Nilaja Sun (born Nilaja Sun Gordon) is an actress, playwright, and a teaching artist from the Lower East Side in New York City. [1] Sun has taught theatre in New York City public schools since 1998 and is best known for her award-winning one-person play, No Child... [1] She is half Puerto Rican and half African-American. [2]
Sun has featured in TV shows and movies, including The Bourne Legacy (2012), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2004–2006), and 30 Rock (2008–2012). [3]
Her most famous work, No Child..., follows the story of Miss Sun, a visiting teacher in a 10th grade classroom at Malcolm X High School in the Bronx. [4] The one-person play includes 16 characters, a mixture of students, teachers, and administration. The play was created by Sun based on her eight-year experience with arts education in New York City schools, [5] including at Martin Luther King Jr. High School. [2] The story is narrated by the school's longtime janitor and follows the character's ups and downs as Miss Sun directs them in the performance of Timberlake Wertenbaker's 1988 play Our Country's Good, which in turn tells an 18th-century story of a British lieutenant directing a group of Australian convicts in the production of George Farquhar's 1706 comedy The Recruiting Officer. [6] Through the play, Sun wants to shows how the school system is breaking and ultimately hopes to capture the life and love that exists in schools. [2] No Child... is filled with humor, but representative of the experiences of children and teachers in under-resourced public schools across the United States. [3] As of 2012, Sun has performed No Child... 700 times worldwide. [3]
The play's title alludes to President George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. Sun has stated that the show is not a direct indictment on the act, but a spotlight on great teachers. [5] Sun chose this title in hopes that the audience would make a connection to education and able finish the phrase No Child... with what the play meant to them. [3]
No Child... was funded by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts and from a commission by the Epic Theatre Ensemble, [2] formerly known as Epic Theater Center. Sun has worked closely with the ensemble for five years and produced nearly 20 of Epic's “Journeys” Programs and participated in Epic's Off-Broadway productions of Einstein's Gift, Pieces of the Throne and Time and the Conways. [2] Through Epic's “Journeys” Programs Epic artists work closely with students in English, History, and Economics classrooms to analyze a play, rewrite their own version, and perform it alongside professional actors. [7] Sun also teaches writing workshops at New York City's Rikers Island jail complex. [2]
Sun was featured in the American Theatre Wing's Working in the Theatre series on solo performance in 2017. [8]
Sun's work has garnered critical acclaim and a total of 21 awards, including the Obie Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, and the soloNOVA Award for Artist of the Year by terraNOVA Collective.[ citation needed ] Sun's play “No Child...” was also named the Best One-Person Show at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen and received two Outer Critics Circle Awards for Outstanding Solo Performance and for Outstanding New American Play. [1]
Other awards include:
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 2004/2006 | Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Nurse / Triage Nurse |
| 2008/2012 | 30 Rock | Irene |
| 2009/I | The International | Detective Gloria Hubbard |
| 2010 | Rubicon | Agent Madero |
| 2010 | Louie | Woman on Phone |
| 2010 | Knight and Day | Allison |
| 2011 | Unforgettable | Ivory |
| 2012 | Nature Calls | Moses Mother |
| 2012 | The Bourne Legacy | Blue Lab Doctor |
| 2013 | HairBrained | Skidmore Moderator |
| 2014 | Irreversible | Makeup Artist |
| 2014–2016 | Madam Secretary | Juliet |
| 2015 | Nurse Jackie | Tress |
| 2015 | The Good Wife | Divya Feldman |
| 2016 | Knock Knock | Veronica Young |
Bernadette Peters is an American actress and singer. Over a career spanning more than six decades, she has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo concerts and released recordings. She is a critically acclaimed Broadway performer, having received seven nominations for Tony Awards, winning two, and nine Drama Desk Award nominations, winning three. Four of the Broadway cast albums on which she has starred have won Grammy Awards.
William Mills Irwin is an American actor, choreographer, clown, and comedian. He began as a vaudeville-style stage performer and has been noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He has made a number of appearances on film and television, and he won a Tony Award for his role in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He also worked as a choreographer on Broadway and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Choreography in 1989 for Largely New York. He is also known as Mr. Noodle on the Sesame Street segment Elmo's World, and he appeared in the Sesame Street film short Does Air Move Things?. He has regularly appeared as Dr. Peter Lindstrom on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and had a recurring role as "The Dick & Jane Killer" on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. From 2017 to 2019, he appeared as Cary Loudermilk on the FX television series Legion.
Independence High School, also referred to as IHS, is a public high school located in the Berryessa district of San Jose, California, United States. The school is operated by the East Side Union High School District (ESUHSD). Its namesake is the United States Declaration of Independence, which celebrated its bicentennial in the same year Independence High was established in 1976.
Homewood-Flossmoor High School (H-F) is a comprehensive public high school in Flossmoor, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
Judith Lee Ivey is an American actress and theatre director. She twice won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play: for Steaming (1981) and Hurlyburly (1984). She also received Best Actress In A Play nomination for Park Your Car in Harvard Yard (1992) and another Best Featured Actress in a Play nomination for The Heiress.
