BIO

Sharon Washington was nominated for a 2023 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical as co-writer of New York New York. Celebrating over 30 years as a working actress and her new journey as a writer, Sharon made her debut as playwright at City Theatre with the world-premiere of her solo play Feeding The Dragon which subsequently played at Hartford Stage and made its Off-Broadway debut at Primary Stages where she was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance, a Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Solo Show and won an Audelco Award for Solo Performance. Sharon was the Primary Stages 2017-18 Tow Foundation Playwright-in-Residence. Feeding the Dragon is available as a best-selling Audible Original audio play and has been selected as an Audible Essentials Top 100 pick. It is published by Oberon Books. Current writing projects include: Co-Writer/Executive Producer of the Feeding the Dragon adaptation in development as a live-action/animated YA series.

Her new work-in-progress A Colored Mirror was selected for residencies at the New Harmony Project and SPACE on Ryder Farm and she is also under contract with Scholastic for a picture book adaptation of her story: The Little Girl Who Lived in the Library.

Sharon continues to perform on stage, and on the big and small screen. She was seen last summer as Queen Margaret in the Public Theater/Shakespeare in the Park production of Richard III starring Dania Gurira, which was broadcast on PBS Great Performances. Recent film and television appearances include guest star roles on Power Book III: Raising Kanan, and Bull; the award-winning short film Birdwatching co-starring Amanda Seyfried, Down with The King which premiered at Cannes ACID; as well as The Kitchen, On The Basis of Sex and the Academy-Award winning Joker film. Other film and television: Gotham, Blue Bloods, The Blacklist, Michael Clayton, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Malcolm X, Die Hard With A Vengeance, Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU. You may also recognize her voice as the narrator of several documentary series for Animal Planet, Discovery and NOVA.

On Broadway Sharon appeared in The Scottsboro Boys musical. Off-Broadway credits include Dot (Vineyard Theater); Wild with Happy (Public Theater/NYSF) for which she received a Lucille Lortel nomination and an Audelco Award; Richard III (1990 and 2022), Coriolanus, Cymbeline, Caucasian Chalk Circle (Public Theatre/NYSF) and While I Yet Live and String of Pearls at Primary Stages among many others. 

She has also performed at award-winning regional theaters around the country including: Actors Theatre of Louisville, Guthrie Theater, Huntington Theater, Denver Center, Yale Rep and Arena Stage and workshopped numerous new plays at The O’Neill, Sundance, Powerhouse at Vassar and New York Theater Workshop.

Sharon holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama. A BA from Dartmouth College and  is a graduate of The Dalton School. She currently sits on the boards of The Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth, Primary Stages, Girl Be Heard and the Theatre Gap Initiative