Stacy Amma Osei-Kuffour (born April 18, 1987) is an American playwright, actress, and writer known for her work on Watchmen and PEN15.
Stacy Osei-Kuffour | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 18, 1987 |
| Occupation(s) | Playwright, actress, writer |
| Years active | 2010–present |
She was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2019 for PEN15 and received a Writers Guild Award for her work on Watchmen.
Early life and education
editOsei-Kuffour was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Denise Poindexter and Godwin Osei-Kuffour. Her mother, a schoolteacher, is Black American and her father, a business owner, is Ghanaian.[1] Her culturally mixed heritage often figures in her work.[citation needed]
After attending at Homewood-Flossmoor High School in Flossmoor, Illinois, Osei-Kuffour studied at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she majored in drama at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. At NYU she met future collaborators Anna Konkle and Maya Erskine, both of whom she would later work with on PEN15. She also studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
After graduating from NYU, she earned a Master's degree in playwriting from Hunter College. Her one-act play One Course won the Irv Zarkower Award at Hunter in 2014.[2]
Career
editAfter trying for six years to break into the New York City theater scene, Osei-Kuffour moved to Los Angeles to pursue acting and writing there. She also appeared in three episodes of Accountability Partners. She also continued writing plays, with several being produced. Her play Hang Man premiered in her Chicago home town in the spring of 2018.[1] The COVID-19 pandemic halted the scheduled premiere of her play Animals at the Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts, but the festival produced it as an audio play in December 2020 starring William Jackson Harper and Aja Naomi King.[3]
In 2018, she was a staff writer on Syfy's Happy!.[4] In 2019 she received an Emmy nomination in the Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series category for the "Anna Ishii-Peters" episode of Hulu's PEN15. She was the only African American woman nominated in that category that year,[5] and the third ever to be nominated, after Lena Waithe (who won for Master of None) and Stefani Robinson for Atlanta.[2]
The same year, she was tapped as a member of an all-female writing team for Amazon's series The Power starring Leslie Mann and based on the novel by Naomi Alderman.[6] She also worked as a supervising producer on Apple TV's The Morning Show.[7]
In 2020, her work as a story editor and writer for the HBO series Watchmen earned her a Writers Guild Award (WGA) for Best New Series.[8][9] Also that year, she worked as a story editor on Run for HBO and for Amazon’s Hunters.[10]
In January 2020 Hulu tapped her to co-write, with Nnedi Okorafor, a television adaptation of Okorafor's science fiction novella Binti.[11]
In February 2021, it was announced that Osei-Kuffour would write the script for the Blade film reboot starring Mahershala Ali,[12][13] before she was replaced by Michael Starrbury in November 2022.[14]
She continued her television work in 2021 as well, writing for the Amazon anthology series Solos.
Filmography
edit| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Happy! | Staff writer |
| 2019 | PEN15 | Wrote: "Anna Ishii-Peters" |
| 2019 | Watchmen | Wrote: "An Almost Religious Awe" |
| 2019 | The Morning Show | Producer, wrote: "A Private Person" |
| 2020 | Hunters | Story editor |
| 2020 | Run | Story editor |
| 2021 | Solos | Wrote: "NERA" |
| 2023 | The Power | Wrote: "Sparklefingers" |
| 2023 | The Bear | Supervising producer, wrote "Honeydew" |
| TBA | Binti | Co-writing with Nnedi Okorafor |
As actress
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Death (A Love Story) | Clown | Short film |
| 2014 | The Oscar Panel | Chiwetel | Short film |
| 2014 | Plant | Judge #2 | Episode: "The Brood's All Here" |
| 2015 | There Are Ghosts | Unknown | Short film |
| 2017 | Accountability Partners | Jessica | 3 episodes |
| 2018 | Balloon Room | Hillary Clinton | |
| 2019 | PEN15 | Mrs. Osei-Kuffour | Episode: "Anna Ishii-Peters" |
| 2020 | I Think You'd Be Great | Kendall | Short film |
Awards and nominations
edit| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Primetime Emmy Awards | Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series | PEN15 (for "Anna Ishii-Peters") | Nominated | [15] |
| 2020 | Writers Guild of America Awards | New Series | Watchmen | Won | [16] |
| Drama Series | Nominated | ||||
| Comedy Series | PEN15 | Nominated | |||
| New Series | Nominated |
References
edit- ^ a b Catey Sullivan (May 14, 2018). "Why Stacy Osei-Kuffour Put a Hanged Man on Stage". Chicago Magazine. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ a b Erik Anderson (August 26, 2019). "Emmy interview: Emmy-nominated 'PEN15' co-writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour". AwardsWatch. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ Talaura Harms (December 17, 2020). "World Premiere of Stacy Osei-Kuffour's Animals Available From Williamstown Theatre Festival's Audible Season December 17". Playbill. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ "Stacy Osei-Kuffour". Writers Guild of America West. Archived from the original on November 25, 2022. Retrieved November 25, 2022.
- ^ Jessica Villagomez (September 18, 2019). "Glenwood native and 'PEN15' writer talks about the passion that fueled her Emmy-nominated episode". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ Nellie Andreeva (October 31, 2019). "Leslie Mann To Star In Amazon Series 'The Power' Based On Naomi Alderman's Book". Deadline. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ ""Write What You Love And What Scares You" Stacy Osei-Kuffour Discusses Writing On Emmy-Nominated 'Pen15'". Creative Screenwriting. August 28, 2019. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ Borys Kit (February 5, 2021). "Marvel's 'Blade' Movie Finds Its Writer in 'Watchmen' Scribe (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ Patrick Hipes (February 1, 2020). "WGA Awards: 'Parasite', 'Jojo Rabbit' Take Top Film Honors; HBO Sweeps Key TV Nods With 'Succession', 'Barry' & 'Watchmen' – The Complete List Of Winners". Deadline. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ Angelique Jackson; Adam V. Vary (February 5, 2021). "Stacy Osei-Kuffour Tapped to Write Marvel's 'Blade' Starring Mahershala Ali". Variety. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ Lesley Goldberg (January 14, 2020). "'Binti' Adaptation From Michael Ellenberg in the Works at Hulu (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ Kroll, Justin (July 19, 2021). "'Blade': 'Mogul Mowgli' Helmer Bassam Tariq Is Marvel's Choice To Direct New Film Starring Mahershala Ali As Iconic Vampire Hunter". Deadline. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
- ^ Tatiana Siegel; Borys Kit (May 5, 2021). "Behind Warner Bros.' Search for a Black Superman". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
- ^ Kroll, Justin (November 21, 2022). "'Blade': Yann Demange Steps In As Director On Marvel Film, Michael Starrbury To Write Script". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on November 21, 2022. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
- ^ "Stacy Osei-Kuffour - Emmy Awards, Nominations and Wins". Television Academy. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
- ^ Beresford, Trilby; Crist, Allison; Chuba, Kirsten; Lewis, Hilary (February 1, 2020). "WGA Awards: 'Parasite' and 'JoJo Rabbit' Among Film Winners". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 16, 2021.