Ayad Akhtar Biography

Fast Facts

• Wrote the play "Disgraced," for which he won the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
• Author of "American Dervish," which won the Best Book of the Year at Kirkus Reviews, O Magazine, and Toronto's Globe and Mail in 2012
• Was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay for "The War Within․"
• Graduated from Brown University and Columbia University with degrees in Theater and Film Directing
• Quote: "(On "Disgraced"): "I wanted to write a play that would affect an audience so deeply they would then walk away being forced to ask all kinds of questions the play could not answer for them․""
• Quote: "I wrote ['Disgraced'] and the novel 'American Dervish' around the same time․ They just came out of me․ They're opposite sides of the same argument - Amir is the self-loathing skeptic and 'American Dervish' is about a young boy who's devout․"
• Best known as a writer and for his role as Hassan in "The War Within" and as Neel Kashkari in "Too Big to Fail․"
• Has been teaching acting since 1999, both solo and alongside Andre Gregory, with a focus on naturalism in film