Zora Howard facts for kids

Zora Howard is an amazing American actress and writer. She is known for her powerful acting and for writing stories that make people think. Her first play, STEW, was a finalist for the famous Pulitzer Prize for Drama. She also helped write and starred in the movie Premature in 2019.

Who is Zora Howard?

Zora Howard grew up in Harlem, a vibrant neighborhood in New York City. Her mom is Julie Butler and her dad is Claude Howard.

Zora's Early Life and Education

Zora started writing poetry when she was very young. She even performed with a spoken word group called The Strivers Row. When she was just 13 years old, she made history! She became the youngest poet ever to win the Urban Word NYC Grand Slam finals. That's a big deal for a young writer!

After high school, Zora went to Yale University and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 2014. Later, she continued her studies at the University of California, San Diego, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in acting.

Zora's Creative Career

Zora Howard has shown her talent in both acting and writing. She has worked on exciting film projects and written plays that have received high praise.

Her First Big Movie Role: Premature

The 2019 film Premature was a huge step for Zora. It was her first main acting role in a movie, and she also helped write the script! She wrote it with the director, Rashaad Ernesto Green.

Zora actually met Rashaad Green when she was only 11 years old, through the theater scene in New York. When she was 14, he even cast her in a student film he made while studying at NYU Tisch. That student film was also called Premature! She also worked with Green on his first full-length movie, Gun Hill Road.

In 2017, Green asked Zora to help him develop a new movie script for Premature. The film tells the story of Ayanna, a 17-year-old girl from New York, played by Zora. She starts a summer romance with an artist named Joshua Boone. The movie first showed at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019. Many critics loved the movie. Candace Frederick from Elle magazine said it was a "confident, remarkably vulnerable drama." Michael Cuby from Nylon described it as a "coming-of-age love story" about finding your first love and also finding yourself.

Her Award-Winning Play: STEW

Zora Howard's first play, STEW, opened in February 2020 at Walkerspace in New York. The play is about three generations of women in one family. They have to deal with the choices they've made in their lives.

The play was very well-received. Helen Shaw, writing for Vulture, said that Zora's play helps the audience "hear hundreds of years of pain." This play was so good that it became a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, which is one of the highest honors for plays in the United States!

Awards and Recognitions

Zora Howard has received several important awards and honors for her amazing work:

• 2020-2021 Van Lier New Voices Fellow, The Lark
• 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Finalist (for STEW)