Rajiv Joseph is an American playwright. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he graduated from Miami University with a BA in Creative Writing and from New York University with an MFA in Dramatic Writing. He has been writing steadily since his first play, Huck & Holden, debuted off-Broadway in January 2006. One of his best-known plays, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo debuted in May 2009 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play, about two American Marines and an Iraqi translator who encounter a tiger stalking the streets of Baghdad, had a 2011 Broadway production with actor Robin WIlliams in the title role of Tiger. Gruesome Playground Injuries, Joseph’s most-produced play, is a two-person one-act that explores the relationship of two people over a period of 30 years.
Joseph’s work is influenced by his mixed-race background, with issues of identity and culture often at the forefront. His plays frequently feature a character who is an outsider-often a young Indian American, drawing on his father’s Indian ethnicity. He also draws on his experience in Senegal as a member of the Peace Corps for three years. In addition to plays, Joseph has written for two seasons of the TV series Nurse Jackie and was a co-writer of the films Draft Day and Army of One. Joseph’s plays have been produced at the Mark Taper Forum, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Alley Theatre, and Steppenwolf Theatre. In 2018, his play Describe the Night won the Obie Award for Best New American Play.
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