Katori Hall, the playwright behind the Denver Center Theatre Company’s The Hot Wing King, has a celebrated and extensive history with groundbreaking material. Denver audiences might be familiar with the fact that The Hot Wing King received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2021. However, a lesser-known fact is that Hall is one of the most lauded living playwrights.

Katori Hall

Hall graduated from Craigmont High School in Memphis, Tennessee. She was the first Black valedictorian in the school’s history.

She attended Columbia University on a full scholarship, graduating in 2003 with a degree in African American Studies and Creative Writing. Hall continued her education at Harvard University’s American Repertory Theatre (ART), receiving her MFA in 2005.

During her time at the ART, Hall completed the play Hoodoo Love. She submitted the script to Cherry Lane Theatre’s Mentor Project, an acclaimed program which matched three up-and-coming playwrights with three established playwrights to workshop and stage promising productions.

Lynn Nottage, one of the Black female playwrights who inspired Hall to continue her work in theatre, chose to mentor Hall and develop Hoodoo Love. The production, which follows an aspiring singer in Great Depression-era Memphis as she seeks help from a hoodoo woman to secure the love of her restless boyfriend, moved to Cherry Lane’s Mainstage for its world premiere in 2007.

Not slowing down for one second, Hall was then selected to participate in the Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program at Juilliard, graduating in 2009. She was subsequently awarded the Playwrights of New York Fellowship with Lark Play Development Center, where she workshopped the script for a play titled The Mountaintop.

The Mountaintop premiered in London’s West End in 2010, winning the Olivier Award for Best New Play. Hall is the first Black woman to receive that honor. The Mountaintop is a fantastical account of Martin Luther King Jr.’s final hours, where he meets a young maid carrying a secret.

The play transferred to Broadway in 2011, starring Samuel L. Jackson in his Broadway debut as MLK and Angela Basset as the maid, Camae. The play caused a stir in the United States, with some audience members finding such a human depiction of the legendary MLK unsettling. Others found Hall’s ingenuity refreshing and exciting.

Opportunity kept coming Hall’s way. In the span of five years, Hall premiered seven more plays: WHADDABLOODCLOT!!! (2012), Hurt Village (2013), Saturday Night/Sunday Morning (2014), Our Lady of Kibeho (2015), Pussy Valley (2015), The Blood Quilt (2015), and Children of Killers (2016).

For her first foray into musical theatre, Hall was approached to pen the book for a jukebox musical depicting the life of Tina Turner. TINA: The Tina Turner Musical premiered in the West End in 2018 before transferring to Broadway in 2019. Hall was nominated for the 2020 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical alongside co-writers Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins.

Hall was also approached to develop her play Pussy Valley into a Starz television drama series, titled “P-Valley.” The show premiered in 2020 to critical acclaim, with Hall working as showrunner and executive producer. Off-screen, the series is heralded for its commitment to uplifting women in media, only hiring female directors. Hall also inked a deal with Lionsgate, part of which allocated funds to commission Black playwrights.

Hall’s next project would be The Hot Wing King, an exploration of Black masculinity grounded in a couple’s attempt to win a hot wing competition. The play premiered Off-Broadway in 2020 before being cut short due to restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite its short run, Hall then received the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for The Hot Wing King.

Hall was awarded the University Medal for Excellence from Columbia University in 2023. Yet another accolade to add to the growing list, which also includes: a Susan Smith Blackburn Award, two Lecompte du Nouy Prizes, and the Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, alongside several fellowships throughout her career.

To witness Hall’s renowned work in action, see The Hot Wing King from April 25-May 25.