Christopher Demos-Brown is a Miami trial lawyer, and playwright with over a dozen full-length plays and screenplays to his credit.[1] Several of his plays have earned multiple regional theater awards over the years but it wasn't until November 4, 2018 that American Son debuted as his first Broadway play, opening at the historic Booth Theatre. The play was directed by Kenny Leon, and starred Kerry Washington, Steven Pasquale, Jeremy Jordan and Eugene Lee.[2] His film adaptation of the play, also titled American Son, premiered on Netflix in November 2019 as a television drama, and was nominated for a 2020 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie.[3]

Education and career

Chris was born in Philadelphia, but by the time he was in the fourth grade had moved to Miami with his family.[4] He attended Dartmouth College in the mid-1980s, majoring in Russian with a minor in history, with a potential goal of joining the United States Foreign Service. In 1992, he graduated from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy,[4] and the University of Geneva.[5]

His interest in the performing arts became serious while he was attending Dartmouth. He acted in several stage productions and directed some short plays.[4] Prior to attending law school, Chris spent two years in Los Angeles pursuing an acting career. When asked about acting during a 2018 interview with Broadway Buzz, he said, “I wanted to be an actor in the worst way, and I was an actor in the worst way, unfortunately.”[1] He focused his efforts on being a playwright instead.[2]

Personal life

After law school, Christopher Brown and Stephanie Demos were in training to be prosecutors when they met at the state attorney's office in Miami-Dade.[6] After they married, Chris chose to keep both last names hyphenated as Demos-Brown. They work together as trial lawyers in Miami. In 2010, they and their close friends, (playwright/actor) [[Michael McKeever] and (director/playwright/actor) Stuart Meltzer, co-founded Zoetic Stage, a professional theatre company at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. Stephanie serves as board president, and Chris is the company's literary manager.[6]

Honors and awards

YearProductionHonors/AwardsRef
2009When The Sun Shone BrighterCarbonell Award for Best New Work in (2011)
Silver Palm Award for Best New Work in (2011)		[7]
2011CaptivaSilver Palm Award for Best New Work[8]
2013American Hero (formerly Fear Up Harsh)2014 Steinberg Citation from the American Theatre Crtitics Association Carbonell Award for Best New Work[9]
2015StrippedSilver Palm Award for Outstanding New Work Top Ten Plays of 2015 (Miami New Times)[10]
2016American SonLaurents/Hatcher Award (2016) Won 5 Berkshire Theatre Awards including Best Production and Best New Play (2016)[11]
2018Wrongful Death & Other Circus ActsBest South Florida Play of 2018 - Boca Magazine (John Thomason) Carbonell Award for Best New Work (2019) Silver Palm Award for Best New Work (2019)[12]
2020American Son (film adaptation, TV drama)2020 Primetime Award Nomination for Outstanding Television Movie[13]

References

  1. 1 2 Stevens, Beth (2018-11-23). "American Son Playwright Christopher Demos-Brown on Tackling Big Issues and Attracting Bold Names with His Broadway Debut". Broadway.com. Retrieved 2020-08-23.
  2. 1 2 "Review: 'American Son' Puts Kerry Washington in a Maternal Nightmare". The New York Times. 2018-11-05. Retrieved 2020-08-23.
  3. ↑ Keveney, Bill (2020-07-28). "Emmys 2020: The nominations list". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2020-08-23.
  4. 1 2 3 Hollands, Courtney (1945-08-09). "Writing the Wrong". Tufts Magazine. Retrieved 2020-08-23.
  5. ↑ "Live Chat: Christopher Demos-Brown - AMERICAN SON". RDU on Stage. 2020-05-20. Retrieved 2020-08-23.
  6. 1 2 Considine, Allison (2018-10-29). "Stephanie and Chris Demos-Brown, Partners in Law and Life". AMERICAN THEATRE. Retrieved 2020-08-23.
  7. ↑ "When The Sun Shone Brighter". Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  8. ↑ "Captiva". Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  9. ↑ "Captiva". Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  10. ↑ "Stripped". Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  11. ↑ "American Son". Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  12. ↑ "Wrongful Death & Other Circus Acts". Retrieved August 23, 2020.
  13. ↑ "Emmys 2020: The nominations list". Retrieved August 23, 2020.
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