Bruce Norris

Bruce Norris is an American character actor and playwright associated with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company of Chicago. His play Clybourne Park won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. After graduating from Northwestern University in 1982 with a degree in theatre, Norris set out to become an actor. He performed at Victory Gardens Theater, the Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre and on Broadway. His Broadway acting credits include David Hirson's Wrong Mountain (January to February 2000), Wendy Wasserstein's An American Daughter (April to June 1997), and Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues (March 1985 to June 1986). During this time he was also "hired and fired from a number of television pilots." These rejections led to writing his first play, The Actor Retires, produced in a late-night venue in Chicago in 1991 and then as a radio play for later broadcast by WFMT-FM as part of the Guest Quarters Hotel's series Chicago Theatres on the Air in 1992. Since 2000, Steppenwolf Theatre has produced ten of Norris's plays.