Moisés Kaufman

He has directed extensively on Broadway and Internationally, and is the author of numerous plays, including Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde and 33 Variations.

• Name — Moisés Kaufman • Born — 21 November 1963 • Birthplace — Caracas, Venezuela • Occupation — theatre director, playwright • Education — Metropolitan University New York University (BFA)

Kaufman is of Romanian-Jewish and Ukrainian-Jewish descent, and was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He is an alumnus of Venezuela's Universidad Metropolitana, where he began to study theatre. After immigrating to the United States, he went to college in New York and graduated from NYU. In 2005 he described himself in an interview by saying, "I am Venezuelan, I am Jewish, I am gay, I live in New York. I am the sum of all my cultures. I couldn't write anything that didn't incorporate all that I am." Kaufman was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002, following the premiere of The Laramie Project, which was based on extensive interviews with residents and commentators in and around Wyoming who were involved with the aftermath of the murder of gay student Matthew Shepard. He made his Broadway directing debut in the 2004 production of I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright, for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Direction of a Play. On September 22, 2016, Kaufman was awarded the National Medal of Arts and Humanities in a ceremony conducted by U.S. president Barack Obama. He is the first Venezuelan to receive the honor. In 2022, Kaufman was included in the book 50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre, profiled in a chapter written by theatre scholar Bess Rowen.

• Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (1997) • The Laramie Project (2000) • 33 Variations (2009) • One Arm (2011) (adaptation) • London Mosquitoes (2011) • Here There Are Blueberries (2018) • Greed (2021)

• Women in Beckett (1991) • The Nest (1994) • Marlowe's Eyes (1996) • Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (1997) • The Laramie Project (2000) • I Am My Own Wife (2003, his Broadway debut) • Master Class (2004) with Rita Moreno • Lady Windermere's Fan (2005) • This Is How It Goes (2005) (Donmar Warehouse) starring Ben Chaplin • Macbeth (2006) (The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park) starring Liev Schreiber • 33 Variations (2009) (Broadway) starring Jane Fonda • Into the Woods (2009) • Puss in Boots (El Gato con Botas) (2010) • Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (2011) (Broadway) starring Robin Williams • One Arm (2011) • The Nightingale (2012) • The Heiress (2012) (Broadway) with Jessica Chastain • Torch Song (2018) (Broadway) • Paradise Square (2018) (Berkeley Rep, Chicago, Broadway) • Here There Are Blueberries (2018) • Seven Deadly Sins (2021)