RAJIV JOSEPH

was a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his play Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. Bengal Tiger was produced this past spring by the Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles at the Kirk Douglas Theatre during their 2008-09 Season under the direction of Moisés Kaufman. Bengal Tiger was awarded a grant for Outstanding New American Play by the National Endowment for the Arts and has recently received an LA Ovation Award Nomination for Best New Play. His newest play, Gruesome Playground Injuries was given its World Premiere in October 2009 at the Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas. Gruesome will be produced again in spring 2010 at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C., and in NYC at Second Stage Theater in their 2010-2011 Season. Rajiv’s New York productions include Animals Out of Paper, Second Stage Theatre, Summer 2008; The Leopard and the Fox (adaptation), Alter Ego Fall 2007; Huck & Holden, Cherry Lane Theatre, 2006; All This Intimacy, Second Stage Theatre, 2006. Last spring, Rajiv was awarded the Paula Vogel Award by the Vineyard Theatre and last winter he received the 2009 Kesselring Fellowship. All of his plays have been developed through the various programs at the Lark Play Development Center in New York. He received his B.A. in Creative Writing from Miami University and his M.F.A. in Playwriting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and he is currently a Language Lecturer at NYU with the School of Art and Public Policy and the Expository Writing Program. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa. Rajiv is currently writing for the Showtime television series "Nurse Jackie."