Kara Young Wins Tony Award for Featured Actress in a Play

Originally published in Playbill on June 16, 2024
By Julia Chambers

Kara Young is an alumna of The Young Women’s Leadership School and a 2022 Honoree at Student Leadership Network’s (Em)Power Breakfast.

Young was honored for her work as Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins in the Broadway revival of Ossie Davis’ Purlie Victorious: A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch. She also won the 2024 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Play for her work in the production.

Thank you to every single person who has ever championed me to make this moment a reality. Thank you to my ancestors, the women who I come from, the people who I come from.

Kara Young, Best Featured Actress in a Play, 2024 Tony Awards

“To the great Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins who said I’m taking a chance on my life and I’m gonna go—because I have some life left in me,” Young said accepting her Tony. “She deserved it. And we all do. Thank you. This is to the vibration of the liberation for humanity.”

This is Young’s first Tony win after three consecutive years of being nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Play—making her the first Black woman to be nominated three years in a row. She was also nominated for her work on Broadway in Martina Majok’s Cost of Living and Lynn Nottage’s Clyde’s.