shows in New York with Young Jean Lee's Theater Company, and toured her work to over thirty cities around the world. Her plays have been published by Theatre Communications Group, Samuel French, and Dramatists Play Service. She is currently under commission from Lincoln Center Theater and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and has written a screenplay commission for Plan B/Paramount Pictures. Her first short film, Here Come the Girls, was presented at The Locarno International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and BAMcinemaFest, and she has released an album with her band, Future Wife.Lee is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, two OBIE Awards, a Prize in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a PEN Literary Award, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a Doris Duke Artist Residency, a Foundation for Contemporary Arts grant, and the ZKB Patronage Prize of the Zürcher Theater Spektakel.


Portrait photo by Blaine Davis. 

Donor -This award was generously made possible by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

This artist page was last updated on: 07.08.2024

“Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven”, HERE Arts Center, New York, NY Jennifer Lim, Becky Yamamoto, Jun Sky Kim, Haerry Kim. Courtesy of Carl Skutch.

“Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven”, HERE Arts Center, New York, NY Jennifer Lim, Becky Yamamoto, Jun Sky Kim, Haerry Kim. Courtesy of Carl Skutch.

“We're Gonna Die”, Writer Young Jean Lee, Director Paul Lazar, Joe's Pub, New York, NY. Benedict Kupstas, Young Jean Lee, Nick Jenkins Courtesy of Blaine Davis.

“We're Gonna Die”, Writer Young Jean Lee, Director Paul Lazar, Joe's Pub, New York, NY. Benedict Kupstas, Young Jean Lee, Nick Jenkins Courtesy of Blaine Davis.

“Untitled Feminist Show”, conceived and directed by Young Jean Lee with Faye Driscoll, Morgan Gould, and the original cast. Courtesy of Julieta Cervantes.

“Untitled Feminist Show”, conceived and directed by Young Jean Lee with Faye Driscoll, Morgan Gould, and the original cast. Courtesy of Julieta Cervantes.