Ike Holter

Ike Holter is an American playwright and director originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He studied playwriting at DePaul University and began his career in Chicago. In 2012, his play Hit the Wall was produced at Steppenwolf Theater and was listed on the Chicago Tribune’s Top Ten Plays of 2012. He then wrote The Rightlynd Saga, an interconnected series of seven plays set in a fictional Chicago neighborhood. Plays in the saga include Exit Strategy and Lottery Day. Holter also directs and has written for film and television, including the FX series Fosse/Verdon.

Holter often uses diverse characters to explore contemporary issues in Chicago. In 2017, Holter was one of eight writers awarded Yale University’s Windham-Campbell Literature Prize. His 2017 play The Wolf at the End of the Block was a finalist for the American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, which recognizes outstanding plays produced professionally outside New York City. In 2021, he was one of ten playwrights awarded the Steinberg Playwright Award, which recognizes early and middle-career writers. Holter has taught at DePaul University, the University of Chicago, and Yale University.