Deepa Purohit (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based playwright. She made her Off-Broadway debut at The Atlantic Theater Company with the World Premiere of her play, Elyria, in winter 2023 (2023 Drama League Award Nominee for Outstanding Production of a Play). She’s a recipient of the 2023 Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award, a 2022-23 Edgerton Foundation Award for Elyria & a 2023 Atlantic Theater Company NYSCA commission. Residencies: 2022-23 New Georges Audrey Residency. SPACE on Ryder Farm Residency (2015, 2016, 2018). Ma-Yi Writers Lab: “Legacy Labbie”.
Full-length plays: Elyria (2019 Jerome Foundation grant recipient, w/Ma-Yi Theater Company), Bones (2017 Andrew Mellon Foundation Residency w/Ma-Yi theater Company), The In Between, Mxx/perience, A Valentine (2016 Kilroys Honorable Mention), Have Sari Will Travel! & Flight. A collection of short form plays: Mothering. Co-writing with Sanjit De Silva: Pulling the Lever, American Family Project, Grace (2004-12) Rising Circle Theater Collective) & Crushed Earth (2017 New Play Frontiers Commission, People’s Light Theatre) – stage & audio play (2023). She’s currently adapting her play, Elyria, into a TV series.
Deepa co-founded and ran Rising Circle Theater Collective (2000-2012) – a theater company centered on the stories people of color & the RC INKtank Writers Lab. BA in History: Northwestern University. MPH: Columbia University. MFA, Playwriting: Brooklyn College (2020).