Tony Award-Nominee Danai Gurira and
Moonlight Actor André Holland to be Honored
Photo Credits: Danai Gurira by Walter Kurtz; André Holland by Deborah Lopez
New York, NY – March 21, 2017: NYU Tisch School of the Arts today announced it will honor notable alumni The Walking Dead actress, award-winning playwright and Tony-nominee Danai Gurira (’04) and The Knick and Moonlight actor André Holland (’06) at its 2017 gala. The annual event, this year themed Aspire and Inspire, will be held on Monday, April 3, 2017, at Cipriani 42nd Street.
"This year at the Tisch Gala, we honor two extraordinary and inspiring alumni – Danai Gurira and André Holland – both from our Graduate Acting Program,” said Allyson Green, Dean, NYU Tisch School of the Arts. “Danai and André are brilliant storytellers and represent all that is possible with the education we offer. They work across disciplines, and they are fearless in telling stories that are often overlooked or unheard.”
Danai Gurira graduated from the Tisch Graduate Acting Program. In addition to her television and film work, she has been recognized for her work as a playwright, which has earned her several prestigious theater awards including two Helen Hayes awards, a Drama Desk Award and an NAACP Award. Her body of work includes the plays In the Continuum (2005), the Tony Award-nominated Eclipsed (2009), The Convert (2012) and Familiar (2015). Gurira is the founder of LOGpledge.org, a campaign focused on building awareness of the plights of women and girls around the globe, and the co-founder of Almasi Arts, which works to give access and opportunity to the next generation of African Dramatic Artists. She is also a spokesperson for ONE, a campaigning and advocacy organization of nearly eight million people around the world taking action to end extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.
André Holland graduated from the Tisch Graduate Acting Program. He can currently be seen in the Academy Award-winning film Moonlight and recently wrapped production on Ava DuVernay’s adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle In Time. In 2015, he received an NAACP Image Award nomination for “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture” for his role as Andrew Young in Paramount Pictures’ Selma. Holland has held notable television roles in several popular series including The Knick, American Horror Story, 1600 Penn, Damages, Burn Notice and NBC's Friends with Benefits. In addition to his television and film work, he has acted in several theatrical productions including his Broadway debut in the Tony Award-winning revival of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone (2009), August Wilson’s Jitney (2017), Manhattan Theatre Club’s presentation of The Whipping Man (2011) and the Public Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park productions of All’s Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure (2011).
Since its founding in 1965, the Tisch School of the Arts has established itself as one of the leading arts schools in the country. It draws on the vast artistic and cultural resources of New York City and New York University to create an extraordinary training ground for the individual artist and scholar, with course offerings in acting, dance, cinema studies, design for stage and film, dramatic writing, film and television, game design, interactive telecommunications, moving image archiving and preservation, musical theatre writing, performance studies, photography, public policy and recorded music.
Thousands of Tisch alumni have gone on to enjoy fulfilling careers in the arts. Tisch graduates include renowned artists such as Pulitzer Prize winners Annie Baker, Tony Kushner, Doug Wright and Chang Lee; Academy Award winners Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, Marcia Gay Harden, Keiko Ibi, Mahershala Ali and Ang Lee; Tony Award winners Nina Arianda, Steve Kazee, George C. Wolfe, Michael Mayer, Idina Menzel, Stephen Spinella, and Frank Wood; Emmy Award winners Alec Baldwin, Billy Crystal, Cary Joji Fukunaga, Vince Gilligan, Kristen Johnston, Camryn Manheim and Debra Messing; acclaimed filmmakers Spike Lee, Amy Heckerling, Colin Treverrow; Grammy nominee Elle Varner; entrepreneur Dennis Crowley; MacArthur Fellowship recipients Kyle Abraham, Camille Utterback, and Mimi Lien; visual artist Leo Villareal; and actors Gina Rodriguez, Sterling K. Brown and Corey Stoll.
For media inquiries, contact Rida Bint Fozi at The TASC Group at 212-337-8870 or rida@thetascgroup.com.
About the NYU Tisch School of the Arts
For over 50 years, the NYU Tisch School of the Arts has drawn on the vast artistic and cultural resources of New York City and New York University to create an extraordinary training ground for the individual artist and scholar of the arts. Today, students learn their craft in a spirited, risk-taking environment that combines the professional training of a conservatory with the liberal arts education of a premier global university with campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, Shanghai and 11 academic centers around the world. Learn more at www.tisch.nyu.edu.