On August 6, 2024, the Princess Grace Foundation announced the recipients for the 2024 Princess Grace Awards. Founded in memory of actor Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, PGF has been celebrating and supporting budding artists in film, dance and theater for 40 years.
As part of the Princess Grace Foundation’s 40th anniversary celebrating emerging artists in theater, dance and film, recipients have been named within 4 prestigious award programs: Princess Grace Award, Special Project Grant, Grace Kelly Scholarship and the re-introduction of the Princess Grace Statue Award.
Congratulations to the 4 Tisch alumni who received an award or honoraria! See below for the recipients, and click here for the full list.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins ‘07 (MA, Performance Studies)
Princess Grace Statue Award
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a Brooklyn-based writer. His plays include Appropriate, The Comeuppance, Everybody, Gloria, An Octoroon, and Neighbors. He currently teaches at Yale University and serves as Vice President of the Dramatists Guild council and on the boards of Soho Rep, Park Avenue Armory, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Dramatists Guild Foundation. Recent Honors include a 2024 Tony Award, the 2023 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Play, a USA Artists fellowship, a Guggenheim fellowship, the MacArthur fellowship, the Windham-Campbell Prize for Drama, and the inaugural Tennessee Williams Award.
Dahlak Brathwaite ‘21 (MFA, Graduate Musical Theatre Writing)
Theater Award
Dahlak Brathwaite is an award-winning dramatic auteur: playwright, composer, director, filmmaker, and performer. His work has been presented at BAM, The Kennedy Center, The Apollo, The Wallis, REDCAT, MCA Chicago, and on HBO’s last two seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. He adapted the acclaimed novel Long Way Down into a musical, which recently premiered at The Olney Theater in Maryland. His latest work COMMERCIAL has been developed and presented at the Public Theater. Dahlak has received awards and support from NEFA, the Doris Duke Foundation, The U.S. State Department, and MAP Fund. He is a graduate of NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, where he was awarded the Dean’s Full-Tuition Fellowship, and served as the Assistant Director for the national tour of the Tony-winning revival of Oklahoma!
Sim Carpenter (MFA Candidate, Design For Stage & Film)
Theater Honoraria
Simean “Sim” Carpenter is an award-winning, African-American scenic, lighting and production designer from Baltimore, MD. Sim holds a deep passion for social equality. His goal as a designer is to use his many mediums to captivate the audience and reveal the too often disregarded stories of marginalized groups. Selected credits: Long Way Down (Olney Theatre/Apollo Theater); Tiny Beautiful Things (Baltimore Center Stage); The Folks at Home (Baltimore Center Stage); Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (Marriott Theatre); D.R.E.A.D. (New York University); FLEX (New York University) Sim holds a B.F.A. in Stage Design from DePaul University and is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in Design for Stage & Film from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Gustavo René Sanabria (MFA Candidate, Grad Film)
Film & Animation Award
Gustavo René Sanabria is a Paraguayan-American filmmaker pursuing an MFA in Film & TV at NYU Tisch. His short films have screened at festivals around the world including Sundance, Slamdance, and SXSW, having won numerous awards and received Academy Award qualifications. As a writer-director, he is inspired by the diasporic experience and the decolonization of cinema. His latest film, SIESTA, just had its World Premiere at the Champs-Élysées Film Festival in Paris and is headed to the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Most recently, he has received the 2024 Black Family Prize for his thesis film at NYU. Gustavo develops deeply personal projects in hopes of spurring conversation, thoughts, dreams, and above all, connection.
*We apologize for any errors or omissions. Please send edits or additions to tsoa.alumni@nyu.edu.