Layon Gray

Updated on Nov 09, 2023

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Name Layon Gray Role Playwright		Movies Letters of Tuskegee

Lauren class schneider talks to layon gray writer and actor in black angels over tuskegee

Layon Gray (born January 26, 1969, in Alexandria, Louisiana) is an American playwright and director known for work which engages and reflects a wide array of African-America movements. His best known work is the Off-Broadway play Black Angels Over Tuskegee, about the Tuskegee airmen.

A native of Louisiana, Gray quickly ascended as one of Los Angeles’ premiere playwrights, earning more than 60 nomination and awards for his works since 2000. Layon has spent more than two decades writing, directing and developing stage plays and films which attempt to create new paradigms for the stage. Focusing on creating conversational dialogue in his works, Layon continues to make his mark in traditional African-American theater. His play Kings Of Harlem, about The New York Renaissance, also known as the Renaissance Big Five and as the Rens, was an all-black professional basketball team established February 13, 1923, by Robert "Bob" Douglas in agreement with the Renaissance Casino and Ballroom, performed for the NBA Legends during All-Star week 2015 and was selected as a main stage production at The National Black Theatre Festival (NBTF) His latest work "Black Sparta about the The Dahomey Amazons, an all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey in the present-day Republic of Benin which lasted until the end of the 19th century, was selected to perform at the 2017 The National Black Theatre Festival (NBTF) and is currently in development as a motion picture.

Layon has also directed award winning plays such as: A Raisin In The Sun, A Soldiers Play, The Crucible, Before It Hits Home, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When The Rainbow is Enuf, and Miss Evers' Boys