Kara Young (actress)

Young was born and raised in Harlem in New York City.^[2] Both of her parents immigrated from Belize. Her father, Klay Young, began working in the Rainbow Room in 30 Rockefeller Plaza in 1992 as a server; he was later promoted to captain. (In 2022, Kara attended a special event there as a Tony Award nominee).^[1] Her mother worked in health administration at Bellevue Hospital.^[1]

Young had an interest in performing from the age of five, when she learned to mime in an afterschool program at the 92nd Street Y.^[3] She briefly went to Gettysburg College and the City College of New York before studying at the New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, where she graduated.^[2][4] She studied traditional theater in Thailand for a month in 2008.^[2]

Young joined the LAByrinth Theater Company in 2017.^[2] She has appeared off-Broadway in plays such as NSangou Njikam's Syncing Ink, Jonathan Payne's The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll'd, Stephen Adly Guirgis's Halfway Bitches Go Straight To Heaven (a LAByrinth co-production), Jeff Augustin's The New Englanders, and C.A. Johnson's All the Natalie Portmans.^[2][5][6] A New York Times review of her starring role in All the Natalie Portmans said that Young "can fit what feels like a mountain of blood, heart, sinew and febrile emotional response into a frame that can't stretch past five feet".^[6] Young often plays characters much younger than herself, adolescents or even preadolescents, aided by her small size and wide-set eyes.^[2]

In November 2021, Young made her Broadway debut at the Hayes Theater playing a single mother, Letitia, in Lynn Nottage's play Clyde's.^[3] The Times called her performance "superb".^[7] At the 75th Tony Awards, she was nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Play for Clyde's.^[8]

In 2022, Young played a caregiver, Jess, in Martyna Majok's play Cost of Living at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway.^[9] At the 76th Tony Awards, she was again nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Play for Cost of Living.^[10] In 2023 she portrayed Lutiebell Gussie Mae Jenkins in the revival of the Ossie Davis play Purlie Victorious on Broadway, for which she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play in 2024.^[11] In 2025 she won the Best Featured Actress in a Play Tony Award for her work in Purpose, which made her the first black performer to win acting Tony Awards consecutively. Because she was previously nominated for that award, she was also the first black performer to get four consecutive Tony nominations.^[12]

In 2026, Young joined the cast of the Broadway revival of Proof as Claire, starring alongside Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle at the Booth Theatre.^[13] Young was cast as a last-minute replacement for Samira Wiley, who departed the production due to a medical condition. Young has stated that, due to the suddenness of her addition to the cast, she was only allowed five days of preparation prior to the beginning of technical rehearsals.^[14] Her performance was often cited as the strongest element of the show by critics.^[a]

Film

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes	Ref.
2018	Hair Wolf	Cami	Mariama Diallo	Short film	[19]
2020	Chemical Hearts	La	Richard Tanne		[19]
	King of Knives	Darla	Jon Delgado		[19]
2021	After Yang	Erin	Kogonada	Uncredited	[19]
2022	Master	Sascha	Mariama Dillo		[19]
	F^¢k 'Em R!ght B@¢k	Yolanda	Harris Doran	Short film	[19]
2023	Blow Up My Life	Charlie August	Abigail Horton / Ryan Dickie		[19]
2024	We Strangers	Mari Winters	Anu Valia		[19]
2026	I Love Boosters		Boots Riley		[20]
	Is God Is	Racine the Rough One	Aleshea Harris	Completed	[21]

Close

Television

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2018	Random Acts of Flyness	Janelle	Episode: "They Got Some S**t That'll Blow Out Our Back"	[19]
2019	The Other Two	VMA Announcer	Episode: "Chase Performs at the VMAs"	[19]
	The Punisher	Wendy	2 episodes	[19]
2020	Bite Size Halloween	Billie	Episode: "First Date"	[19]
2022	The Staircase	Yasmine	2 episodes	[19]
2023	I'm a Virgo	Jones	7 episodes	[22]
2024	Great Performances	Lutiebell Gussie Mae Jenkins	Episode: "Purlie Victorious"	[23]

Close

Theater

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Venue	Ref.
2016	Pretty Hunger	Lea	The Public Theater	[24]
	In the Event of My Death	Kate	IRT Theatre	[25]
2017	Syncing Ink	Sweet Tea	Alley Theatre The Flea Theater	[26]
2018	The Revolving Cycles Truly and Steadily Roll'd	Karma	The Duke on 42nd Street	[27]
2019	The New Englanders	Eisa	New York City Center	[5]
	Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven	Lil Melba Diaz	Linda Gross Theatre	[28]
2020	All the Natalie Portmans	Keyonna	Susan and Ronald Frankel Theater	[29]
2021–2022	Clyde's	Letitia	Hayes Theater, Broadway	[3]
2022	Twelfth Night	Viola	Classical Theatre of Harlem	[30]
	Cost of Living	Jess	Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, Broadway	[9]'
2023–2024	Purlie Victorious	Lutiebell Gussie Mae Jenkins	Music Box Theater, Broadway	[3]
2024	The Apiary	Zora	Tony Kiser Theatre, Off-Broadway	[31]
	Syncing Ink	Sweet Tea	Victoria Theater, Off-Broadway	[32]
	Table 17	Jada	MCC Theater, Off-Broadway	[33]
2025	Purpose	Aziza	Hayes Theater, Broadway	[33]
	Gruesome Playground Injuries	Kayleen	Lucille Lortel Theatre, Off-Broadway	[34]
2026	Proof	Claire	Booth Theatre, Broadway	[35]
	The Whoopi Monologues	Performer	Mitzi E. Newhouse Theatre, Off-Broadway	[36]
2027	Mix and Master	TBA	Todd Haimes Theatre, Broadway	[37]

Close

• African-American Tony nominees and winners
• List of Tony Award records