The History Boys is a play by British playwright Alan Bennett. The play premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London's West End on 18 May 2004. Its Broadway debut was on 23 April 2006 at the Broadhurst Theatre where 185 performances were staged before it closed on 1 October 2006.
L. Scott Caldwell is an American actress perhaps best known for her roles as Deputy U.S. Marshall Erin Poole in The Fugitive (1993) and Rose on the television series Lost.
Euan Douglas George Morton is a British actor and singer from Bo'ness, Scotland. He is best known for his role as Boy George in the musical Taboo, receiving nominations for the Laurence Olivier Award and Tony Award for his performance. He played the role of King George in the musical Hamilton on Broadway from July 2017 to 10 September 2023.
Wendell Edward Pierce is an American actor and businessman. Having trained at Juilliard School, Pierce rose to prominence as a character actor portraying roles on both stage and screen. He first gained recognition portraying the role of Detective Bunk Moreland in the acclaimed HBO drama series The Wire from 2002 to 2008.
Bill Bowers is an American mime artist and actor based in New York City. As an actor, mime and educator, Bill has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia. He is a Movement for Actors Instructor at NYU Tisch School for the Arts and also teaches at the William Esper Studio and the Stella Adler Studio in NYC.
Anthony LoBianco was an American actor.
Jacqueline Laura Hoffman is an American actress, singer, and comedian known for her one-woman shows of Jewish-themed original songs and monologues. She is a veteran of Chicago's famed The Second City comedy improv group.
Sonia Friedman is a British West End and Broadway theatre producer. On 27 January 2017, Friedman was named Producer of the Year for the third year running at The Stage Awards, becoming the first person to win the award three times. In 2018, Friedman was featured in "TIME100", Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018 and was named Broadway Briefing's Show Person of the Year. In 2019, Sonia Friedman Productions was ranked The Stage 's most influential theatre producer in The Stage 100.
Tituss Burgess is an American actor and singer. He has appeared in several Broadway musicals and is known for his high tenor voice. He is best known for starring as Titus Andromedon on the Netflix comedy series Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015–2020), for which he received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He was also featured in Schmigadoon! (2023).
Louise Dearman is a British actress and singer, perhaps best known for playing Glinda and Elphaba in the West End production of the musical Wicked. Notably, she is the only actress to have played both witches in any production of Wicked full-time. She has a number of other professional stage and television credits, such as Eva Perón in Evita, Sarah Brown and Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, and Daisy Hilton in Side Show. She released her solo albums, You and I, Here Comes the Sun and It's Time, in 2005, 2012 and 2013 respectively.
Elizabeth Anne Davis known professionally as Elizabeth A. Davis, is an American actress and musician known for her work in the musical Once, for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical in 2012. She was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance in the musical Allegro in 2015. In 2023, Elizabeth fully released her independent album, The Apple Tree which is a concept album for her play, CHILD(LESS). She also wrote book, music and lyrics for MY NAME’S NOT INDIAN JOE. The Joe Lightfoot Gonzales Memorial Endowment Fund can be accessed here: https://bbis.baylor.edu/give
Brandon Jacob Uranowitz is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as Adam Hochberg in the musical An American in Paris (2014–15) and Mendel Weisenbachfeld in the 2016 Broadway revival of Falsettos, both of which earned him nominations for Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. His performances in Burn This (2019) and Leopoldstadt (2022–23) earned him nominations for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play; he won the award for his performance in Leopoldstadt. His other Broadway credits include Baby, It's You! (2011), Prince of Broadway (2017), and The Band's Visit (2018).
Fiona Choi is an Australian actress, singer and stage performer, best known for her lead role as Jenny Law in Benjamin Law's award-winning SBS Comedy The Family Law for which she received an AACTA Award nomination for Best Performance in a Television Comedy and 3 consecutive Equity Ensemble Awards for Outstanding Performance in a Comedy Series. Fiona is also known for her work on stage in Melbourne Theatre Company's Golden Shield and Torch The Place as well as her one-woman show Dragon Lady: The Many Lives & Deaths of Anna May Wong which premiered to much acclaim at the 2019 Adelaide Cabaret Festival
Donald Leungo Gosego Molosi is a Botswana actor, writer and playwright. Molosi debuted off-Broadway in 2010 as Philly Lutaaya in Today It's Me making him the first Motswana to perform off-Broadway. In 2011, Molosi won the Best Short Solo Award at United Solo Theatre Festival for his performance as Seretse Khama in Blue, Black and White. In 2013, Molosi returned off-Broadway to perform Motswana: Africa, Dream Again. He played supporting roles in the films A United Kingdom (2016) and Given (2009). As a playwright, Molosi has published a collection of his original off-Broadway plays, which include We Are All Blue, Blue, Black and White and Motswana: Africa, Dream Again in 2016.
Sasha Hutchings is an American actress, dancer, and singer. She is best known for her role as an understudy and ensemble member in the original Broadway cast of Hamilton.
