Zora Howard
{{Short description|American actress and writer}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name = Zora Howard
|birth_date =
|birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.
|death_date =
|death_place =
|education = Yale University (BA)
University of California, San Diego (MFA)
}}
Zora Howard is an American actress and writer. Her debut play, STEW, premiered off-Broadway in February 2020 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama.{{Cite web|title=Indie romance 'Premature' challenges Hollywood by portraying black love, not black pain|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-02-21/premature-zora-howard-rashaad-ernesto-green|date=2020-02-21|website=Los Angeles Times|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-26}}{{Cite news|last=Vincentelli|first=Elisabeth|date=2020-02-01|title=Review: 'Stew' Takes Deeper Emotions Off the Back Burner|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/01/theater/stew-review.html|access-date=2020-05-27|issn=0362-4331}} She also co-wrote and starred in the 2019 drama Premature.
Early life and education
Howard was born to veterinarian Julie Butler and Claude Howard{{Cite web|title=Community Honors Memory Of Harlem Veterinarian, Mentor Who Died During Pandemic|url=https://www.npr.org/2020/04/19/838073236/community-honors-memory-of-harlem-veterinarian-mentor-who-died-during-pandemic|access-date=2021-07-05|website=NPR.org|language=en|date=2020-04-19|first=Lulu|last=Garcia-Narro}} and raised in Harlem.{{Cite web|title="No One Was Willing to Sign the Check": Rashaad Ernesto Green and Zora Howard on Premature, Shooting 16mm and Self-Financing|url=https://filmmakermagazine.com/109242-no-one-was-willing-to-sign-the-check-rashaad-ernesto-green-and-zora-howard-on-premature-shooting-16mm-and-self-financing/|last=Luers|first=Erik|website=Filmmaker Magazine|date=24 February 2020 |language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-26}} She began writing poetry at a young age, and performed with the spoken word group The Strivers Row.{{Cite web|title=Spoken Word on Bleecker Street|url=https://artsinitiative.columbia.edu/campus/student-perspectives/spoken-word-bleecker-street|last=Booth|first=Laura|website=Columbia University Arts Initiative|access-date=2020-05-26}} At age 13 she was the youngest poet ever to win the Urban Word NYC Grand Slam finals.{{Cite web|title=MOVIE OF THE WEEK February 28, 2020: PREMATURE – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS|date=23 February 2020 |url=https://awfj.org/blog/2020/02/23/movie-of-the-week-february-28-2020-premature/|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-27}} She received her Bachelors of Arts from Yale University in 2014. She received a Masters of Fine Arts from the graduate acting program at the University of California, San Diego.{{Cite web|url=http://www.directingmagic.com/2019/05/15/zora-howard/|title=Zora Howard – Co-Writer and Lead Actress of PREMATURE (Ep29)|date=2019-05-15|access-date=2020-05-30|work=Directing Magic - a podcast about women filmmakers}}
Career
The 2019 film Premature is Howard's first starring role and debut feature film screenplay, co-written with director Rashaad Ernesto Green.{{Cite web|title='Premature' Is a Coming-of-Age Love Story That Puts Its Heroine First|url=https://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/a30835238/zora-howard-premature-interview/|last=Candice Frederick|date=2020-03-05|website=ELLE|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-26}} Howard previously met Green in New York's theater scene when she was 11. When she was 14, he cast her in his student film while a student at NYU Tisch, also called Premature.{{Cite web|title=Dakota Johnson Thinks Shia LaBeouf Might Be The Greatest Actor Of Her Generation|url=https://www.nylon.com/entertainment/dakota-johnson-shia-labeouf|last=Cuby|first=Michael|website=Nylon|date=12 May 2020 |language=en|access-date=2020-05-26}} She also worked with Green on his first feature film, Gun Hill Road.
In 2017, Green contacted Howard to develop a feature film script for Premature. The film follows Howard as Ayanna, a 17-year-old New Yorker who strikes up a summer romance with an artist in his twenties (Joshua Boone). It premiered at Sundance 2019. The film received positive critical reception. Writing for Elle, Candace Frederick called it "the kind of confident, remarkably vulnerable drama to which even veteran storytellers aspire." Michael Cuby of Nylon described it as, "a coming-of-age love story that's as much about finding your first love as it is about using that first love to find yourself."{{Cite web|title=Zora Howard On Writing And Starring In 'Premature'|url=https://www.nylon.com/zora-howard-premature-interview|last=Cuby|first=Michael|website=Nylon|date=28 February 2020 |language=en|access-date=2020-05-26}}
Howard's first play, STEW, ran in February 2020 at Walkerspace in New York.{{Cite web|title=Page 73's Next Production Will be Zora Howard's Stew|url=http://www.playbill.com/article/page-73s-next-production-will-be-zora-howards-stew|last=Clement|first=Olivia|date=15 October 2019|website=Playbill|language=en|access-date=2020-05-27}}{{Cite web|title=Zora Howard's Stew Remixes the Potboiler|url=https://www.vulture.com/2020/02/theater-review-zora-howards-stew-remixes-the-potboiler.html|last=Shaw|first=Helen|date=2020-02-02|website=Vulture|language=en-us|access-date=2020-05-26}} It centers a family of three generations of women who must grapple with their personal choices. In a mainly positive review for Vulture, Helen Shaw stated, "Howard moves from broad strokes to ontological bewilderment almost before you know it...Howard makes us hear hundreds of years of pain, knocking to be let in."
Accolades
- 2020-2021 Van Lier New Voices Fellow, The Lark{{Cite web|url=https://www.playbill.com/article/in-the-news-shoshana-bean-anika-noni-rose-laura-bell-bundy-more-celebrate-women-who-get-it-done-the-lark-names-2-new-fellows-more|title=In the News: Shoshana Bean, Anika Noni Rose, Laura Bell Bundy, More Celebrate Women Who Get It Done, The Lark Names 2 New Fellows, More | Playbill}}
- 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Finalist (for STEW){{Cite web|last= |first= |date=2021-06-11|title=Katori Hall Wins 2021 Drama Pulitzer for 'The Hot Wing King'|url=https://www.americantheatre.org/2021/06/11/katori-hall-wins-2021-drama-pulitzer-for-the-hot-wing-king/|access-date=2021-06-12|website=AMERICAN THEATRE|language=en-US}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|3136974|Zora Howard}}
- [https://zorahoward.com/home Official website]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Zora}}
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Actresses from Manhattan
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:African-American poets
Category:African-American actresses
Category:Writers from Manhattan
Category:African-American screenwriters
Category:21st-century American screenwriters
Category:Yale University alumni
Category:University of California, San Diego alumni