Tracy Letts

Two years later, the play premiered at the Next Lab Theater in Evanston, Illinois, followed by the 29th Street Rep in New York City.

Since then, Killer Joe has been performed in a number of countries in 12 languages.

His mother, Billie Letts, has said of his work, "I try to be upbeat and funny. Everybody in Tracy's stories gets naked or dead."

Letts's plays have depicted people struggling with moral and spiritual questions.

He says he was inspired by the plays of Tennessee Williams and the novels of William Faulkner and Jim Thompson.

Letts states that he considers sounds to be effective "storytelling tools" for theater.

Tracy S. Letts (born July 4, 1965) is an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter.

Letts was raised in Durant, Oklahoma and graduated from Durant High School in the early 1980s.

He moved to Dallas, where he waited tables and worked in telemarketing while beginning his acting career.

He appeared in Jerry Flemmons' O Dammit!, which was part of a new playwrights' series sponsored by Southern Methodist University.

Letts moved to Chicago at the age of 20, working for the next 11 years at Steppenwolf Theatre Company and Famous Door.

He is still an active member of Steppenwolf.

He was a founding member of Bang Bang Spontaneous Theatre, whose members included Greg Kotis, Michael Shannon, Paul Dillon, and Amy Pietz.

During the late 1980s through the late 2000s, Letts acted in many of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company's productions, starring in Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile (1994).

As a stage actor, Letts has performed in various classic plays with the Steppenwolf Theatre since 1988.

He made his acting Broadway debut as George in the revival of Edward Albee's play Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which earned him a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.

He continued acting on the Broadway stage in The Realistic Joneses, All My Sons, and The Minutes.

In film and television, he is known for his portrayal of Andrew Lockhart in seasons 3 and 4 of Showtime's Homeland, and pyramid-scheme con-artist Nick on the HBO comedy Divorce.

In 1991, Letts wrote the play Killer Joe.

He started his career at the Steppenwolf Theatre before making his Broadway debut as a playwright for August: Osage County (2007), for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play.

His most famous, August: Osage County, premiered at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago on June 28, 2007.

It had its Broadway debut at the Imperial Theatre on December 4, 2007; the production transferred to Broadway's Music Box Theatre on April 29, 2008.

His 2009 play Superior Donuts was adapted into a television series of the same name.

The Broadway show closed on June 28, 2009, after 648 performances and 18 previews.

The show went on to receive seven Tony Award nominations, winning six, including Best Play.

In 2012, Letts gained attention for his Broadway debut performance in the revival of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at the Booth Theatre.

He received positive reviews and won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.

As an actor, he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for the Broadway revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2013).

As a playwright, Letts is known for having written for the Steppenwolf Theatre, Off-Broadway and Broadway theatre.

His works include: Killer Joe, Bug, Man from Nebraska, August: Osage County, Superior Donuts, Linda Vista, and The Minutes.

Letts adapted three of his plays into films, Bug and Killer Joe, both directed by William Friedkin, and August: Osage County, directed by John Wells.

In 2017, Letts starred in three critically acclaimed films: Azazel Jacobs' The Lovers, Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird, and Steven Spielberg's The Post.

The latter two films were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Lady Bird earned Letts a nomination for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

In 2019, he portrayed Henry Ford II in James Mangold's Ford v Ferrari and Mr. Dashwood in Gerwig's Little Women, the two also receiving Best Picture nominations.

Letts was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to author Billie Letts (Gipson) and college professor and actor Dennis Letts.

He has two brothers, Shawn, a musician, and Dana.

In 2019, Letts appeared in the Broadway revival of Arthur Miller's All My Sons with Annette Bening at Roundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theatre.

The show officially opened on April 22, 2019 and closed on June 23, 2019.

Letts has written over ten plays.