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Kristen Adele Calhoun is a writer, actor, producer and curator who
loves Black people. Her work is inspired by red clay roads, her benevolent ancestors, the Atlantic Ocean, bloodline healing, fugitivity, sensuality, uprising and joy. She recently served on the writing team for HBO’s adaptation of Toni Morrison’s SULA and BLK NWS: TERMS & CONDITIONS directed by Kahlil Joseph (Sundance 2025). Calhoun has also developed work for television with Nikole Hannah-Jones, the NY Times, Lionsgate and Harpo Films. Kristen is a co-producer of InterFest, an intersectional arts and ideas festival that began at Harlem School of the Arts. She is the Assistant Editor of Contemporary Plays by Women of Color and is honored to serve as co-curator of BLKSPACE, a two-week, rest-centered residency for Black artists. Time at BLKSPACE is granted to Black artists whose work forwards Black liberation. BLKSPACE seeks to simultaneously provide an expansive dreaming space for the individual and a collective practice ground for freedom. A proud native of Dallas, Texas, Kristen has lived in Accra, Ghana, Bacalar, Mexico and is currently based in Massachusetts where she is the Sterling A. Brown ('22) 2024 - 2025 Distinguished Visiting Professor of Africana Studies at Williams College. |
The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible.” |
photo by Jeff Lorch
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Kristen's plays include blood work, Black Cypress Bayou, Out the Mud, Canfield Drive, Now, She Is Rising, Starshine & Clay, A Pocket Full of Dandelions, and Quilombo.
Her award-winning, critically acclaimed play Black Cypress Bayou recently concluded a sold-out run at The Geffen Playhouse under the direction of Tiffany Nichole Greene. Her television and film acting credits include House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Elementary, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife and The Kids Are Not Alright. Theatre collaborations as an actor and or playwright include: Denver Center Theatre Company, Portland Center Stage, Cleveland Playhouse, Geva Theater, Hartford Stage, The Acting Company, Arvada Center for Performing Arts, The Clarence Brown Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, 59E59, Shadow Theatre Company, Curious Theatre Company, Premiere Stages, The St. Louis Black Rep, Chale Wote Street Art Festival and the National Black Theatre Festival. |
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Awards and residencies include: Edgerton Foundation New Play Award; The National Black Theatre’s I AM SOUL Playwriting Residency; Library of Africa and the African Diaspora / SCCA Tamale Writing Residency; The Cultural Diaspora Residency at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France; SPACE on Ryder Farm; The Lett's Rise Award, Lett's Rise Productions, Beverly Hills, CA; and the Diversity and Community Excellence Award at the University of North Texas. Grants and scholarships include: Dramatist Guild Foundation; Authors League Fund; Berkshire Leadership Summit; The National Performance Network; Denver Arts and Venues Imagine 2020; The Levin Scholarship and The Kelly Kriedeman Memorial Award, Rutgers University. Commissions include: The NAACP, the Lucille Lortel, Penumbra Theatre, the St. Louis Black Rep, 651 ARTS, and the Black American West Museum. Publications by: Book Bar Press (West Book Awards Nominee) and Routledge Press. She has taught at: Rutgers University, Washington University in St. Louis, The University of Montevallo, West Dallas Community School and CCA. She has been a speaker/panelist for: PBS, Wellness of We, Dallas Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation, Hi-ARTS, The Cooler Summit, The Minority Retort, BOLD, and Citizen University. BFA: University of North Texas. MFA: Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. |
photo by Alberto Emoûnah
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