Letts, Tracy (1965-…), is an American playwright and actor. Letts won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for drama for August: Osage County (2007), an intense play about conflicts within a wealthy Oklahoma family. The play also won the 2008 Tony Award for best play. In 2013, Letts received the Tony Award for best actor for his performance as George, a college professor, in the play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee. Letts became the first person to win both a Tony Award for acting and a Pulitzer Prize.
As a dramatist, Letts is known for plays that combine psychological and physical violence with dark humor. His first play was Killer Joe (1993), a violent drama about a Dallas, Texas, police officer who also works as a hired killer. Letts’s other plays include Bug (1996), Man from Nebraska (2003), Superior Donuts (2008), and The Minutes (2017). He also adapted the drama Three Sisters, written by the Russian author Anton Chekhov, in 2009. Letts wrote the screenplays for the film adaptations of Bug (2006), Killer Joe (2011), and August: Osage County (2013).
Letts was born on July 4, 1965, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After graduating from high school, he moved to Dallas, Texas, where he began his acting career. Letts moved to Chicago, Illinois, at the age of 20 and became involved with the Steppenwolf Theatre, a major regional theater company. He joined Steppenwolf as a member of the permanent ensemble in 2002. Man from Nebraska, August: Osage County, Superior Donuts, and The Minutes all made their world premieres at the Steppenwolf Theatre.
