PEOPLE KNOWN FOR: awards - Tony
American singer, songwriter, and bandleader
Bruce Springsteen is an American singer, songwriter, and bandleader who became the archetypal rock performer of the 1970s and ’80s. With his poetic lyrics describing the lives of everyday Americans, his...
American director and author
Elia Kazan was a Turkish-born American film director and author noted for his successes on the stage—especially with plays by Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller—as well as for his critically acclaimed...
American choreographer and director
Bob Fosse was an American dancer, choreographer, and director who revolutionized musicals with his distinct style of dance—including his frequent use of props, signature moves, and provocative steps—and...
American actor
Matthew Broderick is an American actor best known for playing the title character in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) and for performing in such stage hits as The Producers (2001). He also gave Tony Award-winning...
American director, playwright, and costume designer
Julie Taymor is an American stage and film director, playwright, and costume designer known for her inventive use of Asian-inspired masks and puppets. In 1998 she became the first woman to win a Tony Award...
American actress and singer
Idina Menzel is an American actor and singer whose three-octave mezzo-soprano voice has made her a star of stage and screen in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. She is best known for her roles as...
British actress
Vanessa Redgrave is a British actress of stage and screen who received numerous accolades—including an Oscar, two Emmys, a Tony, and a Laurence Olivier Award—for her performances. She was also a longtime...
American actor
Denzel Washington is an American actor celebrated for his engaging and powerful performances. Throughout his career he has been regularly praised by critics, and his consistent success at the box office...
American playwright
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is an American playwright best known for his plays that deal with matters of identity and history, including race and family legacies. In 2024 his play Appropriate won three Tony...
American producer, director, and writer
Ryan Murphy is a producer, director, and writer of television and film who has built a successful and prolific career by bringing the stories of marginalized characters to the mainstream and by exploring...
American actor
Al Pacino is an American actor best known for his intense, explosive acting style. After growing up in East Harlem and the Bronx, Pacino moved at age 19 to Greenwich Village, where he studied acting at...
British composer
Andrew Lloyd Webber is an English composer and theatrical producer whose eclectic rock-based works helped revitalize British and American musical theater, beginning in the late 20th century. Lloyd Webber...
American actor
John Lithgow is an American stage and screen character actor known for his extreme versatility, earning acclaim in roles ranging from mild-mannered everymen to cold-blooded killers. Lithgow was born into...
American actor
Mandy Patinkin is an American actor and singer known for his award-winning performances on stage, film, and television. His notable credits include the movies Yentl (1983) and The Princess Bride (1987),...
American actor
Kevin Spacey is an American actor on stage and screen, especially known for his dynamic roles in dark comedies. When Spacey was a young boy, his family moved frequently, ultimately settling in southern...
American actor
Nathan Lane is an American stage, film, and television actor, best known for his work in musical comedies, notably the Broadway production of The Producers. Lane discovered his flair for musical comedy...
American actress
Allison Janney is an American actress who won acclaim on stage, film, and television but is perhaps best known for her portrayal of C.J. Cregg, the White House press secretary and chief of staff on the...
American actress
Viola Davis is an American actress known for her precise, controlled performances and her regal presence. She accomplished the rare feat of winning the four major North American entertainment awards (EGOT:...
American singer and actress
Bernadette Peters is a prolific and award-winning American singer, actress, and author who has starred in Broadway musicals and on-screen for more than five decades. Often referred to as “The Queen of...
Canadian actor
Martin Short is an Emmy- and Tony-winning Canadian actor, comedian, and writer known for his work on television comedy shows such as SCTV Network and Saturday Night Live, movies such as Three Amigos! (1986)...
British actor and director
Mark Rylance is a British theater actor and director recognized not only for his period-specific enactments of both male and female roles in the works of William Shakespeare but also for his poignant portrayals...
Australian performer
Hugh Jackman is an Australian performer who was considered a “triple threat”—a successful actor, dancer, and singer. He is perhaps best known for his action movies and stage musicals. He has portrayed...
American actor
Billy Crudup is an American stage and screen actor who has had a long and steady career playing complex characters within an ensemble cast. He is perhaps best known for his roles as rock star Russell Hammond...
English director
Sam Mendes is an English film and theater director who is known for his innovative treatments of classic stage productions as well as for his thought-provoking films. His notable stagings have included...
American actor
Laurence Fishburne is an American actor noted for the intensity of his performances. He was the recipient of a Tony Award (1992) for his work in August Wilson’s play Two Trains Running but is probably...
