Kristoffer Diaz

Kristoffer Diaz is a playwright, screenwriter, musical librettist, and educator. His teaching interests include dramatic writing and contemporary US theater, with a special focus on new American plays and musicals. His musical Hell's Kitchen (created with Alicia Keys) was nominated for 13 Tony Awards, including Best Book, and is currently running on Broadway. His play The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, and has gone on to more than forty productions nationwide. 

Other full-length titles include Hercules (adapted from the Disney film for the Joseph Papp Public Theater's Public Works program), Reggie Hoops, Welcome to Arroyo’s, #therevolution, Rebecca Oaxaca (Lays Down A Bunt), Expect Victory, and The Unfortunates. His work has been produced, commissioned, and developed at The Public Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Geffen Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, The Goodman, Second Stage, Victory Gardens, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Chelsea Factory, American Theater Company, The Atlantic, InterAct, Mixed Blood, The Orchard Project, Hip-Hop Theater Festival, The Lark, Summer Play Festival, Donmar Warehouse, and South Coast Repertory, among many others. Awards include the Guggenheim, Jerome, Van Lier, NYFA, and Gail Merrifield Papp Fellowships; New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award; Lucille Lortel, Equity Jeff, and OBIE Awards; and the Future Aesthetics Artist Regrant, among others.

As a screenwriter, Kristoffer adapted the musical Rent for the Fox network, wrote on the Netflix series GLOW, and has developed original television pilots for HBO and FX. Kristoffer holds a BA from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, an MFA from NYU’s Department of Dramatic Writing, and an MFA from Brooklyn College’s Performing Arts Management program. He teaches in both Gallatin and the Department of Dramatic Writing at the Tisch School of the Arts. Kristoffer sits on the board of New Dramatists (where he is an alumni playwright) and serves as an officer on the council of the Dramatists Guild.