Shayok Misha Chowdhury is a many-tentacled writer and director born in India and based in Brooklyn. He received an Obie Award for directing the world premiere of his bilingual play Public Obscenities at Soho Rep. The play was one of three finalists for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and also earned him a Whiting Award. The "literary marvel” was a New York Times Critic's Pick and named in The New Yorker's Best Theatre of 2023.
Chowdhury is the recipient of a Princess Grace Award, The Mark O’Donnell Prize, Drama Desk and Drama League nominations, a Jonathan Larson Grant, and the Relentless Award for his musical How the White Girl Got Her Spots and Other 90s Trivia. He was a collaborator on the Grammy-winning album Calling All Dawns. Other plays include Brother, Brother (New York Theatre Workshop) with Aleshea Harris; Speech (Philly Fringe) with Lightning Rod Special; and Mukhagni (Under the Radar @ The Public Theater) with Kameron Neal.
Chowdhury is a Sundance, Fulbright, Kundiman, and NYSCA/NYFA fellow and the creator of “Vichitra,” a series of short films rooted in queer South Asian imagination. His poetry has been published in The Cincinnati Review, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere.
At MacDowell, he wrote a draft of a new play, Ronnie And Kripa, and a draft of his performance memoir, Rheology, to premiere at The Bushwick Starr in 2025.
Portrait by Beowulf Sheehan
