Anna Deavere Smith Biography

Fast Facts

• Worked for an airline to support herself when she first moved to New York City
• Interviewed more than 50 people from Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood about their experiences to create her 1992 one-woman show Fires in the Mirror
• Portrays cyclist Lance Armstrong as one of the characters in her stage show Let Me Down Easy
• Has taught at academic institutions including New York University, Yale University, the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, and as a tenured professor at Stanford University
• Has been an Artist in Residence for the Ford Foundation, MTV Networks, the Aspen Institute, the Center for American Progress, and Grace Cathedral
• Has received honorary degrees from academic institutions including the Juilliard School; the School of Visual Arts, University of Pennsylvania; Wesleyan College; and Bryn Mawr College