American actress
Sarah Paulson is a versatile American actress who is admired for effortlessly disappearing into roles on both stage and screen and for playing difficult, often unlikable characters. She is perhaps best...
American-born English actor
Andrew Garfield is an American-born English screen and stage actor, known for giving his roles a unique vulnerability and emotional depth. Garfield began his acting career onstage and gained international...
American actress and singer
Bette Midler is an American actress and singer who is known for her dynamic energy, comedic wit, and campy humour. Midler was raised in rural Aiea, Oahu, the third of four children of a house painter and...
American actor
Henry Fonda was an American stage and film actor who appeared in more than 90 films over six decades and created quintessential American heroes known for their integrity. Fonda grew up in Omaha, Nebraska,...
American actor
Bryan Cranston is an American actor best known for his intense portrayal of Walter White, a chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin, in the television series Breaking Bad (2008–13). Cranston was raised around...
American actor and playwright
Tracy Letts is an American actor and dramatist who was best known for his award-winning play August: Osage County (2007; film 2013). Letts was raised in Durant, Oklahoma, the home of Southeastern Oklahoma...
American actor, composer, lyricist, and writer
Lin-Manuel Miranda is an American actor, composer, lyricist, and writer who created and starred in stage productions that blended modern musical forms with classic musical theatre. Perhaps his best-known...
American actress
Mary-Louise Parker is an American actress of stage, screen, and television who is noted for bringing integrity and depth to her performances. Parker grew up in South Carolina and studied acting at the...
American actress and singer
Audra McDonald is an American actress and singer whose melodious soprano voice and expressive stage presence made her a leading figure on Broadway in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. McDonald is...
American actor
Alan Arkin was an American actor who won respect during a long career as a performer onstage, in television, and in films. His comedic skills were particularly admired. Arkin aspired to be an actor from...
English film and theater director
Stephen Daldry is an English film and theatre director known for his sensitive and nuanced treatments of stories featuring conflicted characters. Daldry’s father—a bank manager who died when Daldry was...
American actress
Glenn Close is an American actress who drew acclaim for her considerable range and versatility. Close grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, a town her ancestors had helped to found. Her father was a well-known...
American actress
Phylicia Rashad is an American actress who first gained fame for her work in the television series The Cosby Show (1984–92) and later became the first African American woman to win (2004) a Tony Award...
Canadian actor
Christopher Plummer was a Canadian actor known for his interpretations of classical roles on the stage as well as his starring and supporting roles in motion pictures. Plummer made his first professional...
French dramatist, novelist, and actress
Yasmina Reza is a French dramatist, novelist, director, and actress best known for her brief satiric plays that speak to contemporary middle-class anxieties. Reza was the daughter of Jewish parents who...
American actress
Frances McDormand is an American actress who was critically acclaimed for her unadorned yet magnetic interpretations of character roles in film and on television as well as on the stage. McDormand, the...
British actress
Jodie Comer is an English actress best known for playing the psychopathic assassin Villanelle on the award-winning BBC America spy thriller Killing Eve (2018–22). Comer is the eldest of two children born...
English director
Nicholas Hytner is an English director of theatre and film who served as artistic director of the Royal National Theatre (RNT) from 2003 to 2015. Hytner was credited with reinvigorating London’s theatre...
American actor
James Earl Jones was an American actor who used his deep resonant voice to great effect in stage, film, and television roles. Jones earned Tony Awards for his performances in The Great White Hope (1968–70)...
American comedian, writer, and actress
Lily Tomlin is an American comedian, writer, and actress who first found success on the television show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In—where she created a number of memorable characters—and later embarked on...
American composer and lyricist
Stephen Sondheim was an American composer and lyricist whose brilliance in matching words and music in dramatic situations broke new ground for Broadway musical theater. Precocious as a child, Sondheim...
Belgian-born British actress
Audrey Hepburn was a Belgian-born British actress known for her radiant beauty and style, her ability to project an air of sophistication tempered by a charming innocence, and her tireless efforts to aid...
English lyricist
Tim Rice is an English lyricist who coauthored some of the most successful stage and film musicals of the 20th century. He often collaborated with Andrew Lloyd Webber, and their notable works included...
American actor
Jeremy Strong is an American actor best known for playing Kendall Roy in Succession (2018–23), the HBO comedy-drama series that showcases a powerful media-mogul patriarch and his adult children’s desperate...
English theater director
Michael Grandage is an English theatre director who created critically and commercially successful productions of a diverse variety of plays in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Grandage grew up...