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 theatres including American Conservatory Theater, The Huntington (Stick Fly, Smart People [premiere] and The Bluest Eye), Congo Square Theatre Company, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the Alliance Theatre, Arena Stage, Company One, Writers Theatre, McCarter Theatre Center, New Victory Theater (off-Broadway), the Guthrie Theater, Roundabout Theatre Company (off-Broadway), KCRep, Milwaukee Rep, Second Stage Theater (off-Broadway), Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, True Colors Theatre Company, MPAACT, Arden Theatre Company, Encores! at New York City Center, Intiman Theatre and PlayMakers Repertory Company. Diamond has been a W. E. B. DuBois Research Institute Fellow, Sundance Playwright Lab Creative Advisor, Radcliffe Institute Fellow, Sally B. Goodman Fellow and NEA/TCG playwright in residence. Her awards include the Horton Foote Playwriting Award, Joseph Jefferson Award, IRNE Award (nomination), Elliot Norton Award (nomination), Audelco’s The “VIV” Award (nomination), The Kilroys’ The List, The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize (finalist), Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award and National Arts Club Kesselring Prize for Playwriting. She was a consulting producer and writer for Showtime’s fourth season of The Affair and nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Episodic Drama. She has also written for NBC, HBO, HBO Max and Hulu. Diamond has an honorary M.F.A. from American Conservatory Theater and an honorary doctorate from Pine Manor College. For the Dramatists Guild, she is on the Legal Defense Fund Board and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. Diamond is also a professor of playwriting at the University of Illinois Chicago.
