Who Are the Playwrights

Marcus Gardley

Alumni Playwright

Marcus Gardley is an acclaimed poet, playwright, and screenwriter who wrote the screenplay for the just released reimagining of THE COLOR PURPLE (2023). He won the 2022 WGA award for best adapted tv longform series for MAID (Netflix). He is the recipient of the 2019 Doris Duke Artist Award. He was a 2019 Obie Award winner for his play The House That Will Not Stand, the 2015 Glickman Award winner, and a finalist for the 2016 and 2015 Kennedy Prize. Other plays include X or the Nation v Betty Shabazzblack odyssey (2023 Drama Desk nomination)The Gospel of Loving KindnessEvery Tongue Confess…and Jesus moonwalks the Mississippi, and The Road Weeps, The Well Runs Dry. In TV, he has written for several series including Boots Riley’s I’M A VIRGO (Amazon), THE CHI (Showtime), FOUNDATION (Apple), NOS4A2 (AMC), TALES OF THE CITY (Netflix), and MINDHUNTER (Netflix). Gardley was born and raised in Oakland, California. He is the current co-chair of the Playwriting Program at The David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University.